The Idaho Digital Learning Academy was established by the state in 2002 to offer online courses to Idaho school districts as a supplement to their district offerings, IDLA CEO Donna Hutchison told the Senate Education Committee this afternoon. Hutchison, who also presented to the House Education Committee this morning, said IDLA offers more than 160 courses to students in grades 7 through 12, and enrollments have been growing fast, from 700 students in 2003 to about 14,000 now, with more still signing up for this spring. Hutchison said IDLA anticipated only about 11,100 enrollments this year due to cutbacks, but has seen the opposite effect. "What we're hearing from schools, based on the cutbacks that they're experiencing at the local level, they're needing to turn to online learning more," Hutchison said. Last year, 98 percent of Idaho's school districts participated in IDLA.

IDLA is one of the agencies for which Gov. Butch Otter has proposed phasing out all state funding over the next four years, but for next year, his budget proposes funding equal to this year's budgeted level. However, that doesn't account for the program's growing enrollment. Wayne Rusch, superintendent of the Glenns Ferry School District, told lawmakers that his district has high poverty rates and has lost 30 percent of its enrollment in the last 10 years. Yet, students are being offered a full array of courses, including advanced math and science and foreign language. "If we didn't have IDLA, we couldn't offer what we're offering. We would have to cut back on our math, our science and those courses, and our students wouldn't have those opportunities," Rusch said. Among the classes his district now offers to students only through IDLA: Trigonometry, calculus, Spanish, psychology and zoology. Benjamin Merrill, principal at Notus Junior-Senior High, said his students are using IDLA for remedial courses, for graduation requirements, and for advanced classes.