Two prominent Idaho citizens, Jim Jones and Rod Gramer, warned that proposed voucher legislation violates the clear language of the Idaho state constitution and threatens the future of public schools.
Jim Jones is the former Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court and former Idaho Attorney General and Rod Gramer is president of Idaho Business for Education.
They wrote:
Supporters of privatizing education are about to change the Idaho Constitution and 130 years of education policy without going to a vote of the people. Instead, those who want taxpayers to fund private schools should take their case to the people and let them decide as the Constitution requires.
Idaho’s founders were clear when they adopted the Constitution that the Legislature should support public schools. In Article IX, Section 1 they wrote: “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.”
The Founders did not say the Legislature should fund private schools. They did not say the Legislature should fund religious schools. In fact, in two other sections of Article IX they specifically said no taxpayer monies should go to fund religious schools.
Yet on page two, line (b), House Bill 294 says that state funds can be used for “tuition or fees at private schools.” The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last summer that if a state spends funds on private schools it must also provide funding to religious schools, thus allowing House Bill 294 to undermine both the letter and spirit of the Idaho Constitution.
This attempt to undermine the Constitution is piggybacked on the popular Strong Families, Strong Students program Governor Little created last year to provide computers, internet service and tutoring to students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If that’s all the bill did, we would support it. But the bill’s sponsors slipped in the private school tuition provision and made it sound like the bill was a harmless continuation of the Governor’s program. Several lawmakers and veteran reporters missed the bill’s real impact.
Supporters of House Bill 294 have some powerful allies like the Idaho Freedom Foundation which advocates for the abolishment of public schools. Another backer is “Yes. Every Kid” which is funded by the Koch Network, created by the billionaire Koch brothers. It is buying time on Idaho TV stations proclaiming how the bill benefits families. Of course, they don’t mention that it threatens the future of our public schools and violates the Idaho Constitution.
Instead of listening to out-of-state billionaires, legislators should listen to our founders and generations of lawmakers who clearly believed that the state’s responsibility is to fund public schools, not private or religious schools.
There is another reason lawmakers should listen to our founders. Idaho ranks last in the nation in spending per student and is already out of compliance with the Constitution’s mandate to fund a uniform and thorough public school system.
This shortage of state funding has caused local communities to raise their own property taxes by millions of dollars to ensure that their schools can operate. If the state cannot fund our public schools adequately, it makes no sense to divert badly needed state funds to support a private education system too.
Ultimately, the people of Idaho should decide whether to change the Constitution and fund private schools. That’s what our state’s founders intended, that’s what the Constitution says, and that’s what we should do. Not have the Legislature make an end run around the Constitution – or the people of Idaho.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Off-topic, but here’s some news about what’s happening with that totally made-up thing called learning loss. Just a reminder that millions of kids have not been in a classroom for over a year.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-04/how-covid-distance-learning-hurt-california-english-learners
Learning loss is not made up. Almost all children suffered from a one-year absence from schooling. What is NOT needed is standardized testing to measure it, since there is no baseline.
The current trend in the privatization of public education is to privatize by any means necessary. Privatizers do not care about right or wrong, state constitutions, facts or democracy. Backed by dark money, they will steamroll their way to get access to public money and transfer as much as they can out of public schools and in to private companies. Thorough and efficient education is of no interest to them. They trade in separate and unequal education and useless vouchers while they get public tax dollars to pay for it. This destruction of the common good will continue unless the courts, state legislatures, governors or the federal government stops them. We are in dire need of systemic change.
THIS below is from this blog note. It reminds me of the below paragraph from this morning’s Huffington Post:
From this note:
If helping fix pandemic problems is “all the bill did, we would support it. But the bill’s sponsors slipped in the private school tuition provision and made it sound like the bill was a harmless continuation of the Governor’s program. Several lawmakers and veteran reporters missed the bill’s real impact.”
From the Huffington Post:
“TRUMP CAMPAIGN SCAM MAXED OUT RETIREE CREDIT CARDS Donald Trump’s flailing campaign tricked small-dollar donors into signing up to give repeated donations, sometimes weekly, that maxed out credit cards and plunged many into deep financial trouble. Millions had to be refunded, but the scheme allowed the campaign an interest-free loan. [HuffPost]”
. . . will it ever end. If not: diligence. CBK
Spin and rhetoric to serve the nepotists heading up a south American catholic pederast heroin cartel. Did the invading south american catholic pederast heroin cartel not learn much english during that time? Yes. But, who is really at fault for that? The public school system or the slime that took it as a politicaly expedient angle rather than a national security angle? You sold yourself out to pederasts, what were you expecting? What did you expect from invaders? What did you expect from a heroin cartel? True, we should expect more from south americans but what in fk were you expecting from pederast catholics? And just what in hell is it to say they’re all criminals, racist? Invasion is a crime, they ARE all criminals. Places like california have to start themselves on fire every year just to leach off fema to balance their budgets. They’re the last people anyone should look to for inspiration or values. Anything that burns itself every year, and doesnt die, cant be trusted.
Adam peterson You’re soiling the conversation here, not to mention yourself. Go away or please clean up your act. CBK