Legislative update: Whose choice is it?

By Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle
Reader Contributor

A few weeks back, I mentioned that funding of private schools with public money would be a significant policy question this legislative session. With five proposals so far, and potentially more to come, the “school choice” debate is now in full swing. I will share some details here to hopefully provide some flavor for the politics of the situation.

The five bills are House Bills 1 and 93, Senate Bill 1025, and two others awaiting bill number assignment. H.B. 1 and S.B. 1025 are essentially bookends on the debate. H.B. 1 is a $250 million proposal from a freshman legislator that looks like it won’t go anywhere. S.B. 1025 is an expansion of Idaho’s existing Empowering Parents grant program to change the maximum grant amount from $1,000 to $5,000 and make tuition an eligible expense. S.B. 1025 has accountability measures like those found in our public education system to make sure your dollars are spent wisely.

Sen. Jim Woodward. File photo.

H.B. 93 is the most hotly contested bill and potentially the most likely to pass into law. The bill is sponsored by a few legislators who have supported prior bills sending public money to private education, whether through vouchers, education savings accounts or tax credits. H.B. 93 is a tax credit of $5,000 per child for eligible expenses.

The difference in this go-around is the amount of out-of-state backing (money) for the proposal. Many lobbyists have been hired to advocate for H.B. 93. In addition, House leadership is strongly supporting the bill because of an exchange of support for other legislation. I’ll share how leadership can help to move a proposal through. 

The public hearing for H.B. 93 on Feb. 5 was conducted in the House Revenue and Taxation Committee. The meeting was scheduled for two hours — probably insufficient time to consider a $50 million commitment — but then started 30 minutes late. The presentation of the bill lasted nearly half an hour. The committee needs time to discuss and vote on the bill at the end of the hearing. As a result, public testimony was limited to less than an hour.

On Feb. 7 — a Friday — the bill was brought before the entire House membership. Quite often, Friday floor sessions are used for routine administrative matters and last less than half an hour so that legislators can be out by noon to make the trip back home to their legislative districts. By bringing the bill up at midday on a Friday, a sense of urgency was created, especially for folks who had travel plans.

H.B. 93 did pass out of the House on Feb. 7. It will come to the Senate now, starting in the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee. It might make sense that a tax credit is in the tax committee, but at the same time this is a major shift in Idaho policy regarding education funding. 

There is a little more background: The tax committees in both bodies were loaded this year with supporters of the proposal. In the Senate, the members choose their committees and a purposeful effort was made to load the tax committee. In the House, the speaker assigns committee members and loaded the House tax committee. So far, the strategy of routing “school choice” to a non-education committee is working. 

The last piece of this puzzle is to know that for six years these bills were heard in the House and Senate Education committees. For six years the bills did not pass into law.

I share these details so you can know what is going on in the Capitol and to reinforce my previous message that Idaho policy decisions are being heavily driven by out-of-state influence. I have resoundingly heard from folks at home that they are opposed to these proposals to fund private schools with public money. In the Capitol, the opposite is true. Which begs the question, whose “school choice” is this?

I will close with Article IX Section 1 of the Idaho Constitution: 

“The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of Idaho, to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.”

Jim Woodward is the Dist. 1 Republican senator from Sagle. He serves on the Joint Finance-Appropriations (vice-chair) and Education committees. Reach him during the 2025 legislative session at 208-332-1349 (Statehouse), 208-946-7963 (home) or [email protected].