[1] IDEA Public Schools, Inc. was founded by Tom Torkelson and JoAnn Gama, former Teach For America corps members, as a not‐for‐profit Texas corporation headquartered in Weslaco.

[4][1] Its mission was to create charter schools to serve impoverished students, starting in Donna, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley.

[8][9] However many parents and an offshoot of the Occupy Austin protest group opposed the plan, claiming that the school was being used as an experiment to create education reform in the city.

[17] In 2019 IDEA announced plans to expand in the San Antonio area after the United States Department of Education issued it a $116 million grant.

[20] In 2021, Gama, along with chief operating officer Irma Muñoz, was fired following an investigation concluding that they were involved in the misuse of funds.

[14] In its 2015 audited financial statement IDEA reported having about $445M in assets (cash, incoming grants, land, buildings, etc); in 2014 it had about $356M.

[4] It reported about $213M of income in 2015, with about $12M coming from cities or towns, about $164M from state funding, and about $37M from the federal government, with about $13M of that for child nutrition; its expenses were about $194M.

[29] In 2010 the United States Department of Education, under its Investing in Innovation program, awarded IDEA and the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District a $5M grant to train teachers.

[34] In 2013 it had received significant funding from Choose to Succeed, a coalition of San Antonio-based foundations seeking to bring more charter schools to their city.

[42] In 2015 Children at Risk, a children's advocacy group in Houston, published a report evaluating data on charter schools in Texas that concluded: "Some charters, including YES Prep, KIPP, Idea Public Schools, Texas Preparatory Network, and Uplift Education are taking disadvantaged students to new heights of academic success, achieving what nobody thought possible.

[44] On May 25, 2011, over 40 sensitive emails were leaked to local businesses and education leaders which mentioned the lack of potential that teachers had to be promoted into a higher position, such as a leadership role.

The leaked emails were also sent to state charter officials and other IDEA staff which contained talks about expansion to other cities such as San Antonio and Austin, a bias towards Teach For America corps members and criticism involving an administrator in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo district.

In regards to preference for Teach For America members, Tom Torkelson said that he would place a "20 year veteran" if he or she could produce "expected student success results."

Speaking about the administrator incident, Torkelson said that he was "frustrated" and used "some very choice words" at the moment, but has mentioned that the partnership with PSJA has been "going better than ever.

Dr. Ed Fuller, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, has said that IDEA schools do not enroll "underserved" students.

[11][46][47] Antonio Limon, a San Benito school superintendent, criticized the district for "cherry picking" its students.

[11][48] AlterNet, a progressive news outlet and Independent Media Institute project, criticized IDEA for eliminating "critical thinking" in the district's curriculum, placing board members from banking organizations to generate profit for the school and taking taxpayer money to create expansion.

The source has commented that IDEA board members belong to organizations such as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and the International Bank of Commerce.

[11] The school's leadership drew criticism due to its plans to purchase a multimillion dollar private jet, as well as spending $400,000 on tickets for box seats at the AT&T Center.