Having grown up in a small farming community, I can attest that public schools are the heart and soul of most communities in Idaho. Local folks of every political stripe show up in droves for school activities–football, baseball, basketball, soccer, track, school plays, marching bands, Future Farmers and everything else our local schools offer.
When my Valley Vikings from Eden and Hazelton (east end of Jerome County) were competing with teams from other communities in the late 1950s, the bleachers were packed with fans from both sides. The same thing happens to this very day. Public school activities of every sort bring communities together, give them a common identity and enrich their lives. It all depends on a healthy, adequately-financed public school system–a “uniform and thorough” system, as mandated by the Idaho Constitution.
Our public schools are under threat from legislators controlled by the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) and the Dorothy Moon branch of the Republican Party. With the support of hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars from out-of-state dark money groups, they have done their best to elect legislators who want to open up Idaho’s treasury to subsidize private religious education–over 90% of voucher funds in other states go to religious schooling. They may have picked up steam in that effort by defeating some outstanding supporters of public schools in the closed GOP primary election and replacing them with school voucher enthusiasts.
If this crop of legislators is successful in passing some sort of scheme to require taxpayers to pay for religious schooling, the funding will undoubtedly reduce appropriations for public schools in a like amount. The subsidies typically go to well-to-do parents in urban areas where the largest religious schools are located.
With state revenue projections falling, it appears that there will be tighter education budgets in coming years. Even though the Legislature has haltingly tried to address inadequate funding for the instructional side of public education in recent years and has finally started to help fund the construction and maintenance of public school facilities, it has clearly not fulfilled its Constitutional duty to adequately fund public education. Legislators have absolutely no business diverting public money to subsidize private religious education.
Even though subsidy programs start out with a moderate funding level, experience shows the level skyrockets over time, while funding for public schools plummets. That would be the inevitable result of a voucher program in Idaho. Rural districts would suffer the most because of our school funding formula that favors urban districts. With the current Legislature’s failure to provide adequate funds and its hostility toward school bond financing, rural school districts will continue to wither. Many districts may have to dramatically cut back on important functions, like sports programs and other valuable activities that produce well-rounded graduates, or even close their doors.
Whatever comes along to fill the void–small pop-up publicly-financed religious schools, for-profit on-line schools, long commutes to urban schools–won’t have those sports teams that thrill local citizens, give cohesiveness to the community and instill wholesome values in the local students. Rural Idaho deserves better.
What can we do to stop voucher subsidies that will benefit well-to-do urban folks, whose kids already go to religious schools, to the detriment of rural kids and their communities? I believe it is essential that Idaho adopt an election system that allows every citizen, regardless of political affiliation, to choose who represents them. That means elimination of closed political primaries that favor the most extreme candidates. We have seen the danger of that ever since the GOP closed its primary in 2011. Opening the primaries would allow voters to select candidates who support healthy public schools throughout the state, rather than being stuck with the candidates who receive the nod of the Moon branch of the GOP and its IFF enablers.
The Open Primaries Initiative (OPI) will allow reasonable traditional Republicans, most of whom support our public schools and oppose school voucher giveaways, to have an even chance of winning election to office. The closed GOP primary is a substantial obstacle that has worked against them. The OPI will give every voter, including Idaho’s 265,000 independent voters, the right to have a say in our government. And help rural Idahoans save their favorite school activity or sport from becoming a relic of the past.
