Bright pink line: Little’s priorities on vouchers can’t protect Idaho public schools | Opinion
During his State of the State address last week, Idaho Gov. Brad Little for the first time lent public support to the idea of spending state taxpayer dollars on private schools. Little has long been seen as a skeptic of so-called “school choice” policy — newspeak for vouchers — so his public embrace of the program seems to leave little in the way of real opposition.
During a news conference in Idaho Falls on Wednesday, Little outlined some of his priorities for such a program — though he was reluctant to specify hard red lines he wouldn’t cross in negotiations with lawmakers.
“They aren’t red lines, but they’re pretty bright pink,” Little said.
Little has proposed spending $50 million, a large, expensive state program for Idaho. For reference, that’s about half the annual budget of the Idaho State Police. So this year’s starting point is identical to the cap proposed by Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, and Sen. Lori Den Hartog, R–Meridian, during last year’s legislative session.
Little left the door open for that figure to grow, though he expressed some reluctance.
“Fifty million was pretty hard,” he said.
But he didn’t rule out a higher figure if that’s what it took to get more oversight of the program. He emphasized that oversight would be a top priority, including by requiring the program to involve the Idaho Tax Commission to prevent double-dipping and other abuse.
Little is right to be concerned about oversight, given significant instances of fraud where similar programs have been implemented.
Recently a Colorado couple was indicted for allegedly collecting voucher funds for their 50 children, 43 of whom were made up, from the Arizona voucher system, as the Associated Press reported.
You read that right. Arizona gave a couple in Colorado money to pay for their kids’ private schooling. All 50 of them.
Arizona, which has a very mature education savings account program, did not catch this alleged fraud before paying out tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars. And if they only caught fraud so comically obvious too late, what are they missing?
Asked if there was a clear example of an oversight regime that works well in other states, Little indicated that he is discussing the issues with other governors, including Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas. But he did not point to a clear example of where oversight is working well.
But the focus on fraud misses a more significant harm in store for Idaho students.
One of Little’s promotional signs read:
“$50 million investment in public schools
“$50 million investment in expanding school choice”
It’s not an accident that those figures are the same, or on the same piece of paper. It’s because of how government officials set priorities. You start with a pot of money, and you divvy it up among competing, mutually exclusive priorities. Public schools are one. Vouchers are another, closely related, one.
That’s how things work in the Legislature too, as Little explained.
“In the Legislature, as they always do at this time of year, they’re frantically looking for places to put their priorities in,” Little said. “And then there’s always going to be pressure to put things in the tax relief category.”
The sign at Little’s press tour could have read “$100 million investment in public schools.”
Some have argued it’s mistaken to point out that there’s a tradeoff between funding public schools and creating a voucher program. It isn’t. The most basic harm of a voucher program is that it will, in the long run, diminish spending on public schools.
So make no mistake, whatever money Idaho spends on a school choice program next year is coming out of the pot of money that could have been spent on public schools — which desperately need funding. So if, in five years, your kid is going to a school with a leaky roof or inadequate heat — as is pervasive across Idaho, especially in rural areas that also lack access to private school options — “school choice” will be one of the reasons for that.
This story was originally published January 16, 2025 at 4:00 AM.