A Win-Win Possibility!

The Legislative budget chief recently informed legislators that they could have a significant cash surplus to work with as they convene this 2012 legislative session.  That is good news but it also poses problems for legislators as they contemplate how to spend it, as every legislator will have their own “remedy” to deal with the excess cash.

What choice should legislators make?  What choice will best accelerate our State’s economy?  What choice will get the most bang for the “buck?”  The case can certainly be made to return the full amount to the people who provided it and to scale back the personal and corporate income tax.

Others will insist that the money be used to refund our public schools.  But if that happens, the money will merely be distributed to the school districts, no strings attached!  We will basically be funding the same broken education system we had prior to the economic downturn – a system that focused on adults and not the educational needs of students.

Consider a couple of options:  First there was a time in the not too distant past when schools were in session 180 days, with prescribed hours.  There was some uniformity across the State.  Now, with the latitude provided in law, no school has 180 days of instruction.  The school year, while technically adhering to some time requirements, is significantly shorter than 180 days, due to furlough days, 4-day school weeks, parent teacher conference days, in-service days, athletic events, etc.  This is the system that the education establishment wants to throw money at and maintain!

If we are serious about “putting students first, rather than the adults, then we need to have those students in school, with a teacher and not “on vacation.”  If a student’s time with a teacher is important, and it is, then that is what the money should buy.

Secondly, in order to advance school choice in Idaho and at the same time provide some tax relief to those parents who are now paying double for their child’s education, expand our current tax credit statute to give those parents a tax credit for some of the tuition expenses they have.  This would truly be a win-win situation for parents and for k-12 education.   Parents whose students are presently enrolled in a private school would be the obvious beneficiaries.  However,  there also would be additional parents who might take advantage of tax credits by taking their student out of the traditional school and enrolling them in a private school, thus reducing the enrollment in the traditional school system.   Stated another way, tax credits will be “budget positive” in that the State will lose less in tax revenue than it would have to pay if those students attended public schools.

John Kennedy once said, “the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.” Those who support status quo in the education system hope the days of reform are over because the education system is unchangeable.  They are wrong!  Now that money has returned to the state’s coffers, I’d argue that now is the time to focus on larger reforms and expansion of education choice.

JFK also said, “There are risks and costs to a program of action.  But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”