Want a voice in the future of Idaho education policy? Sign Reclaim Idaho’s petition

Among candidates in the May 17 Republican primary election, the debate is between legislators who think they did enough for public schools — and those who think they did too much.

If Idahoans expect to do more, they’ll have to do it themselves.

But they have the tools available. Reclaim Idaho, the group that successfully passed a Medicaid expansion initiative in 2018, is back with a new ballot measure — what it calls the Quality Education Act. If passed by the voters this fall, it would raise taxes on big corporations and high-income individuals to generate more than $323 million a year for public schools.

Among its objectives are reducing class sizes and improving teacher compensation.

The just-concluded legislative session is rightly taking credit for a massive $258.02 million — or 12.5% — boost in general fund support for K-12 education. Included in that is money to support all-day kindergarten, better pay for veteran teachers, incentives to keep rural teachers on the job and better health insurance.

But you have to look at it in context. Idaho wasn’t the only state to experience an economic boom and a corresponding rising tide of tax revenues. Other states also invested more in public education.

In other words, Idaho — a state that reduced public education’s share of personal income by about 25 percent since the turn of the century — is like the relay runner who started too far back.

Even if he picks up the pace, he’s still likely to come in last.

So the Gem State could retain its last-in-the-nation status when it comes to the amount of money it allocates to each of its students. Its teachers could continue to be lured away by better-paying jobs in neighboring states. And local taxpayers will be asked to provide more support through so-called voluntary supplemental property taxes.

If you have any question about the gap between what state lawmakers authorize and the cost of the “general, uniform, and thorough system of public, free common schools” they’re supposed to provide, consider the plight of Mountain View School District. Rejecting a proposed $1.7 million supplemental levy means voters chose to rely solely on what the state of Idaho allocates — and that’s going to require drastic cuts.

The culprit is the GOP Legislature’s insistence during the course of two decades on both lowering taxes and shifting the tax burden onto those less able to pay it.

For instance, a good third of Idaho’s $1.9 billion surplus was shuffled off in generous income tax cuts to Idaho corporations and wealthy individuals. In the process, lawmakers also removed one more tax bracket, making Idaho’s income tax more regressive.

Reclaim Idaho would reverse that.

The corporate income tax — now set at 6% — would be restored to 8%, where it stood in 2000.

The individual income tax cut from 6.5% to 6% remains untouched — except for those individuals earning more than $250,000 or married couples making more than $500,000, who will pay a new 10.925% rate.

That’s more in the nature of tax equity — and it frees public schools from being buffeted between years of feast and famine or relying too heavily on one-time federal relief funds.

Before anyone can decide whether to implement it, the initiative first has to qualify for the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

Technically, that requires Reclaim Idaho to gather signatures from 65,000 registered voters by May 1 — including 6% of the registered voters in 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts. As a practical matter, Reclaim Idaho will need closer to 90,000 to compensate for invalid signatures.

So far, the organization claims to have more than 83,000 signatures and to be closing in on the requisite numbers in the legislative districts.

But don’t take anything for granted. If you want to have a voice in this matter next November, your signature had better be on one of Reclaim Idaho’s petitions by the end of the month. — M.T.