Money for private school tuition? Idaho Republican proposal is back as a ‘tax rebate’

A set of Republican lawmakers hope to allow Idaho schoolchildren to use state funds to pay for their education expenses, even if they don’t attend public schools.

After a similar proposal to implement education savings accounts failed to pass last year, two Republican lawmakers instead proposed a tax rebate arrangement Friday.

A group of parents and students with “Idaho Parents Want School Choice” signs gathered in the Idaho Capitol on Friday with Sen. Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, and Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, as the lawmakers brought forward a bill to provide $50 million in state funds for students who are either enrolled in private schools or religious schools or home-schooled.

“This proposal is designed to support Idaho parents as they make decisions about their child’s education,” Den Hartog said.

The proposal would provide parents on a first-come basis with $5,000 in refundable tax credits, which could pay for “qualified education expenses,” including private school tuition, for students in grade school, Den Hartog said. The plan is capped at $40 million, and another $10 million would provide the same $5,000 to low-income families that qualify for the federal earned income tax credit as a grant. After the first year, those families would receive the funds as a tax rebate, Den Hartog said.

The Meridian senator said qualified expenses could include tutoring costs, exam costs, exam preparation, or tuition. The bill is designed to include families with “creative” educational arrangements, like groups of parents who have hired teachers and formed “learning pods.”

Both programs would be overseen by the Idaho State Tax Commission, Den Hartog said. The bill wouldn’t require income maximums for parents to receive the funding.

“I care about the education of every single child in this state, no matter where they are learning,” Horman said.

A proposal last year to provide $6,000 to families with students who are in private school or home-schooled failed in the Senate. While many Republicans supported the concept, they had concerns about the costs of the program, according to previous Statesman reporting.

It is unclear how much support the proposal has from other lawmakers. Two Nampa lawmakers, Sen. Ben Adams and Rep. John Vander Woude — Den Hartog’s father — were also at the press conference.

Similar proposals, which are often called school vouchers, have become law in states like Arizona and Florida. The ideas are widely opposed by teachers unions and many school boards, who fear the funding would drain money out of already underfunded public school systems, or that the benefits will largely go to wealthy families whose children are already enrolled in private school.

Democrat: Plan would ‘siphon’ money from public schools

Rep. Lauren Necochea, D-Boise, thinks the proposal would “siphon” money away from public schools and allow it to be spent with “essentially zero accountability,” she told reporters Friday.

Horman disagreed.

“We wouldn’t be standing here if we thought there was any chance of this bill harming public schools,” she said.

At the Statesman’s legislative preview Friday, Horman also said the state would be returning money to parents who enroll their children in private schools and save the state “millions” of dollars. In response, Necochea said the state doesn’t make these kinds of offers “anywhere else in our government.”

“‘Oh, I didn’t go to the park this year, can I get my money back? I didn’t use that stoplight, can I get my money back?’” Necochea said at the preview. “It’s just not workable in our government to do those things.”

Necochea said $5,000 is generally not enough to pay for tuition at a private institution, adding that she thinks such schools would still be out of reach for lower-income families, while wealthy families who can already pay for the high-cost education would accept the rebate.

Necochea said Idaho is behind on $1 billion in school maintenance costs, which has caused safety issues, including at a high school in Pocatello that burned because of an electrical failure.

She said the bill could “lure” families without enough resources into home-schooling their children and would especially harm rural students, who often don’t have private schools nearby that they could go to.