Spelling it Out: School Choice
Following Idaho's ongoing debate over school choice can be difficult, thanks to the breadth of policy jargon and political buzzwords that dominate the space.
Idaho Education News developed this reference guide to ensure our readers understand what's meant by "school choice" versus "private school choice" and whether a "voucher" is the same as an "ESA." Spoiler alert: They're a little bit different.
School choice
School choice refers to education policies and funding mechanisms that embrace learning options outside the traditional public school system.
Understood broadly, school choice is a philosophy for education policy and school funding that embraces learning options outside the traditional, neighborhood public school system. These can include both public and private options, such as:
- Public charter schools.
- Public magnet schools.
- Public alternative schools.
- Online learning.
- Private schools.
- Private home schooling.
- Private microschools.
- Private learning pods.
Idaho has all of the above learning options. But policy debates around school choice focus on opportunity and access — whether a student has the means to choose their ideal learning environment, regardless of where they live or how much money their parents make. And access often comes down to money.
The state government funds and oversees Idaho’s 115 traditional public school districts, which are legally required to accept all students and provide them with a free education. The state also finances tuition-free education at 74 charter schools, 68 alternative schools and 21 magnet schools. And the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance offers online courses, usually for a fee.
Idaho also has education policies that encourage school choice within the public school system. In 2023, the Legislature adopted open enrollment, which allows a student to attend any public school in the state that has capacity, regardless of where the transferring student lives. This policy does not apply to charter schools, which don’t have geographic requirements but often have lengthy waiting lists and admit students through lottery systems.
What are charter schools?
The most common education choice outside the traditional public school system is Idaho’s network of charter schools. The state implemented charter schools in 1998.
Charters cater to students seeking alternative teaching methods or curriculum focused on particular fields of study, like the arts, science or technology.
While charter schools are public schools, they’re distinct from traditional public schools in a few ways: Charters can be exclusive with their admissions, the state doesn’t provide transportation funding for charters, and charter authorizers — either the state’s Public Charter School Commission or a traditional public school district — oversee their academic performance.
Private school choice
Private school choice refers to publicly funded subsidies for private education, such as school vouchers, education savings accounts and tax credits.
Idaho does not — for the most part — financially support private education, however. Nor does the state regulate K-12 education outside the public school system. But advocates for private school choice hope to change that — at least the funding part.
While school choice refers to both public and private education options, private school choice specifically refers to the accessibility of private schooling. Advocates argue that public education funding should follow each student to the school that best fits their needs, including private schools.
This idea has informed programs in states across the country that subsidize the cost of private education through taxpayer-funded vouchers, education savings accounts and tax credits (more on those mechanisms below).
Private school choice isn’t new. Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Public Schools launched the country’s first private school voucher program in 1990. But private school choice programs have boomed in recent years, particularly in Republican-led states.
Twenty-nine states and Washington, D.C., now have at least one private school choice program, according to a 2024 Education Week analysis.
Idaho is one of just three states with Republican trifectas — control of the governor’s office and both houses of the Legislature — that doesn't have a private school choice program. Texas and North Dakota are the other two.
There are, however, rare exceptions where private school students can access state funding. Idaho offers Empowering Parents microgrants that cover education-related expenses, like laptops and books — but not tuition — for families whose children attend public schools, private schools or home schools. Private schoolers also are eligible for the Advanced Opportunities program, which covers workforce training, dual-credit classes and Advanced Placement courses. And Idaho Launch scholarships can be spent at private colleges and universities.
What about home-school?
Home-school students typically are eligible for private school choice subsidies in states that have them. For the sake of brevity, this guide does not distinguish between tuition-based private schooling and home schooling in the context of private school choice programs.
But including home-schooling in private school choice programs is divisive, particularly in Idaho, which does not regulate home schools. Some home-school practitioners have expressed concern that public funding would come with unwelcome regulation and have publicly opposed private school choice proposals.
School vouchers
These are certificates of government funding that subsidize private school tuition.
There are a few common mechanisms that deliver subsidies for private schooling, and the term "voucher" is often used as a catchall to describe them. While each type of private school choice program serves the same purpose, each functions differently.
Vouchers are certificates of government funds that cover private school tuition. They're either delivered to participating private schools, which then pass on the aid to students, or the certificates are delivered directly to private school families. A voucher's monetary value often represents a percentage of a state's per-pupil spending on public education.
Example:
- Milwaukee Parental Choice is a voucher program. Eligibility is limited to families whose income does not exceed 300% of the federal poverty level, and the vouchers are worth about $9,500 to $12,000 for an academic year, depending on grade level, according to EdChoice.
Education savings accounts
These are flexible spending accounts that can be used to cover private education expenses, including tuition.
Education savings accounts (ESAs) are similar to vouchers, except they provide more spending flexibility.
Like vouchers, ESAs typically deposit a percentage of public per-pupil funds into an account for eligible participants. And participants can use the money for tuition but also for other education-related expenses, like tutoring and supplies. Home-school families also are eligible for many ESA programs, but private school choice is a divisive issue within Idaho's home schooling community.
ESAs can limit eligibility based on income, disability or their current enrollment, but programs are trending toward universal acceptance (more on that below).
Example:
- Iowa's Students First Education Savings Accounts, adopted in 2023, offer ESAs worth 100% of the state's public per-pupil spending, which is $7,826 for 2024-25. Eligibility is limited for the first year of the program. Eligible students must be entering kindergarten, or they much have attended an Iowa public school the previous year. Eligible families can earn no more than 400% of the federal poverty limit. In 2025-26, eligibility will expand to all private school students.
Tax credits
These allow income tax filers to collect refunds for education expenses, or they allow filers to defer their owed taxes to nonprofits that issue private school scholarships.
Another mechanism for subsidizing private school is a tax credit. There are variations on this method, as well.
Idaho lawmakers in 2024 rejected a proposal to allow families to collect tax refunds worth up to $7,500 for costs incurred by a student enrolled in private school. Oklahoma has a similar program, adopted in 2023.
Other states have tax-credit scholarship programs, which allow individuals and corporations to direct their owed income taxes to nonprofits that issue scholarships to private school students.
Examples:
- Florida Tax Credit Scholarships, established in 2001, allow corporations to direct their owed income taxes to nonprofits that offer scholarships to students attending private schools. On average, the annual awards range from about $7,700 to $8,400.
- The Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit, enacted in 2023, allows private school families to collect income tax refunds worth $5,000 to $7,500, depending on the parents’ income.
Universal vouchers, ESAs or tax credits
These are private school choice programs that don't have eligibility restrictions.
Some private school choice programs limit which students can access subsidies. Programs are sometimes restricted to:
- Students with disabilities.
- Low-income students, often defined as a percentage of the federal poverty line.
- Students who previously attended public school. This restriction blocks students already attending private school from receiving a subsidy.
Programs that don’t have these restrictions are labeled “universal.” Under universal programs, any private school student, regardless of income, disability or previous enrollment status, is eligible.
Thirteen states have universal private school programs — or programs that will become universal at a later date — according to Education Week.
Examples:
- Arizona in 2011 was the first state to enact an ESA program. Initially, the program was limited to students with disabilities. In 2022, the Arizona State Legislature expanded the Empowerment Scholarship Account into a universal program, making all private school students eligible.
Blaine Amendment
This constitutional provision bars religious institutions, including schools, from receiving public resources.
The Idaho Constitution prohibits religious schools from benefiting from any of the above subsidy programs.
Article IX, Section 5 of the Idaho Constitution, also known as the Blaine Amendment, bars religious institutions, including sectarian schools, from receiving taxpayer resources. It’s one of dozens of so-called “no-aid provisions” in state constitutions across the nation.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that no-aid provisions in other states violated religious freedoms protected by the federal Constitution.These decisions didn’t declare all no-aid provisions unconstitutional; rather, they declared that Maine and Montana couldn't block religious schools from receiving public funds available to secular private schools.
While Idaho’s Blaine Amendment continues to prohibit public money from going to religious institutions, it’s unlikely that a private school choice program that excludes religious schools would hold up to a similar court challenge.
Example:
- In 2015, Montana state officials created a tax credit program that helps private school families pay tuition. The state barred program beneficiaries from using the aid at religious schools, citing Montana’s Blaine Amendment. After a lengthy legal battle, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 ruled that Montana’s decision to exclude religious schools from a program accessible to secular private schools was discriminatory and violated the federal Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.