Coalition of Idaho Charter School Families

07/04/2026

🇺🇸 Happy Independence Day—and Happy 250th Birthday, America! 🇺🇸

Today we celebrate 250 years of freedom, opportunity, and the enduring belief that every child deserves the chance to pursue their dreams.

Among America’s greatest freedoms is the freedom to choose the educational path that best fits your child. When families have meaningful educational options, students, communities, and our nation are stronger.

As we celebrate this historic milestone, we’re grateful for the parents, educators, and advocates who work every day to ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive.

From all of us at the Coalition of Idaho Charter School Families, we wish you a safe, joyful, and memorable Fourth of July.

Happy Birthday, America! 🇺🇸✨

05/29/2026

A huge thank you goes out to State Superintendent Debbie Critchfield for attending and delivering commencement speeches at multiple virtual school graduation ceremonies. Your support, encouragement, and recognition of these students’ achievements made these celebrations even more meaningful.

Idaho Department of Education

04/11/2026

Governor Just Signed S1444 — What This Means for Our Families

Along with the bill, the Governor included a letter signaling that discussions around how virtual schools are funded will continue into the next session.

In his message, the Governor raised concerns about certain virtual charter school spending models. However, this session did not separate those specific schools from others. Instead, all virtual schools were grouped together under the same legislation—impacting everyone equally, including schools that have successfully served students for over 20 years.

We will stay vigilant, advocate for our students and families, and push for a seat at the table to help shape fair, effective funding solutions that support all schools and respect parent choice.

Here’s how you can help during the off-season when you connect with legislators and community leaders:

• Tell them how much you value and love your school and program
• Ask for their unwavering commitment to support your school
• Encourage them to work directly with the specific schools they have concerns about to find solutions—so families can continue choosing the education that best fits their student

Together, our voices matter. Let’s keep showing up.

04/01/2026

Idaho Virtual Education Update

04/01/2026

Bill S1444 is being voted on by the Idaho Senate TODAY.

Watch the vote live here: https://www.idahoptv.org/shows/idahoinsession/senate/


dahoPaLegislature

House and Senate sessions, committee meetings, court hearings, and more live streamed from all three branches of Idaho's government.

03/27/2026

Idaho Virtual Education Update

Key Bills:
• S1444
• S1362
• H940 - passed the House

The legislature has adjourned for the weekend and will be back on Monday.

Virtual schools support fair, proportional reductions. The current proposal is not fully proportional, but it is more workable than other options considered this session.

We urge lawmakers to pass the bills as written and conclude the session.

Our commitment remains strong: protecting school choice and access to virtual education for all Idaho families.

03/23/2026

Parents and Advocates,

Pay very close attention to what was just said—because this is the roadmap for what comes next.

Superintendent Debbie Critchfield, in her recent press release, is already laying the groundwork to come back for MORE cuts to virtual schools.

She said there needs to be “fairness across virtual schools” and pointed out that IDLA was cut by 52% while other virtual programs saw only a 1.8% reduction.

Let’s translate that honestly:

She is signaling that the next step is to go back and cut virtual schools of choice even further.

Here’s what she’s not telling you:

Those “virtual programs” she’s referring to are actual public schools serving students full-time—not supplemental course providers like IDLA.

Virtual schools do NOT receive full funding plus additional course funding like districts have done with IDLA for over 20 years. The State Department of Education knows this.

So calling this a “fairness” issue is completely disingenuous.

She also said:
“If fairness is the goal, we need to make sure our actions reflect that…”

We agree.

Fairness is ONE student = ONE funding stream for their education.

Not double funding for one system while cutting the schools parents actually chose.

And then this:
She wants “broader conversations about how Idaho funds virtual education.”

Let’s be clear about what that means:

You don’t cut millions of dollars from schools FIRST… and then decide later how they should be funded.

That’s not reform.

That’s targeting.

That’s instability.

And it puts thousands of kids at risk.

This is not over.

The messaging is already shifting toward another round of cuts—and if parents stay quiet, they will come back for more.

Stay engaged. Stay loud. Your voice is the only thing slowing this down.

03/20/2026

🚨 UPDATE: Parent voices are working!!! But the fight isn’t over.

Parents—quick update from JFAC this morning:

• $13.5M cut to IDLA
• $7.5M cut to transportation funding across ALL public schools
• $3M cut to discretionary funds for virtual schools

This could have been much worse—and that’s because of YOU.

Every call, every email, every message made a difference. This small victory belongs to parents who stood up and refused to let their kids be ignored.

But we are not out of the woods.

We are hearing the Governor and Debbie Critchfield are still pushing for additional cuts specifically to virtual charter schools—we just don’t know what that will look like yet.

We will share more details on the financial impact to individual schools and programs as soon as we receive that information.

In the meantime, if you want to join other parents and supporters to help us stop the next round of cuts, sign up here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfUXtSWCyq5JYQwfcWCG5V4bSQeqX01IeYG-2-RmVNp_cBqJA/viewform?usp=header

Stay engaged. Stay ready. We may need you again very soon.

Join our action team to support school choice efforts! Your engagement is critical during the final weeks of the legislative session.

03/20/2026

Watch LIVE now as Idaho’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee moves forward with cuts to virtual learning—while the rest of the world is expanding access and innovation online.

House and Senate sessions, committee meetings, court hearings, and more live streamed from all three branches of Idaho's government.

03/19/2026

Thursday Update: Parents — this is it.

Tomorrow at 8AM, JFAC will decide how to distribute $33 MILLION in cuts to Idaho’s public virtual schools.

Not traditional schools.
Not across the board.

ONLY virtual schools.

These are public school students — but in this system, only the most vulnerable are being targeted.

86% of virtual school students are at-risk.
Many are here because of bullying, safety concerns, or because their needs weren’t met elsewhere.

And now they’re first on the chopping block.

This is a two-tier system.
A caste system.
And our kids are being treated like second-class citizens.

If your child’s school has ever mattered to your family — this is the moment.

Call your legislator.
Call/Email every member of JFAC.
Contact the Governor and Superintendent Critchfield, who are driving these cuts and pressuring lawmakers to approve them

Tell them to STOP targeting our kids.

Stand up. Speak out. Fight back.

Our kids are not second-class citizens.

Link to call/email: (ignore $3m technology cut at top, we have not updated the page to reflect today's news yet) https://fundvirtualcharters.org/
Link to signup to help us call, email, meet w/lawmakers: https://forms.gle/gapozkRHF8JVkfsL7

Support funding for Idaho's virtual charter schools