OPE Report Spotlights Lack of Funding Guardrails for Virtual Public Charter School

OPE report spotlights lack of funding guardrails for virtual public charter school

BOISE — The financial structure and educational outcomes of the Idaho Home Learning Academy were under the spotlight Tuesday in a report assembled by Idaho’s Office of Performance Evaluations.

New watchdog report reveals ‘loopholes,’ lack of oversight of Idaho virtual school finances

An unusually large crowd of more than 100 people gathered at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise Tuesday for the release of a new watchdog report looking at online virtual charter schools. (Photo by Clark Corbin/Idaho Capital Sun)Some families enrolled in the Idaho Home Learning Academy public virtual charter school used state funding to pay for virtual reality headsets, hoverboards, hunting equipment, video games and video game controllers, paddle…

New report renews concerns about a massive K-12 virtual school

A multimillion-dollar virtual school money trail came into sharp and stark focus Tuesday. In 2024-25, the Idaho Home Learning Academy shifted $22.5 million of taxpayer money that had been earmarked for teacher salaries and staff benefits. IHLA saved much of this money by hiring part-time teachers — and far fewer staffers than the state funded. IHLA then siphoned $20.6 million to a trio of private education vendors. The vendors then administered …