Let’s stop starving our schools in Idaho
Our forebears who drafted the Idaho Constitution astutely recognized the importance of quality public education. In Article IX, Section 1 of that document they provided: “The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of Idaho, to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public free common schools.”
Despite that constitutional mandate, many Idaho school districts are operating in financial crisis conditions. Forty-five of Idaho’s 115 school districts have four-day school weeks because they cannot afford to heat school buildings and run school buses five days a week. Some schools have classrooms without a sufficient number of desks to seat all the students. Teachers are fleeing from rural districts to larger communities or to other states for better pay. This failure to invest in Idaho’s public schools is nothing new. As a lifelong Idahoan (and a graduate of Orofino High School), I have watched with alarm for years as the adequacy of investment in our public schools has declined.
A few statistics illuminate the deficiency of this state’s investment in education. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Idaho ranked second-to-last nationally in per-pupil investment for the 2017-18 academic year. Idaho schools received $7,486 per student in state, local, and federal revenue compared to a national average of $12,201. Neighboring Montana invested about $4,000 more per student than Idaho. Wyoming expended about $9,000 more.
The perpetual inadequacy of state investment in Idaho schools is the impetus behind a new voter initiative launched by Reclaim Idaho, the group that got Medicaid Expansion on the 2018 ballot. The “Invest in Idaho” initiative would increase the corporate tax rate, create a new marginal income tax rate for Idaho’s wealthiest individuals, and place the resulting revenue into a fund earmarked for K-12 public education.
Currently, Idaho’s tax rate for personal incomes over $7,500 is 6.925 percent. The initiative would add a new tax bracket, increasing the marginal rate to 9.925 percent for income exceeding $250,000 for individuals and income over $500,000 for couples. In other words, an individual making $250,000 or a couple making $500,000 would see no tax increase — only the income above those amounts would be taxed at the new rate. The initiative would also restore the corporate income tax rate to 8 percent, where it stood before 2001. If passed, this initiative will generate about $170 million annually to invest in K-12 schools.
Lest readers fear these enhanced rates for high-income Idahoans would be unfair, let’s take a look at current tax burdens. First, Idaho’s present income tax structure is virtually flat — people making less than $8,000 pay the same income tax rate as millionaires.
Second, low-wage earners pay a far higher percentage of their incomes for sales, excise, and property taxes than the rich do. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, in 2018 the lowest-earning 20 percent of Idahoans paid out over 9 percent of their wages for such taxes. The top one percent of earners paid only 2.5 percent. Consequently, even when state income tax is added to those other state and local taxes, the poorest Idahoans expended a higher share of their wages for taxes (9.2%) than did the wealthiest Idahoans (7.2%). This regressive tax structure was made even worse in 2018 when the legislature altered state law to conform to federal tax changes that heavily favored the wealthy and corporations.
Lastly, consider the tax reductions enjoyed over the last several years by affluent Idahoans. Despite the financial struggles of public schools, the legislature has reduced the top income tax rates three times since 2004, when the highest rate was 8.2 percent. It was decreased to 7.8 percent in 2005, then to 7.4 percent in 2012, and to the current 6.925 percent in 2018. During that same period, Idaho left unfilled thousands of high-paying jobs worth hundreds of millions in unclaimed wages because Idaho cannot produce enough skilled workers. This is not a coincidence.
It is apparent that if our public schools are ever to be adequately funded, Idaho voters will have to create the mechanism to do it. That is why every Idahoan should get behind the “Invest in Idaho” initiative. It’s easy — just sign the initiative petition and vote for it on your 2020 ballot. Or better yet, volunteer to help with the effort!