Reclaim Idaho shouldn’t miss the mark on providing private educational choice | Opinion

Reclaim Idaho claims to be against the political establishment, but its recent actions in the education sphere say otherwise.

On Dec. 8, Reclaim Idaho released a petition telling Idaho legislators to say no to vouchers. In the past, Reclaim Idaho has run powerful citizen-centric campaigns in the state, scoring significant wins on Medicaid expansion and increased public education funding. However, this recent campaign is misguided, maintaining a status quo that disempowers the people they advocate for — Idahoans. An adversarial stance on educational pluralism is not how an equitable education system is built. Instead, if Reclaim Idaho wants to benefit all Idahoan students’ futures, they must change course and embrace private educational choice programs.

Currently, the Idaho K-12 system has no private educational choice programs. As a result, children from wealthier families receive more access to high-quality educational options than students from lower-income families. This omission is unjust and inequitable — all Idaho children should have the opportunity to receive a quality education regardless of their family’s income level. Idaho state legislators can rectify this systemic inequity by creating their state’s first private educational choice program.

The passage of an Education Savings Account program would allow families to use their education dollars to pay for the best educational environment for their children. Eight states already have ESAs giving parents the financial boost to pay for various needs such as restricted private educational expenses such as tuition, curriculum resources, special needs therapies and other customizable learning tools.

A common argument against ESAs comes from groups such as Reclaim Idaho, which claims that private educational choice programs defund public schools. This is true. When a parent unenrolls their child from a traditional public school, that school no longer receives the funding allocated to that student since they are no longer educating them. Such a system establishes a free-market-style competition within the education system. So long as public schools are providing a better education than any other option available, they should have nothing to fear.

Nonetheless, Reclaim Idaho is worried private educational choice would mainly devastate public schools in rural areas. Indeed fears of students not having enough options and public schools shuttering are commonly stoked by anti-school choice voices. However, a new study on the past two decades of Florida’s educational choice programs’ effects on rural Florida refutes this claim.

Educational choice in rural Florida has grown tremendously as “16.7 percent of students in Florida’s 30 rural counties attended something other than a district school, whether a private school, charter school or home education.” The private education sector has met this newfound demand growing from 69 to 120 schools over the past twenty years. The same study reports that rural public schools have stayed strong, with an enrollment growth of 3.3 percent. Additionally, public district schools are being chosen at rates higher than any other education option serving 83% of students.

Still, Reclaim Idaho points out that private educational choice programs, once implemented, can adversely impact the students who stay in public schools as they receive less overall funding, but this is not true. Out of 28 studies performed on the effects of private ed choice programs on public school students, 25 of them showed positive educational outcomes. Other benefits from private educational choice programs include higher educational attainment rates, parent satisfaction, mental health and civic values.

Far from harming public school learning, a private educational choice program in Idaho could benefit all who are involved. The education system as Idahoans know it is inequitable, outdated, and discriminatory. A private educational choice program would disrupt the system by opening doors to multiple types of education models for Idaho students and families no matter their background. If Reclaim Idaho recognizes school choice is one solution to combat current inequity, it will help Idaho students for generations to come to be better served.