A voter drops off their ballot at a ballot drop box outside of the La Familia Recreation Center in Denver on Nov. 5, 2024. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)
The leaders of the Virginia-based American Federation for Children must have done a jig election night after spending a half million dollars to successfully defeat anti-voucher legislators and elect candidates who will do their bidding in next year’s Idaho Legislature.
But their dancing no doubt turned into a funeral march when they realized voters in three states – two of them ruby red Kentucky and Nebraska – rejected laws and efforts to provide taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools.
In Kentucky, 65 percent of voters killed a proposed constitutional amendment which would have allowed the state’s Legislature to fund private and religious schools.
In Nebraska, voters in rural and urban counties repealed a voucher scholarship program passed by the Legislature earlier this year that would steer taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools.
In Colorado, voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment which would have enshrined school choice into the state’s Constitution and laid the foundation for the state to adopt its first ever law to send taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools.
As usual sponsors of the amendment tried to hide the measure’s true intent. At first that fooled Colorado voters like Kyle Slusher who planned to vote for it. But then he realized it would lead to diverting taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools and voted no.
It’s not surprising that voters in these three states voted against the idea of sending taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools, especially when such laws in other states have benefited more than two thirds of families that never sent their kids to public schools and have strained state budgets like in Arizona which faces a huge budget deficit.
Yet, in Idaho, the American Federation of Children was successful in defeating anti-privatization Republicans in the May primary and anti-privatization Democrats in this week’s general election. Key to the AFC’s success is never using the word “voucher” in their messaging to voters or explicitly saying they want to tap taxpayer dollars to support private/religious-school tuition.
Private school choice backers pour $85,000 into Idaho legislative races
Instead of telling voters that they support voucher-like legislation, AFC accuses its targeted lawmakers of supporting open borders, gun control laws, union bosses, or worse of all, Joe Biden. They have defeated several conservative Republicans in other states through this misleading messaging, even legislators who support expansive gun rights laws and tough border control efforts.
The AFC knows that it can’t tell voters the truth because, if they did, the voters would reject voucher-like efforts as they did in Nebraska, Kentucky, and Colorado, and nearly every time the issue is on the ballot. It’s easier to buy legislative seats with lies than to convince voters that diverting tax dollars for private/religious school tuition is a good thing.
The odds of the Idaho Legislature passing a form of vouchers in 2025 is good, thanks to the AFC’s success in defeating so many anti-privatization lawmakers and because it appears that Superintendent of Public Schools Debbie Critchfield and Gov. Brad Little may back some form of voucher-like legislation next year.
But they will have a tough time convincing Idahoans that voucher-like legislation is a positive thing, or good for the 300,000 public school students in Idaho.
You see it was clear from Tuesday’s election that Idahoans’ support for their public schools is wide and deep. Voters across the state approved more than two dozen levies worth $259 million, most by margins of 60 percent and even 70 percent.
And, by so doing, Idahoans demonstrated their authentic home-grown support for public education, unlike the American Federation for Children which impersonates a real federation of people, but really is funded by out-of-state billionaires who would have trouble finding Challis, Oakley, or Bonners Ferry on a map.
Even if the 2025 Legislature passes a voucher-like law, it is likely that Idahoans will join the chorus of voters in states like Nebraska, Kentucky, and Colorado who reject diverting taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools.
Then the jig will really be up.
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