The Blog at MSPC

Let’s start with the basic reality: Idaho is increasing public education spending even as student enrollment levels off or declines.

Let’s avoid the awkward situation of explaining to Idaho families why a program designed to help them ended up putting them on hold.

As Idaho’s application window for the Parental Choice Tax Credit has come to a close, the final numbers tell a powerful story. We now know the final numbers submitted to the state tax commission by the the March 15 deadline: 6,069 families applied, covering 13,568 students across the state.

If Idaho had the same population as Texas, the current participation rate would translate to roughly 184,000 students.

To put that in perspective: if the students currently represented in applications formed a single public school district, it would rank as the 6th largest district in Idaho. And the application window doesn’t close until March 15.

Since applications opened on January 15, a total of 6,030 families have applied, covering 10,105 students. That’s not a one-day surge. That’s nearly a month of steady participation.

Lawmakers who opposed the Parental Choice Tax Credit last year, advanced a new bill to cut it—by 4 percent immediately and another 5 percent in 2027—before the program has even fully begun.

A small group of agitators may be determined to intimidate parents, but the rest of Idaho shouldn’t let them. These meetings belong to families. The conversation belongs to the community.

The full implementation of HB 93 (school choice tax credit) is moving forward, and families are invited to register for an online webinar on August 19 or an in-person seminar in Boise on August 26 to learn more about how to apply for the tax credit.

The Wyoming Education Association’s (WEA) lawsuit against school-choice legislation reveals its hostility to children, families and education freedom.

Parental rights are not something the government gives, and any free society should never permit it to be so.

For decades, millions of American children have been assigned to a public school. Those who live in neighborhood A, for example, must go to school A.