Press Release: Education Union Bosses Need to Get Out of the Way of Universal School Choice
By Press Release • February 13, 2023The following press release was sent out by the Idaho Freedom Caucus. Press releases do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.
This is the Idaho Freedom Caucus rebuttal to the editorial titled “Former state superintendent: Private schools should not be funded by Idaho taxpayers” | Opinion BY JERRY L. EVANS FEBRUARY 05, 2023 in the Idaho Statesman found here: https://www.idahostatesman.
“Big Education” Union Bosses and their minions are hard at work spreading fear and false information about Senate Bill 1038, Freedom in Education Savings Accounts.
Powerful education unions cling to their monopoly control of education and seem more interested in indoctrinating your children with their leftist ideology than teaching them. They fear that with the passage of SB 1038, families will finally have the financial resources and freedom to choose the best education for their children. They worry there will be a mass exodus from public schools but fail to mention that if you like your public school, you can keep it.
Anti-school-choice cheerleaders use the term “vouchers” to mislead people about SB 1038. The bill creates Education Savings Accounts that offer a more customized and flexible approach to education, giving families the power to make decisions that best serve their child’s individual needs. Money can be used to pay for a broader range of education-related expenses, such as tuition, textbooks, and tutoring. On the other hand, vouchers provide government-funded scholarships specifically for private school tuition, are limited in their usage, and come with restrictions. ESAs prioritize the student and their success, while vouchers prioritize the institutions they support.
Fearmongering about the possible demise of rural schools is a tired tactic of the anti-school-choice crowd. Rural communities deserve access to quality education just as much as urban communities. By allowing funds to follow students, ESAs will ensure every child can access the education that best fits their needs and abilities regardless of where they live.
The Blaine Amendment is often cited as a reason to block school choice. The amendment discriminates against religious schools but, fortunately, has been ruled moot by the Supreme Court in Espinoza v. Montana. Anti-choice advocates know this but continue to use it to oppose universal school choice. It’s a dishonest argument.
The Freedom in Education Savings Accounts bill gives families more freedom to choose the best education for their children. Opposition to the bill comes from those more interested in promoting their woke agenda than educating kids. Giving families the freedom to choose the best education for their children is what Idaho school kids need and deserve.
The Idaho Freedom Caucus calls on those interested in universal education freedom to support this critical bill. It will be before a full senate hearing on Tuesday, February 14. You can sign up to testify here: https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2023/standingcommittees/SEDU.
Tags: Blaine Amendment, Education Savings Account, ESA, Espinoza v Montana, Freedom in Education, S1038, School Vouchers, Senate Bill 1038, Universal School Choice
8 thoughts on “Press Release: Education Union Bosses Need to Get Out of the Way of Universal School Choice”
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A teacher’s union has one job: To negotiate wages and benefits for it’s members, nothing else.
Idaho’s public school system has failed.
The union and it’s members have failed the Citizens.
Their stature and funding must be reduced or eliminated.
No more tax dollars to Idaho’s failed public school system.
Politically, currently Winder, Luna, Despot Bedke and Critchfield and many many more are directly responsible for our public school system’s failure.
Let’s hope that they to are both held accountable and removed from office.
They will not be held accountable , most Idahoans are morons because they allow our politician and government employee crime gang remain in power.
Our public schools are failing to actually educate our children in any meaningful way. Standardized test scores continue to fall and why? Because parents are being divested of interest and authority over their own children. Who is largely behind this? Teachers’ unions and their political cronies. They want the money and power that comes from the ever-increasing yet ever-ineffective budgets lavished on them by a complicit legislature. The number of auxiliary staff (not teachers) in schools has risen dramatically in the past twenty years, and yet teachers salaries – despite all the bond levies and proposed raises – continue to languish due to administrative sleight-of-hand.
We need to return education to local – not State – control. Parents should be responsible for curriculum approval and have direct control over where their children attend school – and the tax funding which goes with it. We should stop subsidizing failure and graft.
I am a father of thirteen children. You bet I have skin in the game.
I absolutely agree my friend ,If left up to these educators of a broken system,They would leave Children behind before they change ,No Child in Idaho deserves to be left behind in a fail system,I support School Choice
Unions stem from communism. They were necessary at the beginning and during the industrial revolution, when workers were shamelessly abused. However, they are no longer necessary in my opinion. Both laws and corporate policies prevent abuse and the unions work with management against the workers in most cases. Unions and management now work together. For example, when an individual, who is fired fights management, he wins as a union’s demonstration of power to the workers, but that person often needed firing. That is what keeps workers paying outrageous union dues and believing their value. They are huge corporations in themselves and no longer function in favor of the worker. The teacher’s union is one of the worst. It is huge and has recreated the role of the teacher in the classroom and within the school system. Note the management in schools with many vice principles and others that do nothing but shorten the classroom hours, raise the salaries and dictate cirriculum. Note also that most teachers in public schools teach subjects in which they have no degrees and often posess little knowledge in that venue. Well qualified people are kept out of the arena with the requirement of “teaching certificates” which are touted as Master Degrees and are simply constructed as indoctrination of cirriculum and lesson plan construction to meet the requirements of the unions and teachers associations. For example, someone with a Master’s degree in Chemistry cannot teach in a public system without a “teaching certificate, ” but he or she can teach in a college or university. The state school systems should be revamped with control put back into the states and out of the control of unions. I also believe that children can get better educations in charter and private schools from well qualified, dedicated teaches, due to the fact that the unions and indoctrinated educatiors are absent. I support freedom of education. Children are our most valuable commodity.
Thank-you
There should be no government employee unions! They are a rape of the taxpayers dollars.
Why are there government employee unions in Idaho ? Government employee unions are a theft of taxpayer dollars.