North Idaho College asks for bigger funding increase

BOISE – North Idaho College is getting about the same level of funding from the state now that it got 12 years ago, NIC President Joe Dunlap told lawmakers Tuesday.

“Factoring in an inflation factor, we’re actually receiving 32 percent less than what we received in 2002,” he told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. Consequently, “the burden of funding has fallen on the backs of students and in-district taxpayers,” Dunlap said.

Gov. Butch Otter is recommending a 1.5 percent increase in state funding for community colleges next year; the colleges asked for a 13.1 percent increase. Otter is calling for a 3 percent increase for the state’s four-year colleges and universities. His budget office said he’s putting the funding priority this year on K-12 public schools, for which he’s recommending a 7.4 percent increase.

“The community colleges of Idaho have done heavy lifting during the recession,” Dunlap told lawmakers. “However, we have reached our limit in terms of what we can do with current levels of funding.”

He said community colleges will play a key role in helping Idaho achieve a goal of having 60 percent of its residents go on to higher education after high school.

Idaho has three community colleges: NIC in Coeur d’Alene; the College of Western Idaho in Boise; and the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. The two-year schools have an average tuition of $2,826, well below Idaho’s four-year state colleges and universities, which average $6,473. When combined with the Eastern Idaho Technical College, which is a two-year college but not a property tax-supported community college, the two-year schools account for 52.1 percent of students in the first two years of college by head count, which includes both part-time and full-time students.

Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene, who serves on the joint budget committee, said lawmakers understand the importance of community colleges.

“I know that we would love to do as much as we can,” Malek said. “What that’ll look like, I don’t know yet.”

NIC currently has 5,779 for-credit students, and 17,972 when all programs are counted. Sixty-five percent are from Kootenai County.

Dunlap is proposing to add more than a dozen nonfaculty positions next year to help students enroll and stay in college, as part of the work toward the 60 percent goal. That means more advising staff, remediation, faculty professional development, a disability coordinator and more. The proposal has a $1 million price tag and would include 15 new hires; Otter recommended $257,000 and four hires.

“We have such a great need,” Dunlap said.