The Idaho State Board of Education Thursdayh approved the design construction of Lewis-Clark State College’s new $21 million Career Technical Education Center.
The 73,000 square-foot facility will be adjacent to the new Lewiston High School, which is currently under construction in the Orchards. The Center is expected to open in fall 2020.
The board also approved a plan dramatically changing how Idaho higher education institutions would receive funding from the state. Under the Board’s outcomes-based funding model, colleges and universities would be funded based on the number of graduates produced, rather than the number of credits students accrue, which is how state funding has been allocated for the last 30 years.
Board members will ask the Legislature to fund the plan when it meets early next year. The plan calls for a three-year phased approach that includes $16 million in new state funding in the first year, in 2020. Outcomes-based funding models are used to fund higher education institutions in over 30 states.
Also Thursday, the board green-lighted a common-course numbering policy, which will ensure that certain general education courses have the same title, course number and general education requirements across all Idaho institutions. The Board will approve the first list of common courses at its December meeting. (Idaho State Board of Education)
