A Message from the Chair: Republicans Keep Voting Against Our Kids. Let's Vote Them Out.

When we prepare our kids to succeed, we invest in the future of Idaho. But Republicans in the Statehouse are bringing new attacks on education every week that take opportunities away from students. We can’t let this disregard for our children continue.

Republicans on Idaho’s budget committee slashed $4 million from Boise State and the University of Idaho. These cuts came even after both universities had eliminated initiatives that offended conservative legislators. The University of Idaho shuttered its 50-year-old Women’s Center and Black and African American Cultural Center. Boise State gutted similar programs.

Shutting down programs supporting students from all walks of life wasn’t enough for extremists because this was simply misdirection. The GOP seeks to discredit universities to advance its larger goal of defunding our public colleges and universities, a plank of the Idaho Republican Party platform.

In other disappointing news, Idaho faces an $82 million shortfall in special education funding. A modest $3 million appropriation would have helped schools provide critical services like an interpreter for a student who relies on American Sign Language to communicate. The bill passed the House only because every Democrat voted for it, while most Republicans voted against it. Republican senators succeeded in killing it by a single vote.

Meanwhile, administrative costs for Idaho’s school voucher scheme ballooned to more than twice what sponsors claimed just a month ago. That money isn’t going to learning. It’s going to bureaucracy and overhead. Republicans are pushing a bill to repeal the popular Empowering Parents program that helps families pay for tutoring, school supplies, and online classes. They’re defunding programs that work to prop up a scheme that doesn’t.

Even workforce training that has strong business support isn’t safe. Launch gives high school graduates up to $8,000 to train for in-demand careers like nursing and welding to build a future here at home. Yet the program barely survived last year with every Democrat supporting it and most Republicans voting it down. This year, Republicans tried to undermine it by politicizing how career pathways are selected. When a proposal to expand workforce training through public-private partnerships came up, House Republicans killed it outright.

It’s just as sad to see Republican leaders celebrate the illegal dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education. If you’re a public school student, a family attending rural schools, a parent whose child has a disability, or a young person seeking career training, Republican lawmakers don’t care about your future.

Dan Foreman, Codi Galloway, Dori Healey, Brandon Mitchell, Tanya Burgoyne, and other vulnerable Republicans voted against our kids with special needs. And every seat is up for grabs when Republicans choose tax giveaways for the wealthy over our children. Let’s vote them out.

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Lauren Necochea
Idaho Democratic Party Chair