Idaho Legislators Propose Massive Government Handout for Private-school Tuition

Thursday night, four members of Idaho’s Senate Education Committee joined with a spokesperson from the Idaho Freedom Foundation to announce their plan for a universal school-voucher program.

Their plan is to create an ESA voucher program (“education savings accounts”) on the model of Arizona’s voucher scheme, which senators hailed as “the gold standard.”

Let’s be clear: This plan would siphon millions of tax-dollars out of public schools and give a massive government handout to affluent private-school families.

Arizona is not a success story — not even close. Arizona’s ESA voucher scheme was sold to the public as a “school choice” program for kids being underserved by public schools. But it turns out that the vast majority of beneficiaries were affluent families whose children were already in private schools. In the program’s first year, it blew a $300 million hole in the state budget. The cost was ten times what voucher proponents predicted.

During last night’s event, Idaho Freedom Foundation spokesperson Anna K. Miller cited “the latest polling data” to claim that ESA vouchers are popular with Idaho parents. But the only data she cited was a phony poll with a sample size of just 50 Idaho parents.

Meanwhile, a legitimate poll commissioned last fall by the Idaho Statesman found that only 23% of Idahoans support using tax-dollars to subsidize private-school tuition. 63% are opposed.

Throughout the evening, members of the Senate Education Committee struggled unsuccessfully to sell their plan. Senator Brian Lenney attempted to justify voucher legislation by highlighting low test scores in Idaho public schools. But he didn’t mention that ESA voucher programs in other states have caused massive drops in test scores (see here and here).

Then, when Senator Ben Toews was asked how ESA voucher programs would be held accountable to taxpayers, he answered with a suggestion that accountability is actually a bad thing, saying “accountability is always a threat for us.”

As hard as they tried, the senators couldn’t hide the reality: Their ESA voucher scheme would defund public schools and funnel millions of tax-dollars to private schools that mostly serve affluent families in just a few cities. It would harm communities across the state — especially rural communities where there are no private-school options. It would import into Idaho the same devastating results we’ve seen in Arizona and a long list of other states.

It’s time to stand up for public schools and say no to vouchers. If you haven’t done so already, please click here to sign our Say No to Vouchers petition, and please share the petition with all who support Idaho public schools.

And look out for more updates. The ESA voucher plan that was proposed last night has not yet been printed as an official bill. In the days and weeks ahead, we will post updates as new bills emerge and we’ll provide info for how you can get involved in defeating these schemes. Stay tuned!