Voucher Tax Credit Scheme – This proposal will give Idaho taxpayer money to primarily urban, wealthy families to pay for their children to attend private, religious and for-profit schools. 

Description:
If passed, this proposal would establish a Voucher Tax Credit scheme. Families in Idaho would be eligible for $5,000 per child for private, religious, and for-profit school tuition and other expenses. 

Status:
The proposal was announced January 5 by co-sponsors Senator Lori Den Hartog and Representative Wendy Horman. A bill is intended to be heard first in the House Revenue and Taxation Committee, not the House Education Committee where such voucher schemes have stalled under strict scrutiny for their impact on students and public education funding. 

League position:
LWVID strongly opposes any scheme to siphon money away from Idaho’s underfunded public schools to create an entirely new second education system for students attending private, religious and for-profit schools. The Idaho Legislature has a constitutional mandate to “establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.” The LWVID supports increasing funding for public schools as well as equalizing educational opportunities for students in every part of the state.

Talking points to consider for your communication to your senator and representatives:

This latest in a long line of school voucher schemes, disguised as a tax credit for families, is:

• Anti-rural. Idaho’s many small towns have few, if any, religious and private schools where parents could use these tax credits. Most rural families will not see a dime of this money.

• Anti-accountability. Sponsors of this proposal have said, point blank, that they won’t allow Idaho taxpayers to know how the money is being used in these schools and whether students are learning at grade level. What other taxpayer-funded entity could get away with barring the state from oversight?

• Pro-Boise. The real winners in this scheme will be wealthy families in the Treasure Valley who have the most choice for sending their children to non-public schools. Rural Idahoans will subsidize urban families.

• Anti-working class. A family would need to have an income of more than $85,000 per year in order to qualify for a full $5,000 tax credit with the current flat tax rate of 5.8%. Families of means would benefit most.

Pro-big government. The legislature cannot justify giving millions of dollars in tax credits to a second publicly funded school system when revenue for 2024 is now running behind projections by over $73 million according to the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy (ICFP). The ICFP also predicts that, over the next five years, Idaho will lose $2.9 billion in revenue due to recent income tax reductions.