The referendum is the ultimate answer to the school voucher fight in Idaho

Guest Editorial by Jim Jones

The voucher vultures are circling the Idaho treasury, expecting to soon have government approval to gorge on money paid into the treasury by hard-working Idahoans. They want the money to be used to subsidize the private/religious education of about 36,000 Idaho kids who don’t go to public schools. If the state subsidized the education of all of those kids at $5,000, each, it would be a $180,000,000 hit on the treasury. The money would come directly out of the public school appropriation. The rural areas where no private/church schools exist would be especially hard hit.

The voucher vultures are a collection of out-of-state, dark-money groups that want to weaken the nation’s public schools for the benefit of private/religious schooling. Dark money donors include two Texas Christian-nationalist billionaire preachers, Farris Wilks and Tim Dunn, who managed this year to defeat conservative Republicans in rural Texas who have strongly opposed school voucher schemes. Wilks and his brother are known to Idahoans for buying and closing off vast tracts of land in our Valley County.

This year the dark-money groups defeated a number of Idaho legislators in the closed GOP primary who opposed subsidizing private/religious schooling. That shook Governor Little and School Superintendent Critchfield to the extent that they started talking “school choice," which translates to using gobs of public money to subsidize private/religious education.

It might be noted that this would be a direct violation of Idaho’s Constitution. And, by the way, it is also a violation of the Idaho Republican Party Platform, which states on page 2 that, “taxpayers shall allow the government only the money necessary to provide Constitutionally specified functions.” Nothing in the Idaho Constitution specifies that taxpayers must pay for private/religious instruction.

Be that as it may, there is a strong chance that our extremist Legislature will pass some sort of subsidy legislation in the 2025 session. There is a likelihood that the Governor will lament this travesty, but allow it to become the law of Idaho, despite the fact that Idaho’s public school trustees overwhelmingly oppose the idea.

So, what can Idahoans do to stop the private/religious school raid on the Idaho treasury? There are actually two viable alternatives that can stop the raid–litigation and Idaho’s infrequently-used voter referendum. I will publicly outline the litigation strategy at a later date. This column deals with the referendum strategy.

Those who have lived in Idaho for over a decade may remember that Idaho voters used their constitutional power of the referendum to defeat three detested education laws back in 2012. The so-called “Luna Laws” were vetoed by a substantial majority of voters that year in a referendum election. I believe that the people would similarly defeat a bill requiring all taxpayers to pay the education expenses of a small minority of Idahoans who do not presently send their kids to public schools.

The Baptist News reports that voters in Colorado, Kentucky and Nebraska rejected private/religious school raids on their respective state treasuries this year. An expert quoted in the news report said, “Vouchers have never survived a direct vote by voters.”

Sixty-five percent of voters in deep-red Kentucky voted against school vouchers. The measure was voted down “in each and every one of Kentucky’s 120 counties.”

Those who realize that subsidizing private/religious schools will mortally wound Idaho’s public school system must begin gearing up for a referendum vote on any legislation that would break Idaho’s education budget. It’s time to take on the out-of-state voucher vultures who are pushing for control of the nation’s educational system.

About the Author

Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served 8 years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as a Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). His columns are collected at JJCommonTater.com