‘Take a stand’: To fight Idaho’s ‘vouchers’ bill, one school district sued

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Public school advocates suing over a new Idaho law to direct public money to private education included a broad range of plaintiffs, from a Republican state lawmaker to the Mormon Women for Ethical Government.

But notably, the lawsuit named only one school district: Moscow.

The school district joined public school advocates, led by nonprofits the Idaho Education Association and the Committee to Protect and Preserve the Idaho Constitution, in suing the state and its Tax Commission in the Idaho Supreme Court over the tax credits established by House Bill 93. The law, passed in the state Legislature this year, allows families to apply for subsidies to attend private school, allocating up to $50 million a year for those tax credits.

The school district joined the legal challenge against House Bill 93 after the lawsuit’s organizers had asked them to join, Ken Faunce, who chairs the board of trustees, told the Idaho Statesman. The school board held a special meeting the evening before organizers would announce the lawsuit, and the trustees voted on the decision. They were in favor 4-1 — though they anticipated legislators may retaliate against them for the decision.

“Maybe they will end up dismantling the public schools anyway, but I’m not going to sit by the sidelines and let them do it,” Faunce said at the school board meeting. “I can’t do a whole lot. But I’m going to do what little I can to try to stop it. … You gotta take a stand, I feel, and this is a stand we can take.”

The district’s trustees agreed that the new law violated the state’s constitution, which requires the state to “establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public free common schools.”

All board members took an oath to uphold the Idaho Constitution, and “we feel that’s what we’re doing,” Faunce told the Statesman.

Faunce said the money used for the tax credits is money that could have been used for public schools. And they said they feared the new law would be a slippery slope, with more funds diverted each year to private education.

“We need new school buildings, desperately,” Faunce told the Statesman. “Our youngest school building is 67 years old. That is a problem.”

Now, before the law takes effect in January, was the time to put its implementation on ice, Moscow’s school board members argued.

Public school advocates at the news conference last week referred to the program implemented by the law as “vouchers,” and have said it will exacerbate shortages in the state’s already-underfunded public schools, which are held accountable through state and federal standards, unlike private schools. Supporters of the law argue that it gives families options by helping to subsidize the cost of private school, including for kids with learning disabilities.

Dulce Kersting, a Moscow School District trustee, during the meeting last week expressed “anxiety” over attaching the district to the lawsuit, given the possibility of retribution in a tense political climate. She said she worried about the futility of trying to take on the Legislature, which has pushed similar bills year after year.

”The people who are out for the dismemberment of public schools would use this as one reason to come down on us and would find another reason if they need to,” Kersting said at the meeting. “I just don’t honestly believe that a successful lawsuit is going to change the course right now, in the cultural atmosphere we are in.”

But she also said she agreed that they should publicly speak out at every opportunity against the practice of putting public dollars into private schools. Ultimately, she still voted to join the lawsuit. Kersting declined to comment and directed the Statesman to Faunce.

A conservative Idaho-based think tank was quick to criticize the district’s decision to join the lawsuit. An hour after the news conference announcing the lawsuit, the Mountain States Policy Center sent out a news release that said the school district used “taxpayer money … to sue taxpayers.” Faunce and Idaho Education Association, a nonprofit, both told the Statesman that there’s no cost to the district, which is the only public agency listed on the lawsuit.

Faunce told the Statesman he was hoping other school districts would join the lawsuit, but understood why they wouldn’t. Smaller, more rural school districts in particular fear retaliation, he said.

Boise School District spokesperson Ryan Hill declined to answer a question about whether the district was asked to join, saying only that it has “had a lot of conversations” about ways to slow efforts to privatize education. The West Ada School District did not respond to the Statesman’s inquiry.

“I feel like this is an important point to put our foot down and say that this is not what the Constitution says,” said trustee Dawn Fazio. “Now’s the time to say something and do something.”

Editor Hayat Norimine contributed to this story.

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