The Senate Education Committee Friday rejected eleventh-hour amendments to a bill cutting state funding for the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance (IDLA) and advanced the legislation unchanged.
House Bill 940 now goes to the full Senate. The House passed the bill on a 48-22 vote Wednesday.
The bill would cut about half of IDLA’s $26 million budget through a number of policy changes. It would eliminate the virtual course platform’s elementary programs and cut state funding for driver’s education. It would also prohibit “custom sections,” courses taken by students who are all from a single district, unless the district can’t find a teacher for the course.
On Thursday, Sens. Codi Galloway, R-Boise, and Cindy Carlson, R-Riggins, proposed significant changes to the bill, including one that would have lowered the threshold for IDLA courses to qualify as a custom section.
Senate Education members voted Thursday to hold the bill until Friday, giving them more time to consider the proposed amendments. “I appreciate being able to have the extra time to look at this,” Sen. Kevin Cook, R-Idaho Falls, said Friday before making a successful motion to send the bill to the Senate floor as is.
Three school district superintendents, IDLA’s superintendent, the Idaho Association of School Administrators (IASA) and the Idaho School Boards Association spoke against the amendments.
Andy Grover, IASA’s executive director, said districts lean on IDLA’s custom sections to fulfill graduation requirements — including recent courses that the Legislature required without providing additional funding to hire new teachers.
“Somehow, we have teachers out there that just do nothing during the day,” Grover said. “That almost never works, and we have to look to IDLA to meet those needs.”
HB 940 defines a “custom section” as an IDLA course in which 100% of enrolled students come from the same school district. One of Galloway’s proposed amendments would have brought the threshold down to 50% for districts with fewer than 1,500 students and 25% for districts with 1,500 or more students. The state wouldn’t have funded IDLA enrollments for students from the same district beyond these percentages.
IDLA Superintendent Jeff Simmons said Friday that custom sections have been “sold to legislators as an abuse” of the platform’s funding model, but they’re “typically being used to fill gaps that schools are unable to meet.”
“Many of these gaps were created by this Legislature as new graduation requirements such as middle school career exploration and digital literacy,” Simmons said.
Another amendment, proposed by Carlson, would have made IDLA’s state budget “subject to appropriation,” and would have prohibited the platform from drawing on a public school stabilization fund when enrollment increases mid-year.
The budget-setting Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee already included similar language in IDLA’s appropriation next fiscal year, but the amendment to HB 940 would have made it permanent — effectively capping the platform’s enrollment unless the Legislature agreed to increase it.
“The appropriation bill that many of you haven’t seen has intent language that sets aside code and makes policy,” said Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise. “This would be policy made by the germane committee.”
Ward-Engelking supported advancing HB 940, without the amendments, but “I do worry about the cuts,” she said. “I hope that we can still provide all these services to our students.”
Carlson said the amendments would have made the bill better. Carlson also said she was surprised that superintendents who testified Friday were on board with advancing the bill, as long as it didn’t have amendments. “I’m surprised that they are not screaming about this bill.”
Bill to criminalize bathroom violations heads to Little
After emotional Senate debate, a bill to criminalize violations of Idaho’s bathroom law passed nearly on party lines.
House Bill 752 would make it a misdemeanor to “knowingly and willfully” enter a bathroom or changing facility that isn’t aligned with the user’s “biological sex.” The language applies to all government buildings and public facilities, although a 2023 law already applies to school bathrooms and locker rooms.
A focal point of the HB 752 is a 2025 incident at a YMCA in Sandpoint, in which a man was reported to use a women’s shower. The bill’s floor sponsor said opponents were wrongly focusing on bathrooms — instead of the lack of a law concerning showers and changing rooms.
“Sometimes it feels like we’re not even talking about the same subject,” said Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene.
But Sen. Melissa Wintrow suggested the subject has become all too familiar. She said HB 752 marks the 30th bill since 2020, targeting Idaho’s transgender community.
“My heart just feels heavy in this conversation,” said Wintrow, D-Boise, fighting back tears.
“We seem to be really focused on this space,” said Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon. “I think stuff like this is harmful.”
Supporters sought to redirect the debate, saying women and children are at risk from sexual predators.
“(There’s) not a lot of conversation about protecting our young children,” said Sen. Joshua Kohl, R-Twin Falls.
The bill passed 28-7, with Guthrie joining Democrats in opposition.
The bill now goes to Gov. Brad Little’s desk.
In separate news releases early Friday afternoon, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates urged Little to veto HB 752.
‘The math no longer works:’ College athletics memorial heads to House floor
Taking a break in the action from formal work, a House committee urged Congress to rein in the big-money makeover of college athletics.
Senate Joint Memorial 114 is a nonbinding letter to the feds, with no force of law. It refers largely to Boise State University’s athletics programs, particularly football.
“In the evolving collegiate athletics landscape shaped by name, image, and likeness (NIL), revenue sharing, and shifting conference dynamics, there is a compelling need for federal policy and funding frameworks to ensure fair competition, sustainable athletic programs, and continued economic and community benefits for states like Idaho,” the memorial reads, in part.
Four Boise State officials spoke in favor of the memorial: interim President Jeremiah Shinn, athletic director Jeramiah Dickey, football coach Spencer Danielson and women’s golf coach Kailin Downs.
Boise State athletics contributes $350 million a year to the economy, but it is now based on an “unsustainable” model that favors the nation’s largest athletic conferences, Shinn said. “The math no longer works.”
Said Dickey: “We are at risk of losing the national brand the Broncos have built over the past three decades.”
The House State Affairs Committee unanimously approved the memorial, sending it to the House floor.
Launch ROI bill introduced — but just for discussion
Retiring Rep. John Vander Woude floated a homework assignment for future legislative sessions.
The Nampa Republican introduced a bill calling for a return on investment study on the Idaho Launch postsecondary aid program.
The bill won’t go anywhere in the waning stages of the 2026 legislative sessions, Vander Woude told the House Ways and Means Committee Friday morning.
“I’m looking for something for the future legislatures to do,” said Vander Woude, who is not seeking re-election this year.
The bill would direct the Legislative Services Office to conduct the ROI study, along with the Workforce Development Council, which administers Launch. The study would review Launch’s list of aid-eligible in-demand career programs, looking at their “alignment” with employer demand. According to the bill’s statement of purpose, the study would also “evaluate student participation and outcomes, including postsecondary attainment, employment status and wage earnings.”
Ways and Means printed the bill, over the objections of Boise Democratic Reps. Steve Berch and Monica Church. Berch argued that the mission of educational programs is “broader” than simply ROI.
A divided 2023 Legislature created Launch, but some lawmakers have been looking to kill or rein in the program ever since. This year, the Legislature cut $10 million from next year’s $75 million budget for Launch, over Gov. Brad Little’s initial objections.
