IDLA is blessed to have the support of Idaho’s legislators and taxpayers. We are fully aware that the dollars we receive from our legislature each year come from our hard-working taxpayers. IDLA is committed to ensuring that we are good stewards of the people’s money.
IDLA works hard to ensure the dollars invested from Idaho taxpayers stay in Idaho. IDLA employs Idaho-certified teachers and principals. We build our own curriculum, aligned to Idaho Content Standards, to ensure that our dollars are spent creating content that serves Idaho students and isn’t sent out of state for high-priced vendor-created content. We provide access to our course content through our Open Content Catalog, so that all public schools may use our content free of charge. We create our own Student Information System, portals for student-course access, and other systems to support the student learning experience. These are all built and maintained by our team right here in the state.
IDLA publishes our monthly expenses, annual budget, teaching contract, and other financial information on our website. We believe transparency is important in keeping the public’s trust. We welcome any of our legislators or taxpayers to review that information and ask questions if any information is unclear. It’s important to us that the public is informed on how their tax dollars are being spent.
IDLA is also governed by an eight-member board. Three members of the board are Idaho public school district superintendents. Two members are Idaho public school principals. The board also includes two citizens-at-large who represent industry in Idaho. And the final member of our board is the elected Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction. This board receives regular updates on expenditures, approves new personnel, and approves IDLA’s annual budget, among many other things. We are grateful for the guidance and accountability provided by our board.Taxpayer support is what gives IDLA the ability to provide equity, access, and opportunity to all Idaho students. We take this role seriously but also recognize that it is public dollars that we spend in order to fulfill this mission. We encourage questions and conversations with members of the public who are interested in learning more about how we use public funds. Jeff Simmons, Superintendent of IDLA, is available anytime to answer any questions you may have. He may be reached at jeff.simmons@idla.org or (208) 994-4988.
