It was an overwhelmingly popular budget that no one liked.
In a bipartisan 32-2 vote, the Senate passed a higher education budget that cuts $2 million apiece at Boise State University and the University of Idaho.
“This was not an easy or a rash decision,” said Sen. Cindy Carlson, R-Riggins, a Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee hardliner who carried Senate Bill 1209 on the floor. The cuts, she said, were “a political necessity at the current moment,” and a calculated attempt to get a higher education budget bill through the Senate and House.
Republican and Democratic senators took turns voicing their reluctant support.
“For whatever reason, Boise State’s an easy target,” said Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, “and I just don’t get it.”
Sen. Ben Adams, R-Nampa, said he experienced the “compelled thought” of diversity, equity and inclusion programs when he attended Boise State after serving in the Marines. While he admitted he had had “a bone to pick” with Boise State, Adams gave the university credit.
“There is not a university that has been more responsive to this legislature than Boise State,” he said.
Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, said the budget cuts represented a punishment “for something that just isn’t there.”
JFAC members never spelled out their reasons for the Boise State and U of I cuts. Some budget-writers expressed lingering concerns over DEI programs — even though, for the past couple of years, the state has forbidden the universities from using tax dollars for this purpose. A State Board of Education policy has also forced the schools to close DEI-aligned student support centers.
It’s unclear how Boise State or the U of I would absorb the cuts.
Tuesday’s Senate vote was a sharp departure from JFAC’s hearing on the higher ed budget a week ago. At that time, five of the committee’s 10 senators opposed the cuts. But a big change was made to the budget after that hearing. The universities now face a one-time reduction, not the ongoing cuts outlined last week.
Republican Sens. Codi Galloway of Boise and Glenneda Zuiderveld of Twin Falls opposed the budget on the Senate floor Tuesday. Galloway had pushed back against any higher ed cuts during last week’s JFAC hearing. Zuiderveld, a hardline conservative, has voted against nearly all budget bills in JFAC and on the Senate floor.
The cuts aside, SB 1209 represents a net increase of nearly $3.2 million in higher ed spending.
The four four-year schools, including U of I and Boise State, will share from two budget line items. They stand to receive $3.4 million for “operational capacity enhancement,” a discretionary line item that can go to salaries and benefits. The bill also includes just over $1 million for “enrollment workload adjustment,” a budget line item designed to address growth-related costs.
The budget also includes $1 million for a cooperative Idaho Water Resources Research Institute, and $387,000 for pay raises at Lewis-Clark State College.
SB 1209 is, in Statehouse lingo, an “enhancement” budget. It adds onto a base higher ed budget exceeding $736 million.
The bill now goes to the House.
House joins Senate in scramble to rework ‘medical freedom’ bill
Two competing “medical freedom” bills could be working their way along parallel paths in the Statehouse.
The House State Affairs Committee introduced a House version of a bill Tuesday morning, setting the stage for a full hearing Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Senate State Affairs Committee was scheduled to take up a Senate version Tuesday afternoon, but that hearing was abruptly canceled at midday.
Both bills reflect an 11th-hour legislative push to get the last word, after Gov. Brad Little vetoed the first version of a “medical freedom” bill Saturday. Little’s primary concern with Senate Bill 1023 centered on education.
“Medical freedom is an Idaho value,” Little wrote in a letter explaining his veto, the first of the 2025 session. “However, this bill removes parents’ freedom to ensure their children stay healthy because it jeopardizes the ability to send home sick students with highly contagious conditions including measles, lice, ringworm, pink eye, strep throat, stomach viruses, the flu, and other illnesses that disrupt families’ lives.”
Like the vetoed SB 1023, both new bills include identical and sweeping language affecting K-12 schools and colleges and universities: “A school operating in the state shall not mandate a medical intervention for any person to attend school, enter campus or school buildings, or be employed by the school.”
But the new House bill, like the Senate counterpart, also tries to put this language in context. The bills cite a separate, existing section of state law which allows administrators to close school during a disease outbreak — or keep a sick child out of school. Specifically, the House bill says the medical freedom law would not “supersede” school officials’ authority to act during an outbreak.
The two new bills differ on another point. The Senate version exempts daycare centers from language affecting other businesses. The House version keeps daycare centers under the law.
Rep. Brooke Green, D-Boise, honed in on the implications for daycares. She asked if the House bill would allow daycares to continue to recommend vaccinations, or order parents to keep a sick child home.
Daycares would still be able to recommend vaccines, said Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, a co-sponsor of the House bill. But they cannot intervene in medical decisions, by ordering parents to give a sick child antibiotics.
The underlying point, said Tanner, is to prevent medical mandates.
After Green made an unsuccessful push to kill the bill, the committee voted 10-4 to introduce it.
House State Affairs has scheduled a Wednesday morning hearing on the House’s medical freedom bill.
Pared-down libraries budget heads to governor
An abridged libraries budget bill is headed to Gov. Brad Little’s desk.
The House approved Senate Bill 1196, which would provide an additional $1.3 million to the Idaho Commission for Libraries. But that reflects about half of the commission’s budget request.
Originally, the commission sought to spend $2.5 million in federal money for digital grants — a program to help veterans, senior citizens and rural Idahoans access the internet. The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee pared this line item to $1.23 million, as some lawmakers argued the program supports diversity, equity and inclusion.
The budget bill forbids the commission from using funding “to support diversity, equity, inclusion, or social justice ideology.”
While it was a hit-or-miss morning on the House floor — with lawmakers rejecting two other unrelated budget bills, in votes that could delay the end of the 2025 session — the libraries spending bill did pass. The margin was 48-21. The Senate passed this budget Monday.
Senate approves transportation funding updates, new civics test
The Senate quickly approved a raft of education-related bills Tuesday, including proposals to create a new high school civics test and amend the public school transportation funding formula.
Transportation funding
The Senate unanimously supported a bill that would allow public school districts to claim state reimbursement for alternative vehicles such as vans and passenger cars.
The mileage rate for yellow school buses is $6.51 per mile while a van is less than $1, said sponsoring Sen. Codi Galloway, R-Boise. “This bill gives the OK for our school districts to be efficient and to bill the state for lower transportation costs using authorized vehicles.”
House Bill 396 would also eliminate transportation reimbursement for virtual schools. Currently, virtual schools are funded for technology costs using the transportation formula.
The House previously approved the bill 62-6. It now heads to Gov. Brad Little’s desk.
Civics test
The Senate also approved a bill that would create a new required civics test for public school graduates.
House Bill 397 would replace the current civics test — based on the 100-question civics test used for citizen naturalization — required for public school students prior to graduation.
The new test would ask about the impact of Western civilization on the country’s founding, the arguments presented in the Declaration of Independence, the governing principles in the United States and Idaho constitutions and the roles and powers of separate branches of government, among other things.
The Senate voted 32-1 to send the bill to the governor’s desk.
Library districts
House Bill 212 would increase the number of signatures needed for a petition to create a library district. It would lift the standard from 50 qualified electors to 20% of qualified electors who reside in the boundaries of the proposed district.
The updated benchmark would ensure the “issue has the support it needs … to be worth the cost” of putting it on the ballot, said sponsoring Sen. Mark Harris, R-Soda Springs.
The Senate approved the bill 27-6 after the House previously approved it 60-7.
HB 212 now heads to the governor.
Senate OKs two other education budget bills
In other Tuesday afternoon budget action, the Senate quickly passed two other education budgets:
Idaho Department of Education. This $2.4 million increase that partially funds several of state superintendent Debbie Critchfield’s budget requests. The budget includes $800,000 for a federally mandated data dashboard (Critchfield requested $1.1 million), $500,000 in federal money for the transition to a new Idaho Standards Achievement Test (Critchfield sought $2.7 million) and $265,800 to retool the Idaho Reading Indicator (Critchfield requested $625,800). The budget passed, 24-9.
K-12 student support. This add-on budget is worth $7.5 million. This falls under a broad budget umbrella known as student support, which accounts for $1.7 billion. This budget passed, 27-6.
These two budget bills go to Gov. Brad Little’s desk.
