Taxpayer funds for Disney+, trampoline parks? Governor calls report ‘troubling’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Lawmakers report $12M in supplemental learning funds paid for family expenses.
- Oversight gaps let virtual academy and vendors permit purchases from Disney+ to coops.
- Officials urge statutory fixes in 2026 to tighten rules, transparency and accountability.
In recent years, Idaho taxpayers have funded subscriptions to Disney+, day trips to trampoline parks and chicken coops — all part of a growing virtual education program that legislative researchers say has minimal oversight.
Families at the Idaho Home Learning Academy, the state’s largest virtual charter school, received over $12 million in “supplemental learning funds” in the 2024-25 school year, according to a study by the Legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Performance Evaluations. Enrolled students are allotted about $1,800 each year to help parents provide enrichment materials to bolster curricula tailored to their children’s needs.
When the academy, now a virtual public school overseen by the rural Oneida School District in southeast Idaho, launched in 2016, it enrolled only about 250 students. That number has since climbed to nearly 8,000 — and all of those students, as well as hundreds of others in similar programs around the state, are eligible for the supplemental learning funds.
The money is meant to help enrolled students’ families pay for items such as art and science supplies, printers and internet, according to academy policies included in the report. But the intended use of the money is not addressed in state law, leading to ambiguity and inconsistent rules about what families can spend it on.
Researchers found that parents bought items ranging from jiu jitsu to dance lessons, sewing machines to snowshoes, chicken coops to drum sets. Some funds were used to pay for tuition at private schools.
If parents don’t use all of their allotted money, it stays with the companies that administer the funds, rather than going back to the state, researchers said.
At legislative researchers’ presentation of their findings Tuesday, state lawmakers expressed concern about the academy’s approach to supplemental funding, as well as its broader approach to spending.
If this were a traditional public school district, the Legislature would “go crazy” about this, said Sen. James Ruchti, a Democrat from Pocatello.
“We don’t allow that to happen. We shouldn’t allow that to happen,” he said. “If I allow that to happen, I would expect my constituents to send me packing because I’m not watching out for how the money is being spent.”
Many virtual learners were unhappy with traditional schools
The Idaho Home Learning Academy attracts families who want “an education that emphasizes choice, parental involvement and customization,” the report said. Many of the families were unhappy with their traditional public schools or were never enrolled in another school. About 41% of students who attend the academy were previously enrolled in a brick-and-mortar school.
Legislative researchers surveyed families from the academy and found many previously enrolled in traditional schools felt their children’s academic needs weren’t being met in traditional schools and were unhappy with the quality of education. About one-fifth of the parents said they thought their local schools were teaching things that didn’t align with their families’ values.
Nearly three quarters of the families researchers surveyed said the funds were a major driver in their decision to enroll their children in the virtual academy — and more than 70% said they would disenroll if the money went away.
The Idaho Home Learning Academy receives funding largely the same way that traditional brick-and-mortar schools do, but it doesn’t have a physical building or many of the expenses that come with such facilities.
Idaho schools are funded primarily based on average daily attendance: Districts with higher attendance get more money. In traditional schools, that means the students who show up each day in person are counted.
But virtual schools have more leeway in how they calculate attendance. The academy, for example, bases its standards on completed coursework, rather than on students’ physical presence. To be counted as “attending” during a given two-week period, its students need to check in just once with their teachers and submit one assignment per subject each week.
Of the nearly $50 million the school received during the 2024-25 school year, about $20 million went toward the three contracted service providers it works with that provide curriculum, resources and supplemental funds to students.
But these companies have diverging and at times conflicting policies. One firm, Braintree, prohibits families from spending supplemental funds on garden gloves or aprons. Another firm, Home Ed 360, allows these items. A third, Harmony, offers no guidance on these items, researchers found.
A ‘shift’ in education calls for changes to state law
Supporters of the academy and virtual learning were out in force on Tuesday: With hundreds in attendance, lawmakers had to switch the hearing to a bigger room. When one committee member urged fellow lawmakers not to make any changes that would diminish parents’ “school choice,” the room erupted in applause.
Such sentiments reflect a “shift in the education market,” said Sen. Dave Lent, R-Idaho Falls, during the hearing.
“We need to realize that there is a real segment of our student population that benefits from this type of education,” he said. “This is a growing segment of our population of students in the state, and it’s going to continue to grow.”
“We’re moving away from the one-size-fits-all model that most of us grew up with,” he said.
State leaders said such a shift only highlights the need to update the state’s code to include explicit rules for virtual schools. In a statement, Gov. Brad Little called the report “troubling.”
The report “reveals that statutory safeguards are insufficient, oversight is inconsistent, and accountability measures have not kept pace with the fast expansion of the IHLA program,” he said. He urged lawmakers to “address the loopholes in state statute” in the 2026 legislative session, which starts Jan. 12.
State Superintendent Debbie Critchfield said the report highlights the need to “modernize” the state’s approach to funding public schools to better account for virtual schools’ needs and constraints. The Legislature for years has discussed overhauling the state’s decades-old education funding formula, but lawmakers in recent years have not been able to agree on an approach.
The Idaho Home Learning Academy agreed with much of the researchers’ characterizations of its challenges and proposed fixes. With little in state code to govern the academy’s approach, the academy is “operating in a policy gray area,” its executive director, Terri Sorensen, wrote in response to the report. The school supports legislative efforts to “establish a policy framework that creates a level playing field for all virtual schools in Idaho,” she added.
Though lawmakers reiterated their commitment to offering parents a wide range of options for their children’s education, they expressed urgency about making a fix this session.
“The one promising thing that I’ve heard today is that everyone seems to be saying, ‘We are going to roll up our sleeves and address the gaps and concerns,’” said Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, a Boise Democrat. “A light has been shone on a problem, and I see a great willingness from the state board to the Department of Education to the Legislature to correct and make sure that we’re spending those taxpayer dollars wisely.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2025 at 9:31 AM.
