Two new private school choice bills emerged Wednesday — one from the House and one from the Senate. 

The House bill would create a $50 million tax credit covering private school expenses. The Senate proposal would add $20 million to the state’s existing Empowering Parents program and open it up for private school tuition.  

The bills aren’t necessarily in competition — the Legislature could adopt both, and several states have multiple mechanisms directing public funds to private education. 

But the proposals could compete for Gov. Brad Little’s support and the same pot of money. Little during his State of the State address earlier this month said he would sign a $50 million private school choice bill as long as it’s “fair, responsible, transparent and accountable.”

House bill

The House bill, creating a tax credit for private school and home-school expenses, cleared its first hurdle Wednesday morning.

The House Revenue and Taxation Committee voted along party lines to introduce the proposal from Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, and Senate Majority Leader Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian. 

The bill would make non-public school students eligible for up to $5,000 in state funds covering tuition, tutoring, curriculum and other education expenses. Families earning 300% or less of the federal poverty limit — $93,600 annually for a family of four — would have priority access to the funds, and they could request a one-time advance payment in their first year. Students with special needs could qualify for up to $7,500. 

“The reason I ran for elected office in the first place was because I care about the education of every child, no exceptions,” Horman told the committee. “School choice policies provide families with new opportunities, while taking no existing opportunities away from other children.”

The program would be capped at $50 million in tax credits, issued annually. The State Tax Commission would administer the program, including vetting applications. Applicants would have to document their eligible expenses. 

During Wednesday’s hearing, Horman preempted questions about accountability, which are likely to surface in a full public hearing at a later date. The bill restricts eligible expenses to school settings that teach English language arts, math, science and social studies. But it doesn’t require standardized testing or other measures of student performance required of public schools. 

“You regulate government monopolies differently than you regulate the free market,” she said.  

Private schools “already have their own responsible and accountable metrics and standards,” Horman said, before questioning the efficacy of public schools’ evaluations processes. Idaho public school teachers are consistently given near 100% proficiency ratings — 98.4% last school year — while 60% of students are reading at grade level, Horman said. 

“It may be viewed as an accountability metric to some, but if too many children can’t read, that’s hardly fair to them, and it appears ineffective.”

Only Democrats opposed the bill’s introduction. Rep. Steve Berch, D-Boise, took issue with Horman’s characterization of public education as a government monopoly. 

“There is no government monopoly on education, and I know we have every single choice that…” Berch started to argue before the committee’s chairman cut him off.

“The time to object to that has passed,” said Rep. David Cannon, R-Blackfoot. “Restrict your debate to the motion.”

Berch continued, “My concern about this bill is that there is no performance accountability… There’s no assurance whatsoever…that the dollar amount won’t increase.”

Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, wondered whether the $50 million cap was enforceable. He suggested that a tax filer locked out of the program due to the cap could file a lawsuit, claiming they’re eligible for the credit. “I’m not aware of any other tax that is structured like this,” Gannon said. 

House Majority Leader Jason Monks, R-Meridian, and Sen. C. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, are also listed as co-sponsors on the bill’s statement of purpose. Grow and Horman co-chair the Legislature’s budget-setting Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

Senate bill

On Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Dave Lent, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, debuted his proposal to add $20 million to Empowering Parents and make tuition an eligible expense. 

Enacted in 2022, Empowering Parents offers public, private and home-school students microgrants for education expenses like devices and software, curriculum, tutoring and fees. Private school tuition is not an eligible expense.

Lent’s bill would remove this prohibition, and increase grant awards from $1,000 per child to $5,000 per child. Families with multiple children could receive up to $15,000 per household. The bill would also hike annual funding for the program from $30 million to $50 million annually. 

“We’re building on an existing system,” Lent told the Senate Education Committee, which voted to introduce the legislation. “We’re not trying to invent something new here.”

The new Empowering Parents grants would still be divided based on adjusted gross income (AGI), although the distributions would be amended: 

• 75% would go to families with an AGI less than $60,000.
• 20% would go to families with an AGI between $60,000 and $80,000.
• 5% would go to families with an AGI above $80,000. 

Last school year, Idaho awarded 28,962 Empowering Parents grants. Of those grants, 69% went to families with an AGI of $60,000 or less, and more than 86% went to families with an AGI of $75,000 or less.

Private schools would have to abide by a suite of measures to qualify as an eligible expense. These include:

• Accreditation by an accrediting body recognized by the State Board of Education.
• Compliance with state laws related to special education, nondiscrimination and parental rights.
• Maintenance of enrollment and performance data.
• Administration of standardized tests. (These tests would have to be nationally normed but would not have to be the same tests issued by Idaho public schools — the Idaho Standards Achievement Test and Idaho Reading Indicator.)
• Criminal background checks for any employee who has unsupervised contact with students.

The legislation also includes two carrots for public schools: $30 million in additional funding for special education along with a reduction in public school reporting requirements. The “education red tape reduction program” would eliminate any state reporting requirements that exceed federal government requirements. 

“What happens when you continue to build on a bureaucracy is you really load up on the administrative side,” Lent said. “…We want to reset that.”

Altogether, the new private and public education spending would total $50 million, with $20 million going to Empowering Parents and $30 million to public schools. 

Only Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, opposed introducing the legislation. It “looks like a voucher bill,” and “that’s just a line in the sand for me,” she said. 

The other Democrat on the committee, Sen. Carrie Semmelroth, voted in favor of introducing the bill but stopped short of supporting it. Lawmakers don’t yet have definitions of the governor’s four standards, but she wants to be part of the discussion, said Semmelroth, D-Boise.

“In order for us, as a legislative body, to get closer to agreeing on what we want ‘fair, accountable, responsible and transparent’ to look like, this is our starting point.”

The Senate Education and House Revenue and Taxation committees could host public hearings on both bills in the coming days or weeks.