Over its 10-year history, Bluum, an Idaho-based non-profit that supports statewide charter school growth and development, has overseen the dissemination of millions of federal and private dollars for charter expansion and startups. Bluum has released documentation this summer that celebrates its 10-year anniversary and achievements.

According to Bluum, formed through the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation’s (JKAF) “20 in 10” initiative, the past decade of investments has included over $100 million from philanthropic financing, more than $32 million of which has gone to federal charter school program funds.

In that same period, the non-profit cites the creation of nearly 20,000 charter school seats and 38 schools across Idaho.

Bluum’s CEO Terry Ryan believes this is only the beginning.

“In celebrating 10 years, I’m proud of what we’ve done — but even more focused on what lies ahead,” Ryan said. “We’re still building. Still learning. Still striving to serve Idaho’s students and families in ways that are meaningful, measurable, and enduring.”

Nearly 30 years ago, Idaho opened its first charter school in 1998. Three decades later and that number has grown to 77 charter schools across the state serving nearly 30,000 students, or about 10% of Idaho’s total student enrollment.

“It’s a milestone worth acknowledging,” Ryan said. “Nationally, 65% of startups fail within their first decade. We’ve not only beat the odds — we’ve built something that lasts.”

While Bluum’s primary focus has been on Idaho, its approach to charter school development has garnered national attention, making Idaho a resource for other states looking to expand their charter programs.

“Idaho is among the most important charter school states in the country, if not the most,” said Jed Wallace, the former president of the California Charter Schools Association and a national charter school advocate. “We’ve just had this chance, this perfect window to do work in Idaho. The window was a little bit later than other places where some lessons learned could be absorbed, and the political context was conducive and receptive. The state’s growing enrollment situation helped as well.”

During the 2020-21 school year, marked by massive disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, charters accounted for most of Idaho’s K-12 growth. While some districts have seen a drop in enrollment numbers, school enrollment is expected to grow the next five years despite national patterns, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

That’s growth that Bluum is hoping to capitalize on.

In the past few years, Bluum has partnered with a Denver-based education consultant who has conducted annual analysis of Idaho’s education landscape; focusing on where population growth is occurring, the enrollment patterns, and academic performance. Brian Eschbacher, the former executive director of planning and enrollment for Denver Public Schools, which served 90,000 students, has produced data that Bluum has utilized for future plans.

“The reports are intended to point operators in the right direction of where to go to open a new school and give them that kind of quantitative fact-based side of it,” Eschbacher said. “Then they have to layer on the qualitative, family and community engagement side of it.”

In one instance, Eschbacher’s research showed an area in the Kuna community where an 11,000 single-family home development was planned to be built in the next decade. Bluum then began working to secure areas for future school sites that would coordinate with the population growth.

It’s a formula that Eschbacher noted is significantly different than the approach traditional school districts face when securing new facilities, which often rely on difficult-to-pass bonds — especially in a fiscally conservative state like Idaho. For example, this past spring three school bond asks failed. 

“Bluum generally uses data universally. They don’t open schools in places where there’s not a demand, where population is not growing, where there’s not a populational kind of justification,” said Steve Farkas, a veteran New York-based education researcher who co-founded the FDR group and has conducted numerous public survey studies for Bluum. “They already know what the difficulties are in rural schools.”

In addition to adding more options in rural districts, Bluum states its organization has invested in research to better understand underserved communities, such as Idaho’s Hispanic population, which comprises 13% of Idaho’s overall population and 18% of public-school aged children.

While Bluum has continued to achieve its goals for growth, it’s also affected the broader educational landscape in Idaho.

“Bluum works with the Legislature probably more than any other education group,” said Sen. David Lent, chair of the Idaho Senate Education committee. “I talk with Terry and others that are from Bluum on a fairly regular basis. I don’t get that from folks in other groups. If you can develop relationships with the policymakers, it really goes a long way toward helping to further their agenda.”

Rep. Wendy Horman also credited Bluum for the steady change in thinking regarding charter schools in Idaho.

“They’ve made it safe to support school choice because of how successful their schools are,” Horman said. “They have converted legislators who may not have been fans of school choice originally, to see the good that different types of schools [offer] — that the one-size model doesn’t work for every child.”

Gov. Brad Little said: “The team at Bluum has propelled Idaho forward in the expansion of high-quality charter schools in our state, leading to more schooling options for Idaho families and better outcomes for our students.”

Disclosure: Idaho Education News and Bluum are both supported by grants from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation.