I am a proud product of the Chicago and Virginia public education systems. I have nothing against school choice, and Idaho has plenty of it. My children have been educated in Idaho in a mix of private religious schools; online/home school; and public schools. The value of the American public education system was instilled in me from a young age. My father was the son of Irish immigrants, and he understood the sacrifices his family and his neighbors made for the economic opportunities offered by equal and democratic access to quality education. 

Public education is the foundation of our democracy, our economy, and our society. It provides equal opportunities for all children to learn, grow, and succeed. Our business leaders in Idaho know that we need a skilled and educated workforce to keep our economy thriving. 

Idaho has been failing our kids for a long time.  We have inadequately funded our facilities to a dangerous degree, and some politicians and extremists in Idaho have made it difficult to correct the problem.  Now some of these same politicians and extremists are trying to strike a fatal blow to our public education system by siphoning public education funds to private and religious schools.  They claim to be advocating for “school choice,” but that is not their true agenda.  Their true agenda, as evidenced by their rhetoric on social media and the sources of their political funding, is to gut our public education system entirely. The head of the IFF holds public education in high disdain. In 2019, he wrote this in an opinion piece: “I don’t think government should be in the education business. It is the most virulent form of socialism (and indoctrination thereto) in America today.”

This is the latest in the extremists’ series of attacks on public education.  They have withheld funding based on false accusations of teaching “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” in public schools. In 2021, the GOP supermajority withheld $2.5 million from the higher education budget, specifically targeting the University of Idaho, Idaho State University, and Boise State, over accusations that they teach “critical race theory” or support “social justice” ideology.  

In a similar vein, in 2021, the Idaho legislature refused to accept a $6 million federal grant to launch a public preschool pilot program, with GOP extremist legislators citing false claims that CRT was being taught in Boise area preschools. They claimed that preschool was some kind of plot to “indoctrinate” children with “woke” ideology.   As a mother who has raised three kids, and as a lawyer who regularly represents parents and children, I can assure you that if children were so easily “indoctrinated,” they would all eat their vegetables, and they would go to school, and do their homework and chores without complaining!  

Idaho GOP legislators have even been spreading false rumors that children in our public schools are using kitty litter instead of restrooms because they “identify” as cats.  For the record, this is a false rumor that has circulated for two years in communities all over the country, including in Smithfield, Idaho.  

I have been told by Pocatello LGBTQ constituents that District 29’s own Dustin Manwaring repeated that false rumor about kitty litter to them while discussing the legislative attacks on the LGBTQ community during the 2023 legislative session.  

It is absolutely shameful that these extremists ran our Idaho 2023 educator of the year out of Idaho with harassment about her private life statements about her tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ youth, and her support for the Black Lives Matter movement.  

Good public policy does not begin with false accusations and manufactured outrage about nonissues.  Idaho legislators need to get back to the real work of the people, for the good of our kids and our communities.  

Deferred Maintenance Crisis in Idaho

Idaho has neglected our public school deferred maintenance problem for decades.  We are ranked as the worst state in the nation in terms of facility maintenance funding for our public schools (See Pro Publica articles below).  By 2022, it was estimated that our deferred maintenance costs are at least $874 million dollars.    

The national media has been paying attention to these failures, highlighting Salmon Idaho and Bonner County as examples. Our Idaho legislature has known since the 1990s that we had crumbling schools, and our legislature was told by our Idaho Supreme Court in 2005 that it was their constitutional obligation to fix it. Instead, the Idaho legislature enacted a complicated funding program intended to help the most dangerous schools access state funds. Ten years ago, one Idaho school district made an application, and they received only a fraction of what they requested. No district has even tried since.   

In April 2023, Pocatello’s beloved Highland High School also received media attention for the same concerns.  The fire that destroyed the school was caused by deferred maintenance issues our District could not afford to address. Just like in Bonner County and Salmon, Idaho, and all over the state of Idaho over the last decade, our school district’s attempt to fund repairs at Highland (and Century High School) through a bond did not get the 66% vote required to pass in the November 2023 election.  I supported this bond, although I strongly believe that it is high time for Idaho voters to hold the Idaho legislature accountable for failing to meet their constitutional duty to address our public school facility needs.  

Extremists in Idaho tried but Failed to Stop Public Education Funding in 2022/2023

With the full support of the Democratic Caucus, including our own District 29 Senator James Ruchti and Representative Nate Roberts, in 2022 and 2023, Idaho finally passed legislation to support our public schools and students.  As Senator Ruchti has explained, Idaho never caught up from the budget crisis of 2008-2013 in terms of public education funding until 2022-2023.  It was not until this year that we were able to restore funding to the same inflation-adjusted dollar-per-student funding we had in 2002.  That is more than two decades of underfunding.  As you would predict, our extremists in Idaho did not support the restoration of public school funding.  

In 2023, our Democratic Caucus also supported the Governor’s innovative Launch program, intended to encourage our kids to stay in Idaho and pursue higher education and workforce training necessary to sustain a strong economy.  Again, as you would expect, our extremists in Idaho opposed this program. If you think the Idaho Democrats do not matter much in policy outcomes in the GOP supermajority legislature, this bill proves how much we matter. The Launch program passed by only one vote in the House. Margins matter.

Without the Idaho Democrats supporting this bill, it would have failed.  Idaho Democrats are pragmatic.  We know that good ideas come from both parties and from Independents.  Good legislation should be focused on the outcome and the benefits to our State, and not on extremist ideology.   I need your help to flip another seat in the Idaho House of Representatives because we need more reasonable people who are both willing and able to vote for good bills and stand up to the extremists.  

“Education Spending Account” or “Voucher” Programs Are a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

The same groups that have ignored the most basic funding needs of our public schools and that have made it difficult to impossible to pass local bonds to support local schools are now pushing for a voucher or ESA program that would allow parents to use taxpayer money to pay for their children’s education in non-public schools. 

I strongly oppose these efforts.  I believe passing such a program would be the beginning of the end of a quality public education system in Idaho.  It would undermine the quality and accountability of public education; it would create a two-tiered education system that favors the wealthy and privileged; it would decimate our rural schools; it would harm our most challenged learners including disabled learners; and it would very likely violate our Idaho Constitution and the principle of separation of church and state.

In states that have passed voucher programs, tax dollars are paying for church construction. On the first day of the 2023 legislative session, a former Superintendent of a rural school district in Indiana came to talk to the Idaho legislature. Indiana approved a school voucher program in 2011. He told the legislature that a well-used model for building church buildings, generally, in Indiana is to start with a school. And then as the money flows in, build the rest of the church building. Father Jake of St. Jude parish in Fort Wayne, Indiana, indicates that thanks to the impending influx of tax dollars, the church will soon be getting a repaired air conditioning system, redecorating the church, new paint, and repairs to the church steeple. 

A voucher or ESA program would also hurt our public schools financially. According to a recent study by the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, a voucher or ESA program could cost the state up to $400 million per year in lost revenue. This would mean less funding for teachers, classrooms, textbooks, technology, and other essential resources. It would also mean less funding for special education, transportation, and other services that many students rely on. Moreover, Indiana’s ESA program and lower per-student funding has led to higher property taxes. With less state support public schools have had to go to voters to make up the difference.  This has hit farmers, Main Street businesses, and homeowners hard.

ESAs have a negative association with student achievement. A 2017 Notre Dame Study found that Indiana students who switched to private schools using vouchers experienced statistically significant annual losses in math achievement. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute said, “recent evaluations of expanded voucher programs in Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., indicate significant negative impacts on participants’ test scores.” A 2021 study commissioned by the pro-voucher Manhattan Institute called “Accountability and Private-School Choice says “Unfortunately, parental choice alone has proved ineffective in weeding poorly performing schools out of private-school choice programs. And in some cases, hoped-for academic gains have failed to materialize among program participants.”

It is Idaho’s rural schools that would suffer the most; these are districts that already cannot afford to offer much in the way of “school choice” outside of online or homeschool education.  These are the school districts where schools are literally falling down around them already.  In terms of students, it is our challenged learners who will suffer the most.  Private and religious schools would not be obligated to serve those students.  Public schools would have to meet all of those needs, with reduced resources to do it.  

WHY SHOULD YOU VOTE FOR ME?

While I give Rep. Dustin Manwaring credit for supporting the 2022 and 2023 public education funding bills, I remain very concerned that he sometimes endorses extremist rhetoric.  He voted for the legislation that banned teaching critical race theory in Idaho, despite there being no evidence that “CRT” is being taught anywhere in Idaho K-12 schools.   

Dustin voted for the LGBTQ hate bills sponsored by the Idaho extremists. (2022 ban on gender-affirming care, bathroom bill). As I have already noted, he seems to believe the provably false “kitty litter” rumors.    

I am very concerned about Dustin’s “flip flop” on the bill that would have imposed a minimum of $2500 in damages on any public or school librarian who disseminated “harmful materials” (ill-defined) to minors.  On the original vote, Dustin voted against it.  When it came back to the House following the veto by Governor Little, he changed his vote under pressure from the extremists.  This terrible bill that would have encouraged frivolous litigation against our school librarians was defeated by only one vote, once again proving the power of Idaho Democrats in the legislature.  This flip-flop should concern all District 29 constituents, Republican, Democrat, and Independent or unaffiliated. Dustin caved to pressure from extremists in his party on a very bad bill.  That is a pressure I will never have.

District 29 constituents should also be concerned that Dustin received independent expenditures in the 2022 campaign cycle from special interest groups connected to Betsy DeVos’ pro voucher PAC.  These funds were used to run false negative ads against me in 2022.  Dustin has made comments that indicate he may be supportive of an ESA or voucher program. If you share my concerns about all of this, please help me beat him in 2024.  

Public education is a public good that benefits everyone, not a private commodity that can be bought and sold. That’s why I oppose any voucher or ESA program that would drain public funds from our public schools. If elected, I will fight to protect and strengthen public education in Idaho. I will work to ensure that every child has access to a high-quality, well-funded, and accountable public school. I will also work to support our teachers, who are the backbone of our public education system.

Public education is not a partisan issue. It is an Idaho issue. It is an American issue. It is an issue that affects all of us, regardless of our background, beliefs, or preferences. That’s why I urge you to join me in standing up for fully funding our public education system and working against any voucher or ESA program. Together, we can make sure that our public schools remain the pride of our state and the hope of our future.