Idaho Senate group calls for $45 million in state funding to be earmarked for students not enrolled in public school.
I’m really excited about this!
When parents get a taste of what real education looks like, they will never go back to the government schools.
BOISE — After two days of testimony, the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday passed a bill to create an education savings account in an effort to increase school choice in Idaho. Opponents worry it will divert too much funding from public schools.
The committee voted 6-3 to approve the legislation. Five of the senators who voted in favor were sponsors or co-sponsors of the bill. The bill will next go to the full Senate for a vote.
SB 1038 would cost approximately $45 million from the state general fund to create a savings account that parents of K-12 students who aren’t enrolled in public school, or won’t be once they can access funds, could use for educational expenses; sponsors predict it will serve about 6,600 students. An estimated $3 million would be used for administering the program and $2 million to create the digital platform from which it would run.
“Every child is unique and so is their educational experience,” Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, told the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday. She presented the legislation with Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa.
The senators, along with Sens. Scott Herndon, R-Sagle, and Cindy Carlson, R-Riggins — all of whom sit on the Education Committee — hosted a town hall about their proposed legislation early in the session, well before it was formally introduced in a committee.
During the hours of testimony, spanning meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, many of the opponents said it would siphon money from ailing public schools toward institutions that lack accountability or transparency for their curriculum or outcomes, while proponents said it would give more Idahoans the chance to pursue homeschooling or private school. Those who provided testimony included current and former educators, rural residents, a representative from the Idaho Freedom Foundation, and associations representing administrators, rural schools and teachers.
Under the proposed legislation, the state Department of Education would oversee the educational savings account, or ESA, which would be administered through an online platform that both parents seeking to use it and vendors seeking to use funds from it would need to opt into to be included in the program. The money could go toward tuition or fees at any private school in the state, textbooks required by a private school, educational therapies from a licensed provider, extracurricular activities at a public school, uniforms required by a private school and other education-related items. Qualified schools do not need to be accredited.
“Private schools and homeschools currently work on their own without any interference from the state,” Lenney said.
The Department of Education would be tasked with either conducting or contracting out annual, quarterly and random audits of the accounts to ensure they’re being used for allowed expenses. Items such as televisions or gaming systems are explicitly excluded in the bill.
“I would posit that this of one of the tightest, cleanest school choice bills out there,” Lenney said.