Local educators highlight ‘severe’ impacts of school vouchers during Pocatello town hall

Karole Honas moderating the Save Our Schools Pocatello town hall. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com POCATELLO – Legislators, school administrators, educators and concerned citizens packed into a town hall to learn and share their concerns about school vouchers in Idaho. Save Our Schools, a nonprofit organization made up of public school advocates, held a town hall on the Idaho State University campus Tuesday evening. Around 200 people attended the event in the Pond Student Union Building’s Wood River room, where they listened to a panel of two educators and one school administrator about the potential consequences of the newly passed Idaho Parental Tax Credit, often referred to as a school voucher program. “Every dollar we divert from public funds to private, religious or home schools has severe economic, social and academic impacts on our kids,” said Marcy Curr, one of the panelists and a teacher at Pocatello High School. House Bill 93 was signed into law by Gov. Brad Little in late February, introducing the Idaho Parental Tax Credit. This law directs $50 million toward grants in the form of refundable tax credits of $5,000 per student, which parents can use to pay for tuition at private schools. Students with disabilities could receive grants of up to $7,500. Curr sourced Kevin Cook, a Republican representing District 32 and the vice chair of the Idaho Senate Education Committee, saying that funding for the Idaho Parental Tax Credit is being taken out of the state’s funds before the legislative appropriations process begins. She compared it to having money withheld from a paycheck, resulting in someone having less money to spend on groceries and bills. “What that means is that we’re going to see a reduction in money available for our social programs, our infrastructure programs, our county programs, our education, our public safety and even more,” Curr said. History of HB 93 Co-sponsored by Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, and Senate Majority Leader Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, in the 2025 Legislative Session. Passes the Idaho House 42-28, and the Senate 20-15. President Donald Trump weighs in on the bill on Truth Social on Feb. 16, saying, “$50 Million Dollars to empower parents to provide the very best Education for their child – GREAT news for Idaho families. This Bill, which has my Complete and Total Support, MUST PASS!” The bill is delivered to Gov. Brad Little’s desk on Feb. 21. Little sets up a hotline to get public feedback on the bill and receives a thousands of calls. Among more than 37,000 residents, over 86% ask that the governor veto the bill. Just over 5,000 calls and emails side with Little signing it into law. Little signs the bill on Feb. 27. To learn more: Legislature introduces two private school choice bills ‘Complete and total support’: President Trump weighs in on this Idaho bill proposal Private education tax credit heads to governor Thousands of phone calls flood governor’s desk as school choice bill awaits his decision How many people asked Gov. Little to veto Idaho school choice? Here are the latest numbers Gov. Little issues decision on Trump-endorsed school choice bill The bill itself The governor’s office has directed state agencies to make plans for 2%, 4% or 6% budget holdbacks, due to state tax revenue falling short of expectations, according to IdahoEdNews. Another panelist, Bonneville School Superintendent Scott Woolstenhulme said that for his school district, a 6% cut would come out to roughly $6 million. Hawthorne Middle School teacher Kelly Heil, left, Bonneville School District 93 Superintendent Scott Woolstenhulme and Pocatello High School teacher Marcy Curr | Logan Ramsey, East Idaho News.com “If that $50 million would have come to public schools instead of going out to private schools … then it would have been a $2 million influx into our school district,” Woolstenhulme said. Advocates of the Idaho Parental Tax Credit have said that its goal is to increase the options parents have access to, commonly referred to as “school choice.” Kelly Heil, a panelist and a teacher at Hawthorne Middle School, made the argument that parents in eastern Idaho already had a variety of options for their children’s education, thanks to open boundary policies. “If you don’t want your student to go to Hawthorne … you could send your child to Alameda. … You can say, ‘I want my child to go to a different school.’ That’s open boundary. That’s school choice. You can send your child to a plethora of charter schools here in Pocatello or Chubbuck, right? You’ve got choices,” Heil said. Heil also pointed to other options available to parents, like homeschooling, virtual learning academies and private schools. And Curr also brought how private schools are not obligated to accept special-needs students, or students that don’t fit the school’s, “religious, political or socioeconomic expectations,” while public schools accept every child in the community. “The social fabric of our school communities are being torn as we segregate ourselves further and remove opportunities for our kids to develop friendships and empathy that cross all walks of life, setting us up for an even more intolerant community in the future,” Curr said. Woolstenhulme shared his fear for what could happen to not just Idaho, but the United States. “It won’t happen this year, but over time, we will see, I believe, the dissolution of our government, because we will no longer have this common system of schools that have served our country so well for the past 120 to 150 years,” Woolstenhulme said. Rep. Rick Cheatum and Rep. Jim Guthrie, both Republicans, and Sen. James Ruchti, a Democrat, told the audience why they voted against the legislation. Rick Cheatum at the town hall. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com “When you read the bill, House Bill 93, you quickly realize this isn’t an education bill. This is a tax bill,” Cheatum said. Jim Guthrie at the town hall. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com “House Bill 93 makes the short list for me, one of the most irresponsible pieces of legislation that we’ve passed,” Guthrie said. James Ruchti at the town hall. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com “If a group this size went out into our community and talked to neighbors and funded good candidates and supported good candidates and made sure we got them over the finish line, we could make some changes,” Ruchti said. RELATED | ‘Public schools are not a business’: Stakeholders and legislators discuss private school voucher programThe post Local educators highlight ‘severe’ impacts of school vouchers during Pocatello town hall appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com