Opponents of vouchers have long complained about their cost, their harmful effect on public schools, and their lack of any accountability. State after state has ignored these concerns and authorized vouchers, which mostly underwrite the private school tuition of students who never attended public schools. Vouchers are a transfer of public funds from middle-class and low-income families to affluent families.
Idaho Republicans got it! They rejected a boiler-plate voucher program without income limits that would have paid tuition costs for every child already enrolled in a private school.
The first-year cost was estimated at $45 million, but based on comparisons with states like Florida, the cost would quickly escalate to $363 million a year.
Senate Republicans rejected a bill that would have allowed private school families to claim public education funds.
The bill, from Sens. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, and Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, would have created education savings accounts, a voucher-like mechanism that allows families with private school and home-schooled students to draw state funding for tuition, uniforms, tutoring and other education expenses.
Most Senate Republicans opposed the bill. Many said they support education savings accounts but believed the legislation has too many uncertainties, including how much it would cost….
Those opposed said they were concerned the voucher program would siphon limited public school funds. They also said the proposal lacked accountability for a significant amount of taxpayer money. The bill says that it would not grant a government agency authority over private schools.
“It’s actually against my conservative, Republican perspective to hand this money out with no accountability that these precious tax dollars are being used wisely,” said Sen. Dave Lent, R-Idaho Falls.
Read more at: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article272616367.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This really is great news. Exposure anywhere allows for people to informed everywhere. Pay attention, other states!
Excellent point!
And thank you, as always, Diane, for spreading essential news about developments affecting K-12 education!
The hopeful aspect of Idaho’s decision is that the conservative Republicans asked what it cost to pay the tuition for every home schooler and every private school student. They saw that it would be fiscally ridiculous.
Note also that these individual expenditures pale by comparison to private schools that have evolved during the more distant past. Really great private schools charge parents 40 – 50 K per year, and teachers there rarely see more than 60 kids a year as a full load, allowing for the personal relationships that underpin great teaching.
That public schools succeed to the degree that they do is amazing, especially since political powers have had education in the crosshairs ever since Sizer in 1983.
If ALEC can’t sneak these boilerplate voucher or charter school bills through legislatures, then ALEC members use dark money to outspend the competition during elections in an attempt to get their minions elected to vote the way they want. Studies show that 80 to 90% of the winners in elections outspend the opposition.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/money-and-elections-a-complicated-love-story/
To beat ALEC’s tactics usually means a grassroots effort to knock on every voters door and convince them to ignore the ALEC propaganda. I think that is how AOL won her first election.
Brian Lenny, Freedom Caucus, introduced a bill (Idaho Capitol Sun, 1-30-2023) to repeal Idaho’s Blaine Amendment. Politico reported that Koch nurtured the Freedom Caucus. The Blaine amendments are viewed by the right wing as a road block to its agenda. Libertarians want to force taxpayers to fund authoritarian religions most of which are patriarchal.
It is great to see that not all conservative states have lost their collective minds. Idaho clearly understands the academic, civil and social benefits of public schools. Strong public schools provide tremendous value to communities, and vouchers would weaken their public asset. Perhaps they see Florida as a cautionary tale. They understand that vouchers are a waste of public dollars.
I doubt they understand all you give them credit for. My view is that they gagged at the prospect of a new expenditure of $323 million. Republicans are supposed to be the party of fiscal conservatism. In Idaho, yes. Not in Florida, where the state is handing out over a billion a year for completely unaccountable religious schools and triple that for charter schools, many of which are for profit.