Voucher Tax Credits
Vouchers are back. This one is in the form of a $5,000 per child tax credit. These voucher proposals siphon tax money from our community schools that would otherwise compensate teachers, pay for classroom aides, buy sports uniforms, pay for bus maintenance, etc.
Vouchers take that money that would otherwise end up in our public schools and send it to private schools, religious schools and home schools and require no accountability for how those funds are spent. Taxpayers deserve to know how their tax money is being spent and that it is being spent wisely.
We can learn from the mistakes of other states that have gone down this voucher path. Those states include Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Florida. Arizona’s voucher venture has busted their budgets and left them with a $1 billion budget deficit. Indiana’s voucher tale is equally frightening. As the voucher program grew, rural school districts struggled to get the budget dollars they needed to keep their doors open.
Proponents of these programs sell them to the public with promises that the voucher programs would be small and targeted to the neediest of students. It never turns out that way. Once passed, the programs expand quickly and consume taxpayer dollars and an increasing portion of the budget.
Let’s learn from fellow states and not make the same mistakes. Vouchers and ESAs have no place in Idaho, and I plan to fight to keep our public schools funded and open to provide quality education to our children.
