School voucher bill offers anything but choice

Please don’t call the school voucher bills choice. Words matter and are used to make bad bills sound good. Other states that have put vouchers in place are experiencing soaring costs and reduced quality. Does that sound like choice?

HB93, which passed the House this week, has many problems. It preferentially funds for-profit businesses to compete with a handicapped public system. Public education has to provide transportation, serve every child, hire certified teachers, conduct background checks on employees, administer tests, and comply with the hundreds of time-consuming/costly government regulations. For-profit, private schools have none of those requirements.

Data indicates this bill will not help poor families. Strong public schools help us all — poor and wealthy. Idaho schools perform above the national average, despite the fact that we are the very bottom in funding our schools. Our children have greater choice through a strong public education system.

So, don’t call this choice. Call it step one in replacing public education with a for-profit, unregulated, private education system in Idaho. Representative Josh Tanner said that out loud in a Capital Clarity livestream this week.

KATHRYN LARSON

Sagle