Let’s be honest. The push to require Idaho taxpayers to subsidize private and religious schooling is not about “choice.” Experience in voucher states indicates that the great majority of those who get the subsidy money are already sending their kids to private or religious schools. That will undoubtedly be the case in Idaho. The only real question is who benefits from the money extracted from taxpayers and who gets stuck paying the bill–who wins and who loses. Just follow the money.
The money trail started early in the nation’s history in a struggle between those who wished for an egalitarian society on one side, and the ultra-rich, who felt entitled to chart our destiny with a trickle-down society, on the other side. America’s public school system was established for the egalitarian side to give every child a fair chance in life. However, there has always been strong pressure by those with extreme wealth to take the reins and skew the national playing field toward the trickle-down side.
In the last decade or so, the ultra-rich have targeted the public schools, apparently seeing them as a threat to their control of society. The billionaire class and its right-wing allies, including the Koch network, the Heritage Foundation and the State Policy Network (SPN), are doing their utmost to privatize K-12 education in America. Those groups are represented in Idaho. The Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) and the Mountain States Policy Center (MSPC) are both part of the SPN. IFF wants the state to get out of the public school business. MSPC is a member of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which advocates a universal voucher system.
Some of these dark-money-funded groups may have a profit motive, while others may see it as a way of indoctrinating kids in their world view. Whatever their motivation, the fact is that out-of-state billionaires have been pouring campaign money into Idaho in the last several years to elect legislators who will do their bidding on school voucher legislation. Their campaign money has been effective in knocking off many voucher opponents, particularly in the closed GOP primary. They now have an army of lobbyists roaming the legislative halls to grab as many tax dollars as possible to privatize education–$50 million in Rep. Horman’s bill and $250 million in Rep. Hostetler’s bill. Of course, those numbers would skyrocket in future years.
Many well-meaning Idaho parents have joined the out-of-state lobbyists to push for voucher legislation. One person who lobbied last year had four children enrolled in Nampa Christian School. He said, “I’m already paying taxes that the public school benefits from that I don’t receive any benefit from.” If he gets a tax credit or voucher payment of either $20,000 (Horman’s bill) or $38,000 (Hostetler’s bill) for those kids, he might not have to pay any state taxes for any government program. Many people pay state taxes for programs from which they do not personally benefit.
Any number of churches that operate religious schools have been lobbying for subsidy money, even though it would cause legislators to break the Idaho Constitution’s strict commandment against using public funds for religious education. About 90% of subsidy payments would be used for religious education. I certainly don’t begrudge Nampa Christian, Cole Valley Christian, Catholic schools, Lutheran schools or any other schools from seeking government subsidies. But, it seems the proper way to do it would be to first amend the Constitution to remove the prohibition against religious school funding. As it is, religious school parents are being used as an inadvertent battering ram against the public school system–to support the billionaires’ effort to weaken that system, while also injecting religious doctrine into taxpayer-financed education in Idaho.
Idaho churches that do not operate schools will receive absolutely no benefit from subsidy programs. Take, for instance, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which has a strong and historic presence in the State of Idaho. Church members have been stalwart supporters of public education, but the church does not operate a system of religious schools. They handle religious teaching the right way– without use of public money in their seminaries. Many communities of the church’s faithful are located in rural areas around the state, particularly in the southern part of the state. These factors indicate that Mormon public-school patrons will suffer disadvantages in a subsidized system–no public education funding for church members and a reduction of state funding for the rural public schools that their kids attend.
The best way to prevent the families of Idaho’s 313,160 public school students from losing, while subsidizing about 36,000 kids schooled privately, is to vote down any subsidy program. The solemn Constitutional Commandment prohibiting publicly-subsidized religious schooling has worked well since statehood and will serve us well into the future.
Another opinion piece and more of the same recycled lines. I don’t think Jim has had a new idea in 15 years. Idaho just released it’s test results for students and again we see a decline in student performance. Even after the legislature has thrown buckets and buckets of more money into public school the quality of education decreases. What’s the saying about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Maybe it’s time to try something different. I challenge you Jim to think of anything the private sector doesn’t do better and more efficiently than the public. Education clearly is included. Why don’t we stop protecting the broken system we have and finally give all Idaho students an opportunity for the highest quality education within our state
Mr. Huettig:
You may have bought into the Idaho Freedom Foundation narrative that Idaho’s public schools are failing. Perhaps you have not noticed that their game plan is to oppose adequate funding for both the instructional side of public education and for funding to maintain and build public schools. Then, having starved the public school system, they claim that it is not producing good results. Even then, the Heritage Foundation, which is somewhat to the right of Atilla the Hun ranked Idaho third in the nation for its public schools. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank that surveys states on education spending, academic transparency, and other factors.
If I sound repetitive at times, I analogize it to my dear old teachers at Eden Grade School who had to keep repeating the lesson to those resistant to learning. The Idaho Constitution demands that the Legislature adequately support a “general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.” In the late 1990s the Idaho Supreme Court held that it had not done so in previous years. That failure has continued until the present day. Idaho’s per-student expenditures for the instructional side of education are 51st in the nation (includes the District of Columbia). In 2005, the Idaho Supreme Court held that Idaho had flat failed to meet its responsibility to build and maintain public school buildings. I sat on that case and the evidence was clear that the state had foisted off that duty on local property tax payers. It is a responsibility that rests squarely on state income and sales tax collections. Kids can’t learn to the fullest extent in unsafe, dilapidated facilities. The Legislature has since 2005 ignored its responsibility for adequate school facilities funding until last year and then only made a paltry effort. Some in the Legislature have been trying to siphon taxpayer money into private and religious schools, even though the Legislature has chronically starved the public schools. A recent report out of Louisiana indicates that after dumping a half a billion dollars into private schools over the last decade, the public schools are doing a much better job of educating kids. So, just like those Eden Grade School teachers, those of us who want to make the public schools even better have to keep repeating the lesson until it sinks in. Then, those buckets that you mention get thrown at the public schools might not be empty anymore.
Thanks Jim. As former Colorado guy familiar with Cadillac desert I appreciate your making your old fashion conservation stance known to Idahoans.