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Bluum is a nonprofit organization helping Idaho become a national model for how to maximize learning outcomes for children and families.

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Rising Above: Farm Life Fuels Success for Gem Prep Student

Gem Prep Meridian South, Idaho, April 21, 2025 – At dawn, Mickayla Dayan can be found in rubber boots, tending to goats on her family’s dairy farm—milking, feeding, and making artisanal soap and cheese. By mid-morning, she’s deep into college-level coursework, tackling subjects like Human Biology, Sociology, and English 101. And by afternoon, she’s leading student council meetings and planning National Honor Society initiatives.  As a 10th grade student at Gem Prep: Meridian South, Mickayla embodies Gem Prep’s values as she seamlessly blends farm life, academic rigor, and leadership responsibilities.

Five Years of MOSAICS Public School

As MOSAICS Public School marks its 5th anniversary, we reflect on the school’s journey and the formation of key partnerships along the way. We dive into the deliberate efforts of the team to establish an intentional culture that withstood the challenges posed by opening during a national pandemic. Additionally, we explore the vision for the future.

We take immense pride in Anthony Haskett and his team, celebrating all that they have accomplished throughout the years.

Idaho’s Public Charter Schools Work Hard to Serve our Students with Special Needs

In early 2023, Margaret Raymond and James Lynn Woodworth, from Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), presented findings on the academic performance of Idaho’s public charter schools. They had been studying charter schools in 29 other states, and said CREDO is known nationally as the “charter school analysis people.” In their 2023 presentation to the Idaho State Board of Education they reported, “Idaho’s special education results are among the best that we’ve seen nationally.” Raymond went on to say, “We normally see a much larger offset of learning in the special education community.” She concluded, “There is an overall best practices emerging from the picture that we see over time in Idaho that we think actually could be important for other charter school communities around the country to look at, particularly in poverty and special education.”

Testimony to the Idaho Senate Education Committee

I speak to you today as a sort of metaphorical Ghost of Christmas Past. In 2017, I penned a Guest Column for the Post Register entitled “Idaho needs new school funding formula.” I wrote then, “Idaho’s current K-12 public school funding formula is archaic. It was adopted in 1994, and needs an upgrade to better serve the needs of our students today and into the future. Fortunately, Idaho’s lawmakers understand the challenge and seem poised to make necessary improvements. Their efforts to modernize school funding should be supported and encouraged by parents, taxpayers and everyone interested in the future of Idaho and its children.”

Teach for America’s Impact on Idaho Students Runs Deep

Anyone who follows public education in Idaho closely knows that since arriving here a decade ago, Teach for America (TFA) has had an indelible, positive impact on the state. A broad spectrum of alumni exemplify that impact. Whether they served as one of the 150 TFA corps members for two years in Idaho or served elsewhere and then moved here, many of the 30 or so alumni living in Idaho continue to be deeply involved in charter schools, district schools, and state policymaking. “Teach For America’s goal is to advance opportunities for all students in Idaho, but particularly for students at a disadvantage, so that they can have the futures they want for themselves,” said Tony Ashton, who has been TFA Idaho’s executive director from day one. “By acting as a strategic talent partner and bringing more great leaders into Idaho’s education system, and then supporting their ongoing development, we’re helping to create the conditions for this to be possible.”

Reducing Facilities Costs: How Idaho is Helping Charter Schools Focus Resources on Instruction

We know from conversations with charter school leaders in other states that the facility financing work being done in Idaho is the most innovative charter school facility financing effort in the country. It’s a powerful example of the private/philanthropic sector working with the public sector and the Legislature to finance charter facilities in ways, and at costs, currently not possible in other states. The new report from Bluum and ExcelinEd, Reducing Facility Costs: How Idaho is Helping Charter Schools Focus Resources on Instruction, examines Idaho’s innovative policies and partnerships that have saved over $110 million in facility financing costs for charter schools. These groundbreaking efforts have allowed schools to allocate resources toward hiring an average of 10 additional teachers per school—all without additional taxpayer expense.

Navigating Artificial Intelligence to Improve Teaching and Learning: Early Lessons from Gem Prep Innovation Schools (Idaho)

It should come as no surprise that Gem Prep, the Idaho-based charter school network, has leapt ahead of the pack in its use of artificial intelligence for teacher planning and classroom instruction. Gem Prep, after all, has a strong reputation for being on the cutting edge of education innovation, particularly in the use of technology. It started as a single online school in 2004, and by the fall of 2027 will have expanded to eight in-person campuses as well as the thriving online school and a couple of blended learning pods known as Learning Societies. Gem Prep was also a 2024 Yass Prize semifinalist. But as with any new technology, the charter network has been cautious and thoughtful in its rollout of AI. “You have to balance a new technology and its uses,” said Laurie Wolfe, Gem Prep’s chief academic officer, and an avid user of AI for her own work and life. “There’s always going to be good, and there’s probably always going to be ways to use it for ill.”