Horman, Gramer spar over private school choice

This article was originally published by Idaho Ed News on Dec. 19, 2024.

IDAHO FALLS (IdahoEdNews.org) – To Republican Rep. Wendy Horman, private school choice is the “civil rights issue of our time,” and a way to ensure all students get the best possible education, regardless of income or zip code.

To Rod Gramer, former president of Idaho Business for Education, it’s an “existential threat” to public education and “the most expensive government handout in the history of the United States.”

Horman and Gramer sparred over their opposing views at a debate hosted by the Idaho Falls City Club earlier this month in front of about 95 people. Their debate comes just weeks ahead of a legislative session where private school choice will likely take center stage.

The pair disagreed on a range of issues — from the cost of private school choice to how to hold private schools accountable to who should decide what students learn in school.

Their tense back-and-forth echoed some common arguments from private school choice advocates and opponents, but also offered a window into Horman’s views and arguments as the veteran lawmaker prepares to sponsor a private school choice bill in 2025.

When pushed, Horman declines to commit to long-term private school choice spending cap

In one of the most contentious moments of the debate, Gramer pushed Horman to say whether she would commit to keeping a spending cap on private school choice. Gramer said he is concerned that private school subsidies would eventually balloon in Idaho — like they have in Arizona and Indiana.

“Out-of-state billionaires and their front organizations never stop pushing vouchers until they have universal vouchers with no income limit and no accountability,” he said.

Horman responded that it would take legislative action for an initial private school choice program to grow, and assured the audience that private school choice would not have destructive financial consequences.

“I’m chairman of the appropriations committee. I don’t sponsor budget-busting bills,” she said.

Gramer pointed to a private school choice bill Horman sponsored last session that established an annual cap of $50 million.

“Will you, as a state legislator, never vote for more money for this program than that?” Gramer asked.

“I didn’t come here to debate him,” Horman told Karole Honas, the debate moderator. “I came here to speak my piece.”

Honas, a former television news anchor, paused, then said: “I’d kind of like to know too, though.”

Pushed to provide a response, Horman said she believes many Idahoans support private school choice, and she wants to be responsive to their desires.

“I will evaluate these things as they happen,” she said, citing the possibility of a long waitlist of students wanting private school subsidies.

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Gramer estimated that a voucher program in Idaho could cost as much as $300 million, and said vouchers are “an existential threat to public education, and a financial threat to our taxpayers.”

Public education is already underfunded, Gramer said, pointing to the state’s backlog of facilities upkeep issues, Idaho’s low per-student spending and legislators’ constitutional mandate to maintain uniform and thorough public schools. So the state should not be spending money on other school systems, such as home schooling, religious schooling and private schooling, he said.

“No business that is already financially strapped would want to buy three new businesses when they can’t even capitalize the bills that they have. It just defies common sense to do this,” he said.

Horman said that just because she supports “school choice does not mean I’m out to harm public schools (or) divert their funding. In fact, the opposite is true.”

Horman said she plans to sponsor a bill in 2025 for refundable tax credits that parents could use for private school.

“So technically, there’s no pot of money (to draw from). It’s a revenue reduction,” she said, prompting snickers from the audience.

Horman: Enrollment is better accountability measure than test scores

The debate also turned to accountability.

Pressed on how private schools would be held accountable without mandated tests, Horman said most private schools probably test students without being required to.

Gramer pointed out that those test results wouldn’t be published publicly, like they are for public schools.

Horman said she’s “not a huge fan of test-based accountability anymore.”

“If I can predict a kid’s test score based on their parents’ income, their zip code, and their education levels, what value was that standardized test?” she said. “It’s a snapshot in time of how that child did on that date.”

A better form of accountability, she said, is whether families choose to enroll their children at a school and keep them there.

Taxpayers would have to support all private schools, even those with troubling curriculum, Horman says

Honas asked if taxpayers would have to support private schools that were satanic, or that didn’t allow education on the Holocaust, or that “(changed) the way we look at race issues.”

Horman said “we would have to support that” but most families wouldn’t enroll their children at a satanic school. If parents want their children to be “taught that the Holocaust is a myth, that’s your right as a parent. But my opinion is that’s not what Idahoans are going to choose.”

“You put a lot of faith in good parenting,” Honas said.

“I do, I trust parents to make the best decision for their children,” Horman said. “Nobody is better equipped, with some rare exceptions, to make decisions about their child’s education.”

Gramer said that as a taxpayer, he didn’t want to subsidize schools that teach that the Holocaust is a myth, or schools that discriminate against students.

“Once we start sending money to private or religious schools … we lose total control. Our kids can be taught anything, and our tax dollars will be subsidizing that teaching.”

But Horman told the crowd that Idaho already has vouchers on the books — in the form of Idaho Launch — that are paying for private and religious schools.

“For those of you who are worried about a school choice bill being a camel’s nose under the tent, I’d like to put that concern to bed,” she said. “The tent door is already wide open, and it’s full of millions of our tax dollars that are paying for students to attend private, public and religious schools in Idaho.”

Idaho Launch is a new program that provides state-funded grants for qualifying graduating seniors to put toward higher education costs. In the first round of awards, 867 grantees of 6,496 total — or about 13% — attended private universities.

Horman, Gramer differ on how best to support all kids

When asked about the impact of private school subsidies on rural districts, Horman said there are private schools in 24 of 44 counties.

“The argument that private schools don’t exist in rural areas is wrong,” she said.

And she said competition is good for public schools, becoming a “rising tide that lifts all boats.”

While most kids will stay in public schools, some kids need an alternative: “It is life-changing for those children, no matter where they live,” Horman said.

Gramer said that on the data’s flip side, nearly half of Idaho counties don’t have a private school. Those that do might only have one option.

In Horman’s closing argument, she said Idaho’s most vulnerable students are her biggest motivation as she creates education policy.

“School choice is the civil rights issue of our time,” she said.

She then told the story of a child she’d once met while accompanying her daughter on a field trip. The child told about taking care of his younger siblings while his mother was out on a multiple-day “drug trip,” and Horman said cases like his are why she is so passionate about education.

“Children are sometimes dealt an unfair hand and it breaks my heart … They’re being punished for the choices of the adults in their lives,” she said. “Supporting all kids wherever they learn, if they’re in a tough situation and need a different setting that their parents can’t afford, is a worthy investment for Idaho.”

Gramer said that public schools welcome all students, regardless of race, gender orientation, learning abilities or disabilities, or socioeconomic status.

“We have 314,000 public school students in Idaho,” Gramer said. “We cannot afford to leave those kids behind, because everybody counts and everybody deserves a great education, per the constitution of our state.”