BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) – The 2025 legislative session continues, and one of the topics on every representative’s mind is the issue of school choice.
Eastern Idaho representative Marco Erickson says he believes there will be more bills surrounding the topic this session.
“If it helps kids, I’ve always been a fan,” Erickson told Local News 8. “I just don’t want to see money getting wasted. So it’s got to be efficient. And that’s really what we’re looking at.”
A representative from a less populated district shared concerns over how the bill could affect rural schools.
“They have great concerns, with a lot of those school districts having lower numbers that this will pull more students away, and that it will cause them to not be able to have the finances to continue,” District 28 representative Kevin Andrus said. “It’s something that I’m concerned about with talking to people about how we can continue to protect them and make sure that it is good for all students, not just in the big metropolitan areas.”
Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction, Debbie Critchfield, is weighing in on the legislature’s work with education.
Critchfield says the school choice discussion is alive and well. She believes the legislature needs to focus the conversation on “how and if” the Gem State will play a role in paying for the option.
“The main objective of any bills that we see come forward [is] ‘What, if any, part does the state play in honoring a parent’s choice in choosing, education for their child?'” said Critchfield.
Aside from school choice, Critchfield says her focus is set on creating a policy modernizing school budgets.
“It’s going to ask the legislature to send a portion of the overall budget to districts based on the types of students that are in their schools, that are your kids in your community, not an average of what the state says,” said Critchfield. “It honors what our parents expect, what our students need, and allows your local leaders to say, ‘here’s the money that the state is sending us and sent us, and we’re going to put it to use for the students that are in our classrooms.’ And so it’s a benefit to everywhere, regardless of where you are in the state.”
Critchfield tells us her main concern this session is for the conservative legislature to do its part to minimize the impact of new laws, limiting the additional hoops the Department of Education needs to jump through.
