Money pours into Idaho school voucher debate. Is GOP primary the next battleground?

Idaho’s top-spending lobbyists this year were groups that pushed controversial proposals in the Legislature to subsidize private school education using tax dollars, disclosure forms filed with the secretary of state’s office showed.

Though several voucher bills ultimately failed to pass this legislative session, the debate isn’t over. The same top-spending lobbyists already have their eyes set on Idaho’s primary election, having financed fliers praising “school choice” supporters and billboards targeting voucher opponents.

The American Federation for Children, Young Americans for Liberty and Citizens Alliance of Idaho altogether spent about $177,000 lobbying lawmakers this session. All three political interest groups advocate — under the banners of “school choice” or “education freedom” — for policy reform that would allow private school and home-school families to benefit from public education resources through vouchers and other mechanisms.

The groups are three of the top four spenders among Idaho lobbying groups this year, and they advocated for a handful of bills that would have created education savings accounts, a voucher-like mechanism that would distribute taxpayer funds to private school families, according to secretary of state records.

“It’s great evidence of how much effort was expended to try to get something passed related to school choice,” Jaclyn Kettler, Ph.D., a Boise State University political science professor, told the Idaho Statesman by phone.

How much did interest groups spend on lobbying?

The American Federation for Children has spent more than $81,000 on advertising, entertainment, food and refreshments, more than any other Idaho lobbying group this year, according to disclosures filed with the secretary of state’s office.

The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit lobbied on bills that would have allowed private school families to collect state funds for expenses like tuition, books and tutoring. One bill was from Rep. Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, and the other was sponsored by Sen. Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, and Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls.

The federation is funded via private donations, said Nathaniel Cunneen, a communications strategist for the group. The group’s affiliate network largely is financed by megadonors like former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

“The American Federation for Children believes that every child deserves school choice, no matter their income, background or zip code,” Cunneen told the Statesman by email. “We’ll continue to work with legislators, advocates and allied organizations to increase the number of public and private education opportunities for Idaho’s parents and students.”

Republican lawmakers and conservative advocacy groups across the country are pushing similar legislation, part of a decadeslong movement to free-up state money for private schooling.

“School choice” advocates argue students should have the option to attend schools that meet their needs, regardless of whether they’re private institutions. But tuition and other expenses present a barrier to low-income families, who would otherwise have their education funded by tax dollars.

Public school leaders and advocates in Idaho bitterly fought the”school choice” proposals during the legislative session. Idaho public schools rely on bonds and levies to pay teachers and repair crumbling buildings as state funding falls short. The lack of private school options in rural areas, and the concentration of private schools in urban areas, means that under a school voucher system, rural taxpayers would subsidize urban private schools at their own expense.

The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy found that a bill from Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, to subsidize private school tuition would have siphoned about $360 million in state funding reserved for public schools.

Young Americans for Liberty, an Austin, Texas-based nonprofit, lobbied for Nichols’ bill, according to secretary of state disclosures. Overall, the group has spent nearly $60,000 on lobbying this year, the disclosures show. The group chided the Idaho Senate in a news release when it rejected the legislation.

The “school choice” groups have spent far more on lobbying this year than long-established interest groups such as the Idaho Farm Bureau (about $19,000) and Idaho Realtors (roughly $15,000), noted Rod Gramer, CEO of nonprofit Idaho Business for Education.

But the lobbying expenditures pale in comparison to what’s been spent on elections. The American Federation for Children last year spent $200,000 on GOP primary election ads backing “school choice supporters,” including Attorney General Raúl Labrador and five House members, according to a news release from the group.

“These groups are actively pouring a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, in Idaho to transform the Legislature and elect legislators that want to send taxpayers’ dollars to private and religious schools,” Gramer, who strongly opposes school vouchers, told the Statesman by phone.

Meanwhile, new campaign material has appeared following the legislative session, including fliers from the American Federation for Children and Yes. every kid., a “school choice” group with ties to the Koch family, that spent about $113,000 lobbying in Idaho two years ago.

Cunneen said the federation distributed mailers “on behalf of” senators who voted last session “to create education options without the arbitrary distinction between public and private education providers.”

“During the next legislative session, AFC intends to advocate for policies that create more education options for students,” Cunneen said. “The Idaho Federation for Children PAC expects to support candidates who empower families to make the best education choices for their children — whether those candidates are challenged from the left or right side of the political spectrum.”

Committee leaders targeted for ‘school choice’ record

“Julie Yamamoto is failing to support our children,” read a billboard erected in Canyon County last month. “Apply now to be a candidate for District 11.”

Rep. Yamamoto, R-Caldwell, chairs the House Education Committee, the panel responsible for blocking a handful of bills that would have cleared the way for public funds to subsidize private school tuition. Rep. Lori McCann, R-Lewiston, vice chair of the committee, was the target of a nearly identical advertisement in her home district.

The billboards were funded by Citizens Alliance of Idaho. The lobbying group, led by conservative activist Matt Edwards, is funded by an umbrella group based in Ohio as well as Doyle Beck, a board member of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, according to secretary of state campaign finance records.

“They didn’t let any grass grow under their feet, they immediately started attacking these legislators right after legislative session,” Gramer said.

Since last year, Citizens Alliance of Idaho has spent nearly $500,000 in campaign expenditures, according to the secretary of state’s campaign finance database. Citizens Alliance of Idaho spent another $36,000 lobbying this year, although not entirely on school voucher legislation, according to the lobbyist disclosures.

During a February public hearing Nichols’ bill Edwards said education savings accounts would provide “opportunities that thousands of low-income and underserved families have longed for.”

“Not to mention the many families that have already work multiple jobs, long hours, they save and sacrifice just to pay their property tax as well as tuition for just one child to go to private school or home school,” he said.

Edwards did not return a phone call from the Statesman seeking a comment for this story.

Yamamoto told the Statesman that she suspects the billboards are a response to the House Education Committee’s roadblocks to private school voucher legislation this year, which will be a key taking point during next year’s election.

“It seems to be easy to come up with a bumper sticker catch-phrase,” she said by phone. “What they can reduce to a bumper sticker or a catch-phrase isn’t the whole story.”

Yamamoto, a former public school principal, said she supports a diversity of education opportunities. Parents have always had reasons to be dissatisfied with their children’s public schools, she said, but Idaho has charter schools, online programs and other education options outside the traditional public school model.

“Blowing up the system and then financing a whole different system, that doesn’t seem like a reasonable answer,” she said.

Kettler said a similar election cycle to last year’s — when incumbents were targeted over “school choice” stances — is likely. And committee chairs with influence over a desired proposal often are “key targets” for interest groups. But the immediate goal, she said, might not be the far-off election, but instead influencing next year’s legislative session, which is sure to produce another debate over school vouchers.

“This isn’t an issue that’s going to go away,” Kettler said. “It’s going to continue to be a pretty big one in Idaho politics.”