Transparent Idaho now offers public education data

The Idaho State Controller’s Office has expanded its Transparent Idaho website to include data detailing how schools and districts spent public money and pay their employees.

The Idaho State Controller’s Office has published public records and data about state government on Transparent Idaho since the free online data portal launched in 2012.

But that effort has been expanding in recent years.

In 2021, the Idaho Legislature passed House Bill 73, which requires uniform accounting, budgeting and financial reporting procedures for Idaho cities, counties and urban renewal districts. That information has been added to Transparent Idaho, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. 

In October, the Sun reported financial data for 198 Idaho cities is now available on Transparent Idaho. 

“We’ve had state data for 10-plus years, but our vision has always been to have local governments on Transparent Idaho as well,” Idaho State Controller Brandon Woolf said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.

The Idaho State Controller’s Office announced the latest Transparent Idaho addition on Monday — the posting of new education financial data. 

The new education data includes detailed enrollment figures for schools and districts, workforce salary data and transactions made by education providers, such as school districts and public charter schools.

Woolf said publishing the data isn’t meant to serve as a “gotcha” to public school districts and charter schools. Instead, Woolf said publishing the data can build trust with Idahoans and encourage the public to become informed and engaged with its government and the decisions policymakers set. 

“The public being able to track and trace and understand where the taxpayers’ money is being spent can go a long way to helping set the right types of policy and making good policy decisions,” Woolf said.

The education data is already publicly available. School districts are required by law to post it on their own websites, and Idaho Education News has been publishing enrollment, salary data, test scores, per-pupil expenditures, higher education go-on rates and more on its education data site for years. 

But publishing the education data on Transparent Idaho means the state government is now publishing education transparency data for public schools, districts and public charters schools in one spot, alongside other financial transparency data related to state government, cities and counties.  

Transparent Idaho only publishes data about schools, districts and charter schools that receive public funding. Data for private schools, homeschool programs and other private education choice programs do not appear on Transparent Idaho, the Idaho State Controller’s Office said in a press release issued Monday.

Moving forward, Woolf said he will work on adding additional demographic information and data visualization tools to Transparent Idaho — with an eye toward allowing the public to have more data to make apples-to-apples comparisons between schools and districts. 

All of the new education data is available free online at https://transparent.idaho.gov.