Critchfield rejects budget committee’s request to plan for cuts
Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on January 29, 2026
By: Ryan Suppe
BOISE, Idaho — One day after legislative budget-writers asked state superintendent Debbie Critchfield to plan for cuts to public schools, the first-term Republican delivered her response: No.
“I will not be recommending further cuts to the public schools budget,” Critchfield wrote in a Thursday letter to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee’s co-chairs. “The public schools budget is more than numbers on a spreadsheet. It represents every one of our students, classrooms, teachers and communities.”
Her letter follows two memos this week from Sen. C. Scott Grow and Rep. Josh Tanner, the Eagle Republicans who head JFAC. Their memos asked state agency directors to deliver plans for budget cuts up to 2%, in addition to the 3% cuts that Gov. Brad Little made through an executive order last year.
The first memo, sent to agency directors Monday, mirrored the governor’s executive order, which exempted K-12. But the second memo, delivered Wednesday, reversed the exemption. It added the $2.7 billion public school system and the Division of Medicaid to the list of agencies that should deliver plans to JFAC.
Grow and Tanner asked Critchfield to send them “budget reduction plans” at 1% and 2% for the current fiscal year and next fiscal year, as the co-chairs consider “options to balance the statewide budget.”
“We’re just making sure we have all the cards actually laid out,” Tanner told Idaho Education News Thursday afternoon.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening on Critchfield’s reply.
In her response, Critchfield wrote that the public school budget is already “in line with the state’s fiscal reality.” Heading into the session, the superintendent reduced her budget request by $50 million, pulling back a block grant proposal that would’ve addressed about half of the state’s special education funding gap.
Critchfield’s budget also incorporated projected enrollment decreases, which would cut K-12 funding by $22 million this fiscal year and $42 million next fiscal year. Otherwise, the budget Critchfield delivered to lawmakers is flat — essentially a cut when factoring in inflation, she wrote.
These revisions “fulfilled the assignment,” Critchfield told EdNews by phone Thursday. She also noted that she supports Little’s budget recommendations, which include cuts to virtual schools while keeping “classroom funding” whole.
“Both of those things will get them to a balanced budget,” she said. “You can balance the budget without coming in mid-year and making cuts to public ed.”
Click here to read Critchfield’s response to JFAC.
A 2% cut to public schools would amount to $55.1 million.
This would feel like “going backwards” after the state’s K-12 investments in recent years, Critchfield said. And it would be felt in classrooms, particularly in the middle of a budget year.
About 87% of public school spending is tied to teacher contracts, Critchfield said, and operational costs are rising — costs of fuel, utilities, food, classroom materials and other necessities to operate a school.
“I know that it may sound dramatic, but … in order to break contracts, you go and declare emergencies,” she said. “It really does have impacts all the way around.”
Other state agency directors have until noon Friday to deliver their plans to JFAC.
Critchfield’s refusal to comply doesn’t mean public schools are safe. The Legislature can still cut K-12 spending.
But the governor could also stand in the way. Lori Wolff, Little’s budget chief, said Thursday that the Republican governor’s budget plan shows there’s “a way to balance this budget without touching K-12.”
“That’s the roadmap,” she added.
