Opposition to Educational Savings Accounts/Vouchers in Idaho

Note: This is the sort of writing I have been dedicating myself to during the last month or so. It's a testimony to the state legislature in opposition to a bill for ESA/Vouchers. I was hoping to present it remotely via Zoom, but in the end I had to convert it to letter form since I was in Hawaii at the time testimony was given.

I am Brian Potter from Potlatch. I am a product of Idaho’s fine public-school system as are my children. I also had the good fortune to teach in Idaho’s public-school system for 35 years. Idaho’s public schools are notoriously underfunded and yet they produce some of the best. Many of the complaints about public schools in Idaho, such as poor buildings, bullying, lack of effective courses, etc. would be solved just by fully funding public education so that the buildings are adequate, the personnel is not spread too thin so that bullying is stopped, and people actually see education as a viable profession so that there is not a personnel shortage. People my age from Idaho who attended one of the many rural districts in the state will remember when we all had art, music, P.E., shop, Home Economics, along with the required language arts, sciences, social studies, and business courses. That is no longer the case as the state has gradually pilfered education funding, while establishing high stakes testing to demonstrate accountability. Students of all abilities meet state requirements and demonstrate that with regular testing in the public-school system. Our school districts constantly raise property taxes through levies to meet the unfunded mandates of the state and federal government in order to maintain accountability.

Now in the name of school choice and the euphemism of educational savings accounts it is being proposed that the state continue to purloin money from these public schools so that parents have options. That makes as much sense as me getting a voucher for my taxes toward the highway system since I don’t use I-15 in eastern Idaho. Does that highway not promote the wellbeing of the residents of Idaho through its contribution to our economy? Of course, it does. So, I pay my taxes to continue the wellbeing of this state’s commerce. We should all do the same for our public education system, whether we use it or not. Public education has contributed to the good of this entire nation because we all drive on those highways that engineers from our public schools designed, not to mention the myriad other occupations that benefit all of us. The foundation of our democracy depends upon an educated electorate. Denying the best education to the neediest through tax breaks to those who can already afford private education is not the best way to nourish our democracy.

The idea that districts will be forced to raise property taxes even more to fund their schools and maintain their accountability while no new choices will be provided is ludicrous. The people who homeschool or send their kids to private school will continue to do so while denying choice to those who cannot begin to afford private school tuition or home school their children because they have to work to pay their rent. Meanwhile all those people getting tax breaks for private tuitions or homeschool curriculums will have absolutely no accountability. How will this improve education in Idaho for anyone? The mere suggestion of the idea of ESA/Vouchers is a dereliction of duty to the constitution of the state of Idaho in its lack of accountability, its withholding of monies from desperately underfunded, but constitutionally mandated school districts, and the wellbeing of our democracy. Please vote no on SB1038.