The working group that will study Idaho’s aging and complicated school funding formula has its first meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
The State Board of Education is calling it an “informational meeting.” And the working group is in its infancy; lawmakers haven’t been assigned to the panel yet.
The working group is expected to spend at least the next year studying a funding formula last rewritten in 1994. Legislative leaders and many education leaders agree the formula needs updating and fine-tuning — but they also generally agree the working group has a tall and time-consuming task ahead.
Conceding that the current forumula needs a “thorough review,” lawmakers assigned the committee “to undertake and complete a study of and make recommendations for the state’s public school funding formula.
State superintendent Sherri Ybarra and a State Board member will sit on the working group, in addition to the group of as-yet-unnamed legislators.
The meeting will begin at at 1 p.m. Wednesday, in room WW17 in the garden level of the Statehouse. Anyone can listen in via telephone, by calling (877) 820-7829 and using the participant code 9096313.
