What’s Next for Universal School Choice
Among the most important triumphs of the 2025 legislative session were the steps taken to advance educational freedom. After years of stubborn resistance from the education establishment, Idaho joined the ranks of conservative states with a meaningful school choice initiative thanks to the leadership of several key lawmakers. In response, the Idaho Education Association christened the session as “one of the worst for public education in over a decade,” meaning that it was actually one of the best for the people of Idaho.
House Bill 93 (H93) established the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit, offering refundable tax credits of up to $5,000 to thousands of families to help offset the costs of private education. This legislation is a monumental achievement and is a welcome change to how the state of Idaho approaches its constitutional obligation to provide for the education of an informed citizenry.
That said, H93 is not without its imperfections, and it is never too early to begin discussing how future legislatures can build upon past success. The first step involves identifying what remains to be done. In the case of H93, three significant limitations must be addressed before Idaho can honestly boast of having true universal school choice: funding, universality, and unnecessary regulations.
Funding
The biggest limitation of H93 is its lack of funding. With a price tag of $50 million and a maximum credit of $5,000, H93 only provides enough funds for roughly 10,000 students. By comparison, there are an estimated 23,000 private school students in Idaho and an indeterminate number of homeschool families. That means H93 covers less than half of the existing private school population.
It is worth noting that the Legislature chose to eliminate the frequently abused Empowering Parents Program, which cost taxpayers $30 million a year. Ideally, these funds would have been redirected to the new tax credit initiative, increasing the number of eligible students by roughly 6,000. Instead, the Legislature made the unfortunate decision to leave the tax credit drastically underfunded.
One of the first priorities of the Legislature in 2026 should be making the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit truly universal by increasing the number of eligible credits. Funding for the initiative must be increased by at least an additional $150 million, which would be enough to cover the entire existing private school population, plus an additional 17,000 students.
While some may balk at this price tag, the initial cost could easily be covered by eliminating wasteful, misguided, and ineffective programs. For example, $35 million can be redirected by cutting the ineffective literacy intervention program’s budget in half, $80 million by eliminating the misguided Launch program, and $60 million by reducing discretionary funding back to 2024 levels. These cuts would free up enough funds to expand school choice for an additional 35,000 students, all without increasing overall spending.
The money for school choice is already there; the only thing missing is the political will to discontinue ineffective programs and redirect those funds to a more productive use. Long term, Idaho will reap better academic outcomes and reduce overall spending on education by expanding school choice.
Universality
Another problem with H93 is that it is redistributive in its current form. H93 grants priority status to households with incomes below 300% of the federal poverty line, which, when combined with its limited funding, effectively makes it an education subsidy for low-income families.
The income threshold would be more justifiable if it only excluded truly affluent households. In practice, the greatest victims are middle-class families and single-income households. 300% of the federal poverty line for a family of four is $90,000. In this economy, a household income of $90,000 is not exactly a mark of affluence, especially if a family is spending nearly a quarter of their income on private school tuition for two children.
Therefore, priority consideration for low-income families needs to be eliminated. Although this may also raise concerns, any consequences could be easily avoided by expanding the total number of tax credits. The whole point of universal school choice is that it is, by definition, available to everyone.
Cutting Unnecessary Red Tape
The last major drawback of H93 is the regulations it imposes on non-public education. Though these regulations are far from onerous and largely in line with what other states have passed, they are still a cause for concern.
Particularly worrying is the provision requiring private schools to be accredited or keep a “documented…portfolio of growth.” The legislative intent of this provision allows a private school to satisfy either of these requirements. However, the wording is just open-ended enough to allow the tax commission to engage in creative interpretation.
For example, the tax commission could interpret the provision as mandating that every participating private school become accredited. Because H93 leaves “accredited” undefined, the tax commission would likely defer to the state board of education’s definition, which only recognizes the regional accrediting agency Cognia. As a result, families who attend some of Idaho’s most successful private schools, such as the Ambrose School in Meridian and Logos School in Moscow, could soon be deemed ineligible for the tax credit because they are not accredited by Cognia.
The simple solution to prevent this unintended outcome is to eliminate these requirements altogether. School choice is about allowing parents to freely choose the best available education for their children, making them, rather than the state, the source of accountability.
H93 is a monumental first step towards revitalizing Idaho’s education system, an accomplishment for which the legislators who made it happen deserve praise. However, Idaho must not allow progress to breed complacency. Well begun is only half done.
From idahofreedom.org