Accelerating Public Charter Schools: Lessons from Idaho’s Regulatory Reform

Oct 15, 2026

The Manhattan Institute issue brief examines Idaho’s regulatory reforms for public charter schools, focusing on how the state updated charter laws to expand operational autonomy while preserving accountability. It reviews Idaho’s early adoption in 1998, subsequent incremental changes, and persistent criticism that regulations constrained innovation. In 2024, the Accelerating Public Charter Schools Act replaced earlier rules, using an earned-autonomy model that adjusts renewal periods and benefits based on performance and authorizer accountability.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Idaho’s Charter School Reform Background

Accelerating Public Charter Schools Act (APCSA)

Brief History of Charter Schools in Idaho

Issue Brief About Us The Manhattan Institute is a community of scholars, journalists, activists, and civic leaders committed to advancing economic opportunity, individual liberty, and the rule of law in America and its great cities. November 2025 Accelerating Public Charter Schools: Lessons from Idaho’s Regulatory Reform Alex Adams Former Administrator Idaho Division of Financial Management Introduction In 2024, the Center for Education Reform (CER) ranked Idaho among the top 10 states in the nation for its charter school laws.1 CER scores are based on the original principle of the charter school movement: “charter schools should receive enhanced operational autonomy in exchange for being held strictly accountable for the outcomes they promise to achieve.” To measure how well states are adhering to this principle, the CER scores consider various factors, such as charter authorizer diversity, growth constraints placed on charter schools, charter school operational flexibility, and funding equity. Idaho was an early adopter of charter school legislation, which the state first implemented in 1998. But that initial law was a political compromise that limited the uptake of charter schools and provided modest operational autonomy. In the years since, Idaho has adopted many incremental improvements to the original law over time. But as recently as 2008, CER ranked Idaho’s charter school laws as the “14th weakest of the nation’s 41 charter laws.”2 By 2018, Idaho charter stakeholders were pushing for more serious reform to laws that“minimized the actual space for innovation” and made “Idaho’s charter schools . . . the most regulated public schools in the state.”3 Their complaints were likely justified: at the time, charter schools in Idaho were not only subject to most state education laws meant for traditional public schools but also—unlike traditional public schools—beholden to a charter authorizer and a performance certificate that spells out how they will be held accountable for their academic and financial performance. Accelerating Public Charter Schools: Lessons from Idaho’s Regulatory Reform In 2024, the conditions were ripe for reform. On February 27, the governor signed the Accelerating Public Charter Schools Act (APCSA), which comprehensively repealed and replaced the state’s charter school laws and regulations in order to provide far greater operational autonomy for charter schools.4 The approach embodied inAPCSA was based on an understanding of the diversity in the charter school landscape. Some charter schools were nearly 25 years old and among the highest-performing public schools in the state, while others were newer and had less of a track record. Rather than attempting to place all charter schools in the same regulatory straitjacket regardless of school history—including tenure and past academic and financial performance—the legislation grouped charter schools into segments and offered “earned autonomy”to the highest performers. High-performing charter schools can now earn longer renewal periods from their authorizers, as well as other benefits, such as fast-track replication of copycat schools into new markets. The bill also provided neutrality toward the format of charter schools, given the acceleration of virtual school options following the global Covid-19 pandemic. Idaho provides a useful case study to states on how to update charter school laws, balancing operational autonomy with accountability in a proper regulatory framework. This paper presents Idaho’s approach to regulatory reform in a field that had evolved piecemeal over 25 years, which may offer useful lessons for a wide range of states. Brief History of Charter Schools in Idaho The national charter school movement began in earnest in 1988, with two seminal events: Ray Budde—a New England educator who had already introduced the idea of charter schools—published his book Education Charter: Restructuring School Distric

FAQs

What was the main goal of Idaho’s Accelerating Public Charter Schools Act (APCSA)?

APCSA comprehensively repealed and replaced Idaho’s charter school laws and regulations to provide far greater operational autonomy while maintaining accountability for outcomes.

How does Idaho’s earned-autonomy approach work for higher-performing charter schools?

The legislation groups charter schools by performance and grants longer renewal periods and other benefits, such as faster replication into new markets, to the highest performers.

Why did charter stakeholders push for reform in Idaho before 2024?

They argued that existing rules minimized space for innovation and made Idaho’s charter schools among the most regulated in the state, including being subject to many traditional public school education laws as well as additional accountability requirements.

Oct 15, 2026

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