School Tax Credit Bill Divisive Idaho Republicans, Religious Denominations Split Over Controversial Legislation

Controversial legislation to give $1,500-per-child tax credits to parents who don’t send their children to public schools is threatening to pit church against church and Republican against Republican.

Tim Brennan sent all 10 of his children through private Catholic schools for 12 years each. “I saved the Boise public school system a little over half a million dollars,” said Brennan, lobbyist for the Catholic diocese of Idaho. It’s “only fair” to reward parents who save the public schools money, Brennan said.

But the Rev. Nancy Taylor, minister at the Boise First Congregational Church-United Church of Christ, said taxpayers shouldn’t be supporting religious education and said the proposal also will weaken the public school system.

She’s a member of the Idaho Religious Freedom Committee, an interfaith group of clergy and lay leaders from half a dozen denominations that voted last week to oppose the bill.

Rep. Mark Stubbs, R-Twin Falls, plans to co-sponsor the measure with Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis.

“It’s a mathematical issue,” Stubbs said Friday. “It’s not a matter of philosophy.

We’ve already got a philosophy in Idaho that you can educate your children at home or you can educate them in private schools.”

But among those unconvinced is House Speaker Mike Simpson, R-Blackfoot.

“The aspect of it that it creates some competition for public schools I think is good,” Simpson said. “But you’ve got to remember, in a rural state like Idaho, most of the competition you’re going to create is going to be in the major metropolitan areas. I don’t see a tax credit helping much in rural Idaho,” where starting up private schools might be difficult due to few students.

Plus, Simpson said, he’s concerned the measure immediately could drain money from the state general fund - money that now goes mostly to support public schools.

The legislation cleared a House committee late in the session last year, but didn’t come up for a final vote in the House.

This year’s legislation is a little different. Where last year’s bill proposed a $500-per-child tax credit, this year’s sets the figure at $1,500. Also, the bill would start the tax credit in the first year only for first-graders, so families that already are home-schooling or sending their kids to private school wouldn’t be rewarded after the fact.

Said Stubbs, “I had some questions about it in past years. They’ve pretty well addressed all those questions.”

The legislation is sponsored by the Catholic Church and the Idaho Family Forum, a Boise-based conservative Christian organization.

Opponents have formed a coalition called Idaho Citizens Against Tuition Tax Credits. It includes Idaho Voices of Faith for Human Rights, an interfaith organization of Idaho clergy members; the associations of state school administrators, school boards, and the Idaho Education Association; the Idaho PTA, the League of Women Voters, and several other groups.

“First and foremost, we don’t believe that the state of Idaho can afford to subsidize private and home schools,” said Brenda Miller, president of the Idaho PTA. “We have a lot of needs within our public schools that aren’t being adequately funded. This would only divert much-needed dollars away from public classrooms.”

She added, “We also believe that public tax dollars should only fund public schools. Just because someone’s not using a public service does not mean they should be able to opt out of funding that service.”

Miller said she’s never had the fire department out to her home, “but I still pay taxes to support the local fire department.”

“We believe it opens the door for others, such as seniors and people without children, to come back and say, hey, where’s my tax credit? I don’t use the public schools either.”

Stubbs said there’s a difference.

“I have a constitutional right to burden the system with my five kids at (as much as) $4,500 a pop,” he said.

The bill’s supporters say it would draw more students out of public schools, saving the state money.

Henry Kulczyk, lobbyist for the Idaho Family Forum, said, “We believe this is going to be good for public schools…It’s just going to lighten the burden on the public school system.”

Kulczyk said he lives in Meridian, the state’s fastest-growing city. “They run a bond issue at us every six months,” he said. If more people were encouraged to home-school or send their children to private schools, districts might not have to build so many new schools and schools wouldn’t be so crowded, Kulczyk said.

“If the Catholic Church builds a new school, the school district doesn’t have to,” he said.

The Religious Freedom Committee, in its statement opposing the bill, said publicly funded incentives for religious schools “paves the way for subsequent governmental interference in the curricula and administration of those schools.”

“As people of faith, we strongly encourage religious education, indeed, many of our congregations and denominations maintain their own private schools. However, we continue to support public education as the foundation for an enlightened community, and oppose tax credits which would weaken this foundation.”

Kulczyk estimates that 12,000 students are being educated outside the public school system. With an average cost per student in public school of about $4,000, “That’s pretty substantial savings to the taxpayers of Idaho,” he said.

Stubbs cautioned that the amount saved will vary. If a student is filling an empty seat in an existing public classroom, it doesn’t cost much additional money to educate that student. But if a student pushes a school over the line to where an additional classroom is needed, it costs much more than $4,000.

But he also said the tax credit would vary. Because it would be non-refundable, only those who owe $1,500 or more in state income tax would get the full credit. Those who owe less would get a credit equal to the amount they owe.

Although nearly every major public education group in Idaho has come out against the legislation, its supporters include state Superintendent of Schools Anne Fox.

“Private schools really help public schools, because they take the load off and they provide other opportunity for kids,” Fox said. “Overwhelmingly their test scores are better than public schools, so they’re doing a bang-up job of education.”

LaVern H. Opp, a Seventh-day Adventist minister who served as a church schools superintendent in Idaho for 28 years, said his church opposes the legislation - even though it operates about two dozen private church schools in Idaho.

The church always has opposed public funding or incentives for private schools, he said, to ensure they remain free. “Then we can teach the doctrines of the church and the scripture as we believe and understand it. We can indoctrinate our children with the tenets of our faith.”

An Idaho Attorney General’s opinion issued this fall reviewed last year’s legislation, at the request of Reps. Dave Bivens, R-Meridian, and Jim Kempton, R-Albion. It concluded that the measure had no federal or state constitutionality problems.

“The policy issue is for the Legislature to decide,” said deputy Attorney General Bill von Tagen. “But we think the legal issues, probably a court would uphold that.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Breakdown Here’s how the legislation would work: In 1999, parents of any child born on or after Jan. 1, 1992, who turns 7 during the year may claim a $1,500 tax credit if they meet compulsory school attendance requirements but the child does not attend a public school. The same children qualify the next year, along with the next batch of first-graders. In the third year, children in grades 1-3 are included. The legislation expires after three years, forcing the state Legislature to evaluate whether it wants to continue the program.