A record endowment payment will translate into an additional $1.5 million for K-12.
The state Land Board last week approved the payouts for the next budget year, which begins July 1.
The payments come after a strong year for the state’s $3 billion endowment fund, which grew by 10.9%. It also comes as the state’s endowment lands generated $52.5 million in income, largely through timber sales.
K-12 is historically the state’s largest endowment beneficiary, and that won’t change next year.
Here’s how the 2024-25 payouts break down.
- Public schools: $63 million, up 2.4%.
- State Hospital South: $7.8 million, up 2.5%.
- University of Idaho, School of Science: $6.7 million, up 0.7%.
- University of Idaho: $6.1 million, up 4.5%.
- Idaho State University normal school: $3.6 million, up 9.7%.
- Lewis-Clark State College normal school: $3.6 million, up 9.7%.
- State prison: $3.2 million, up 0.5%.
- University of Idaho, College of Agriculture: $2 million, up 3.4%.
- Idaho State University: $1.9 million, up 1.5%.
- Juvenile corrections: $1.9 million, up 1.5%.
- State Hospital North: 1.9 million, up 1.5%.
- State veterans’ hospital: $1.2 million, up 1.5%.
- Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind: $237,200, up 1.5%.
- Total: $103.2 million, up 2.9%.
While the K-12 payout will be a record, it still represents a small fraction of overall public school spending. This year’s K-12 budget totals nearly $2.7 billion — with most of the proceeds coming from taxes.
The Land Board — Gov. Brad Little, state superintendent Debbie Critchfield, Attorney General Raul Labrador, Secretary of State Phil McGrane and Controller Brandon Woolf — oversees management of the state’s 2.5 million acres of endowment land.
