BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Idaho lawmakers have approved a new state office intended to coordinate efforts by schools and industry to promote science, technology, engineering and math.
The STEM Action Center is getting two full-time staffers and nearly $540,000 to launch, according to a plan approved by the state’s powerful budget-writing committee on Thursday.
Coeur d’Alene Sen. Bob Nonini, one of the sponsors of the original legislation, told The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Washington, (https://bit.ly/1NGwrtj ) that he was extremely pleased now that the legislation has won the support of both houses and had funding allocated by the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee.
The STEM Action Center will operate as a state office under Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, with the goal of identifying and coordinating best practices for STEM education in state schools.
“Now we need to go out and find ourselves a great executive director,” Nonini said. “It’s going to take a unique person - someone with some salesmanship and some STEM knowledge.”
The center will also coordinate professional development efforts for teachers, work with industry officials on workforce needs and opportunities and coordinate STEM-related competitions, camps and more. A nine-member board of education and business leaders will oversee the work of the agency.
Republican Rep. Wendy Horman from Idaho Falls, who proposed the budget on Thursday, says that Idaho is the only state in the country that doesn’t have a statewide science competition.
Nonini said he hopes the new office will create a competition next year.
Idaho’s STEM Action Center follows the model of a similar agency in Utah, Nonini said, which was launched two years ago with $10 million in state money. The goal of their office is to “develop Utah’s workforce of the future.”
Roughly half of the funds for the Idaho office are one-time dollars intended to get the program up and running. The other half - roughly $290,000 - was allocated in ongoing money.
“I know I’d asked for $2 million. But I didn’t think I could get that,” Nonini said.
The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.
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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, https://www.spokesman.com
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