(UPDATED, 4:20 p.m., with additional budget information from the State Board.)
A multimillion-dollar statewide K-12 data system upgrade is on hold.
The State Board of Education abruptly suspended the project on May 1, citing a loss of federal funding. An email to school district officials answered few questions about the funding cut — but on Wednesday, the State Board said the feds cut COVID-19 pandemic relief money that was central to its funding plan.
A powerful member of the Legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has questions about what happened. But the State Board’s new executive director says she wants to work with lawmakers on the scope and future of the $14 million rebuild.
“I’m committed to working with JFAC leadership and the Legislature to ensure that we have an efficient and robust K-12 system for data-based decision making,” Jennifer White said in an email Wednesday.
The data system in question is the Idaho System for Educational Excellence, or ISEE. Known as a longitudinal data system, ISEE is designed to collect school and student data from across the state, across multiple years.
Upgrading ISEE is itself a multiyear endeavor. The project entails “building an entirely new and modern data collection and reporting system,” the State Board said Wednesday.
The rebuild is a high priority for the State Board. In its most recent “Fact Book,” an annual report of sorts, the State Board says the project offers something for stakeholders across the board. K-12 students would have a one-stop shop to process their Advanced Opportunities money and college applications, schools and districts would have access to real-time data and visualizations, and policymakers would have the information they need to “craft effective and targeted policy.”
According to the report, published in January, the ISEE upgrade would move into its third and final phase in 2026 or 2027.
It’s unclear how long the project will be on hold, and how that might affect the timetable.
In the May 1 email to school district staff, State Board education data systems reporting manager Todd King said the state might break the project “into smaller (and) more manageable phases.”
The U.S. Department of Education cut off project funding on March 28 — leaving the State Board with little cash on hand, and little time to find a new funding source.
“The board has limited funds available for modernization efforts after the loss of federal funding,” the State Board said in a Wednesday email to Idaho Education News.
The federal dollars came from three pandemic-era relief funds — including the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief fund, a program that states could use for education initiatives of their choosing.
Idaho has long planned to use federal pandemic aid to pay for the ISEE rebuild.
In January 2022, the State Board earmarked up to $20 million in federal aid for ISEE. In the final hours of the 2022 session, the Legislature passed a law giving the State Board the green light to spend $30.8 million in pandemic aid on three projects, including ISEE.
In February 2024, then-State Board executive director Matt Freeman appeared before JFAC, asking the committee to carry over spending authority for $47.2 million from the feds. At that time, Freeman said the state had spent “no material amount of funding” on ISEE.
During this hearing, JFAC co-chair, Idaho Falls Republican Rep. Wendy Horman, noted the ISEE funds “have been in there awhile.”
The State Board now pegs the cost of the ISEE modernization at $14 million — and on Wednesday, the board said the previous, higher cost figures “preceded the procurement process.” Late Wednesday afternoon, the State Board provided some additional information.
The $47.2 million covered spending authority for a variety of programs, not just ISEE, board spokesman Mike Keckler said. After procurement, he said, the State Board scaled back the price tag for the ISEE project from $19.8 million to $14 million.
But one number remained unknown Wednesday afternoon: the size of the federal funding cut itself.
On Tuesday, Horman said she did not know the ISEE rebuild was on hold — until EdNews forwarded her a copy of King’s email to school officials.
Horman said she is worried that Idaho might have squandered an opportunity to use federal pandemic aid on infrastructure projects or to pay down school lunch debts, as other states have done. She also has new questions about ISEE.
“I’m very curious about what went wrong and why,” Horman said.
