Last week, Idaho lawmakers passed House Bill 93, providing $50 million annually in tax credits to refund families for some of the cost of sending their children to private schools.
Pitched as a school choice program, HB 93 would allow families that send their kids to "non-public school" to receive a $5,000 refundable tax credit per student or $7,500 for students with learning disabilities.
A non-public school is defined in the bill as a private school, microschool or learning pod with academic instruction in person, online or a combination of both. Microschools are formed by small groups of families who want parental control over curriculum, while learning pods are virtual microschools that became popular during the pandemic, according to the public policy think tank Manhattan Institute.
In a long discussion and debate on the Senate floor before the vote, some lawmakers raised concerns about transparency, funding demands and accountability for the public money that will be spent.
Gov. Brad Little signed the bill into law on Thursday, Feb. 27, and it immediately took effect retroactive to Jan. 1. Little had proposed that the Legislature create the school choice program with a maximum $50 million annual price tag.
In an announcement Thursday, Little highlighted the program as a bold step for educational freedom, and highlighted his commitment to increasing K-12 public education funding.
"I am proud that we have put close to $17 BILLION into our K-12 public school system since I took office and increased public school funding by close to 60 percent in just a few years," Little said. "Idaho can have it all - strong public schools AND education freedom."
While the bill has been touted as a way to provide all families in Idaho with more educational options, some are concerned that wealthy families whose students are already in private school will benefit the most. Others are concerned that the language in the bill doesn't provide accountability through academic standards.
Idaho educators and some lawmakers expressed their concerns about how other states have seen the cost of their school choice programs balloon. They worry there's the potential for fraud, plus they warn that the impact on public schools could be costly because Idaho distributes state funds based on enrollment.
Quinn Perry, deputy director of the nonprofit Idaho School Boards Association, is also concerned that private schools might discriminate against those with learning disabilities and people of different faiths and ethnicities.
"I have scoured hundreds of private school policy admissions manuals that are very open about not admitting students of differing faiths, students with disabilities, special learning needs, or any need that might exceed the capacity of the private school," Perry says.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Many public school educators and organizations are against the school choice program, and point out that the Idaho grant programs Empowering Parents and Advanced Opportunities already provide for some educational expenses for private school students.
Advanced Opportunities provides non-public school students in seventh to 12th grade up to $2,500 for dual college/high school credit courses, postsecondary exams and career-technical certifications. Empowering Students provides grants of $1,000 for eligible student expenses like laptops, tutoring, textbooks, and speech and behavioral therapy.
Perry says that if the school choice program is signed into law, parents could bundle all three school expense programs to collect public money for private school education.
The Idaho School Boards Association doesn't support taxpayer subsidies for private school costs. Perry says she is concerned that without regulations, Idaho could experience massive fraud, as seen in school choice programs in Ohio, Indiana and Arizona.
Ohio's largest virtual school from 2012 to 2018, Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, was forced to repay $80 million after audits found a lack of accountability in school attendance reporting.
Charter school operators in Indiana were indicted in 2024 for inflating student enrollment at their virtual schools.
Arizona's $800 million school choice program utilizes educational savings accounts. In December, an Arizona grand jury indicted two Colorado residents for multiple felony charges of fraud, conspiracy and forgery for opening educational savings accounts for 50 students, including for 43 children that don't exist. Arizona estimates the indicted individuals collected about $110,000.
"We strongly believe that they should match the accountability and transparency requirements guaranteed to students and families in public school systems," Perry says. "[The Legislature] should ensure that taxpayers are receiving the accountability and transparency that comes with any other government expenditure in the state."
Perry says she's never seen a government expenditure bill in Idaho come with so few strings attached as HB 93. State Sen. Ali Rabe, D-Boise, shares the same concerns, adding that educational requirements in the bill are vague.
"Under this bill, the only requirement for instruction is that private schools have some English, math, science or social studies at some point," Rabe says. "There's no amount of education that it requires, no standards, no reporting, so folks could be claiming a voucher for various situations where kids are not getting an education."
Rabe says she would rather see taxpayer money help rural school districts so they wouldn't need to rely on levies. She doesn't believe HB 93 will address the educational needs of low-income families who will continue to be priced out of for-profit private schools.
"I do suspect that many private schools will increase tuition, and it is going to be too high for them to afford," Rabe says, "because most of these low-income families can barely afford to pay their rent."
THERAPEUTIC SCHOOLS
One element of HB 93 that got somewhat lost in the debate over school choice is how the program could help with the high cost of support services for families whose students have learning disabilities.
Alyssa Pukkila is the director of Wired2Learn Treatment and Learning Center, a full-time private therapeutic school in Post Falls for kids with learning disabilities, high-functioning autism and ADHD.
Pukkila says it's challenging for students working through a learning disability to meet the education level for their grade. Schools like Wired2Learn can help, she says. For instance, she highlights the Orton-Gillingham approach, a multisensory, structured, hands-on method to teach literacy when reading and writing aren't learned easily due to a learning disability like dyslexia.
"That remediation should be done one-on-one with a student, and our public schools don't do one-on-one remediation," Pukkila says. "Parents would have to pay for that out of pocket."
Wired2Learn has a sliding scale tuition ranging from $22,000 to $35,000 annually. Along with scholarships and fundraisers, the $7,500 from the state could make all the difference in whether families could afford to send their student there.
Some students may only need the school's help for a year or two. Pukkila says she worked with a sixth grader who attended a Kootenai County public school but fell behind and failed every subject. The student was diagnosed with dyslexia and was on the autism spectrum, which impacted her self-esteem.
The girl's parents were apprehensive about the school at first, but decided to enroll her at Wired2Learn because they feared their daughter might lose hope because of her learning disability. The girl's uncle, who had dyslexia, died by suicide.
Reading remediation, emotional coaching and working with school staff helped the student catch up to her reading level in about two years, and she excelled in math and science.
By ninth grade she was able to reintegrate into the public school system and has been on the honor roll ever since, Pukkila says.
Though she understands concerns that the state's school choice program could potentially expand beyond the $50 million cap, Pukkila suggests the state could start by exclusively addressing the needs of students who need the additional help.
"Maybe they offer this program only to kids with special needs, to those kids whose needs are not being met by our public education system," Pukkila says. "Maybe we start there." ♦
Editor's Note: This story was updated on Thursday, Feb. 27 to reflect that Gov. Little has now signed the bill into law.