Bluum is a nonprofit organization helping Idaho become a national model for how to maximize learning outcomes for children and families.
It’s been 25 years since Idaho’s first charter schools opened their doors, yet misunderstandings of this model for public education still exist. This morning, our CEO, Terry Ryan, had the opportunity to share the history and impact of Idaho’s public charter schools on students and families with both the Senate and House Education Committees.
A new multi-state report, “Choice Out West: Lessons and challenges from Idaho, Colorado and New Mexico,” finds that despite successful expansion and innovation efforts in Idaho’s charter school sector, our state’s rapid population growth is creating not only opportunities but complex challenges in providing quality public school choice seats for K-12 students.
Idaho is one of the nation’s fastest growing states. Many of our schools are overcrowded, and our student demographics are changing rapidly. Over the past decade, our state’s overall K-12 enrollment has grown by about 55,000 students, almost 20 percent (10,422 students) of which has been in the state’s public charter schools. With all this growth in student enrollment, public schools in Idaho—both traditional school districts and charter schools—have struggled to keep up with the need for new and expanded school facilities.
To help illuminate the scale of the facility financing inequities in Idaho, and most importantly to offer up solutions, especially for public charter schools, Bluum partnered with the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd) to generate this policy brief, Building for Success in Idaho.
By Ray Crowell
One of the largest convenings of legislators, state superintendents, policymakers and thought leaders in the country, ExcelinEd’s annual National Summit on Education couldn’t have been timelier. The two-day event in Salt Lake City featured notable speakers and timely strategy sessions spanning a range of topics that included evolving laws, emerging trends, policy challenges and successes, and the latest innovations transforming education. With more than two dozen sessions at the conference several jumped out as most relevant for Idaho students.
By Keith Donahue
The US Department of Education (USDOE) awarded Bluum, a statewide charter school support organization, a competitive $3.5 million Charter School Program (CSP) Credit Enhancement Grant. Bluum will use this grant to help outstanding school leaders design and build charter school facilities across Idaho.
By Terry Ryan and Ray Crowell
The recent release of NAEP scores holds much troubling news for the nation’s students and some important lessons for us here in Idaho. NAEP is considered the “Gold Standard” in student performance over time across the nation’s schools. The 2022 results have triggered anguish and deep concern as our student performance, especially in math, has declined significantly since the last NAEP administration in 2019. Educators and policy makers were expecting to see a decline because of COVID-19 and the school closures it precipitated. In much of the country and for our neediest students these declines were worse than many had feared.
— By Terry Ryan —
Going back to its creation story in the last quarter of the 20th century, the public charter school bargain in America called for an exchange of operational freedom for schools in return for accountability tied to results. As far back as the 1970s the University of Massachusetts-Amherst education professor Ray Budde proposed letting teachers create semi-autonomous schools that would combine enhanced teacher freedom and flexibilities with stringent accountability for student results.
— By Kristen McCarver —
“I love seeing their faces every day, and especially love seeing their excitement.” Paige Pence is a third-year Kindergarten teacher at North Idaho STEM Charter Academy in Rathdrum. She’s also a school alumna. Teaching was always on the table as a career path for Paige. Her interest was piqued when North Idaho STEM offered an opportunity for students to serve as teaching assistants as a high school elective.