On Wednesday, Sept. 17, a lawsuit was filed by a coalition of public-school advocates, including the Idaho Education Association and the Moscow School District, against Idaho’s first private school choice program.
The plaintiffs argue in the lawsuit that the private school voucher program violates Idaho’s constitution.
House Bill 93 was signed by Gov. Brad Little in February, establishing a $50 million program offering the guardians of private or home-schooled students up to $5,000 — $7,500 for special needs students — to provide for qualifying education expenses, including private school tuition. Before the bill was signed, the governor’s office had received over 32,000 calls in opposition.
The Moscow School District, has been vocal about their concerns with the legislation. Superintendent Shawn Tiegs echoed concerns of the bill being unconstitutional to The Argonaut in an email, stating that, “The question that we are trying to address is whether [if] in its current format, as passed by the legislature, [the bill] passes the constitutional test. The Moscow School district believes that it does not pass that test.”
The petition claims that the tax credit in HB 93 is unconstitutional, and the Idaho State Tax Commission should be quickly blocked from implementing the change. The suit is based around Idaho Constitution’s Article IX, Section 1, which states that the Idaho Legislature must “establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public free common schools,” according to a Sept. 17 press release from the Idaho Education Association.
According to Idaho Education News, executive director of the Idaho Education Association, Paul Stark, specified that the bill did not require that private schools comply with the standards required of public schools for components such as testing, curriculum standards and open enrollment.
Stark expressed concern that nondisclosed curricula and test scores could be funded by taxpayer dollars, and that students could be rejected from these private institutions based on religion or disability.
Idaho Education Association spokesman, Mike Journee, told The Argonaut via email that the bill is similar to creating a “parallel” system of private schools.,
“By diverting taxpayer funds to private schools, it is funding a parallel system of private schools outside of the single public school system prescribed by the constitution,” Journee said, “A system of taxpayer-funded private schools cannot be ‘general, uniform and thorough’ by its nature.”
He elaborated that private schools do not have the same oversight that public schools are subject to, meaning there is no guarantee privatized education would reach this constitutional standard.
Journee further expressed concerns that the law, or at least the allocation of revenue for private education tax credits, would continue to expand as has happened in other states, if nothing was done to stop HB 93. Florida for example, allocated $226, or 3%, of K-12 funding to private education vouchers in 2020, a number which grew to $1.3 billion, or 10% of the Florida Education Finance Program, by 2023 according to the Education Law Center.
“Idaho public schools have been chronically underfunded for decades as it is,” Journee said. “These private school voucher subsidies will siphon even more dollars that should be spent on public schools away to private schools.”
“Vouchers are just one way public schools are being undermined so that education in our nation can be privatized and public school budgets across the country plundered for the benefit of those who run private schools, sell private school curriculum and those who would send their children to public schools with or without a subsidy. All at the expense of providing a good public school education for all students,” Journee said.
Julia Kolman can be reached at [email protected].
Nancy O'Marra
Well written article.