Joint Education

Thursday, January 15, 2026·2h 37m·▶ Watch / Listen

In a budget-dominated Joint Education hearing, JBC members walked the committee through what Senator Jeff Bridges repeatedly called a 'very, very tough budget year' — with warnings that the new school funding formula may stall — while Department of Early Childhood officials raised alarms that a January 6 federal funding restriction could halt child-care subsidy payments to providers by January 31.

Key Actions

·JBC SMART Act budget briefing — Department of Early ChildhoodAction

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Notable Quotes

“we cut a billion dollars from the budget last year. We're going to cut a billion dollars more this year. That is an ongoing challenge we'll face. So you're going to see cuts in a lot of places here. Don't be surprised.”
Jeff Bridges — Bridges set the fiscal tone for the entire hearing, signaling deep and widespread reductions across education budgets.

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TranscriptPreview

Mr. Beck, will you please call the roll? Representatives and Senators. Bacon. Oh, she's not here. Excused. Bradfield. Bradfield. Here. Bright. Excused. Flannel. Excuse. Frizzell. Excused. Garcia. Sander. Excused. Hillcrest. No, she's on her way. Excused. Hamrick. Here. Hartsuk. Here. Johnson. Here. Kip. Here. Marchman. Here. Martinez. Here. Michaelson. Genay. Present. Phillips. I wouldn't do that. Excused. Rich. Excused. Stuart. K. Here. Story. Excused. Lukens. Here. And Mr. Chair, I am here. Thank you very much. Oh yeah, the higher Alphabet letters are here are mostly. Representative Flanell just came in. So. All right, we're going to get started today. We have pretty short agenda for the early part of this hearing. We're going to start with the JBC who's always giving us their updates every year and I appreciate to see Senator. Senator Taggart or Representative Taggart, Senator Bridges here. So don't want to give you that demotion yet. So appreciate you being here and giving us your update. Who would like to begin? Senator bridges. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to level set here with all of you, the requirement at SMART act hearings is that we as the Budget Committee come and present to you the governor's…

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