Idaho’s virtual schools are operating in the Wild West.
Will Idaho’s leaders cowboy up and lay down the law?
A stinging legislative report spells out a spate of problems at the massive Idaho Home Learning Academy — misspent taxpayer money, marginal test scores, lax controls over curriculum and a business model that allows teachers to also work for IHLA’s private vendors. The report also recommends several ways that the Legislature could tighten things up.
And at the end of a three-hour hearing Tuesday, several lawmakers seemed committed to cleaning up the rules for IHLA and the rest of the state’s growing online school sector. But lawmakers seemed committed earlier this year, too. And the 2025 legislative session came and went with no changes.
If that happens again in 2026, legislators can’t plead ignorance.
Not after the Office of Performance Evaluation’s report on IHLA, released Tuesday morning.
Copious in detail and exhaustive in scope, the 129-page report is a case study in what happens when a public program grows rapidly and with few sideboards. IHLA was ablaze during the COVID-19 pandemic, attracting engaged families who were dissatisfied with public schools, or seeking more structure than homeschooling. Enrollment has gone from 238 students to 7,600, holding more or less steady since the pandemic.
But with that growth comes problems.
And some of the biggest problems have to do with the “supplemental learning funds” IHLA’s vendors distribute to parents. At $1,700 to $1,800 per family, the payments add up quickly, coming to $12.6 million last year.
The questionable buys
The 129-page Office of Performance Evaluations report on the Idaho Home Learning Academy includes a one-page inventory of questionable, taxpayer-funded purchases. Parents received reimbursements from IHLA’s private vendors, even for some items that violated school guidelines.
Here’s a partial list from the report:
- Water park admissions.
- An Amazon Fire TV…