"Reclaim Idaho" Education Initiative Petition

[Rotnguns]

Thank you, really appreciate those links!

I don't really follow the "education" topic, so I'm far from being proficient in it. I recall discussions around studies on nationwide performance and funds spent over the last few years where there seemed to be no correlation. But I'd have to dig deep to confirm/understand that. We generally see this when spending in one state or district is increased, but no performance improvements are noted.

I will say this (and again, can't show it statistically speaking) that CA spends about 75% more per pupil than ID. Yet the SAT scores are not far off (985 vs. 1057). Additionally, the participation rate for SAT was higher in ID...kinda odd if you ask me if we think in the context of not many going forward after 12th grade. This info is from the second link.

It also appears that CA has higher graduation rates. But then again CA has been passing folks out of HS who have been failing...so I don't know how meaningful that metric is. Basically they lower the bar to improve metrics.

I guess my point more or less is that there's no direct correlation between spending per pupil and improved metrics. Maybe there is a correlation at lower levels, but at some point it probably shifts. In other words if you spend $100 per pupil, then they suck. At $1000 there's significant improvement. But at $10,000 you've hit diminishing returns (arbitrary numbers here).

I say all this not to imply that I believe in spending more if the numbers improve. I'm just saying all this to say that argument that some make about spending more is false. Further, there are plenty of taxes we pay towards education (usually through property tax assessments) and frankly I'm tired of it. If parents wants to spend more, they should; but getting others to pay for it does not equate to "paying their fare share."

BTW: I'll concede that it's very possible that Covid restrictions may have impacted the scores here. Probably need some sort of average score over a few years or from 2019.

Excellent points made!

Indeed, Idaho's participation rate in the SAT seems unusual, but note that the SAT or ACT have been graduation requirements in Idaho from 2012 until early this year. Idaho students can take the SAT along with SAT prep courses at no cost to them (the state picks up the tab). I've often wondered how many of our students are just phoning in the exam in order to graduate, thus lowering the state average. That being said, there's quite a percentile difference between a 1057 v 985 composite, and our math scores are below the 40th percentile:

https://blog.prepscholar.com/sat-percentiles-and-score-rankings

Normalizing education cost is indeed tricky. What's more appropriate - expenditure per student, expenditure per capita, expenditure tied to some metric? Who knows? Idaho is trying a version of the latter, but results have not met expectations. Of late, there has been more funding for k12 teaching compensation; hopefully this will pay off.

I also feel that property owners pay an unfair proportion of the education budget, and in Idaho , this includes the junior colleges CWI, NIC, Eastern Idaho Technical College, and CSI.

[spectralhunter]

[nitroxdiver]

[BAJ475]

I agree. Given that Idaho is clearly red, anything that talks about reclaiming Idaho is an obvious libtard Dem plot.

[-hanko]

Amen, big time.

[bigbossman]

I agree. Given that Idaho is clearly red, anything that talks about reclaiming Idaho is an obvious libtard Dem plot.

My thoughts, exactly.

[covingtonhouse]

School funding? Hard no. We homeschooled for years and have done small schoolhouse style academy the last two up here with our youngest two. I voted no to the last school bond they tried to push in Lakeland school district and will vote no to any other bill/bond. Let them have bake sales and candy fundraising like we used to have to as kids.

[joe_sun]

Yeah they are trying to incrementally take over Idaho with leftist policies.

[CBR_rider]

School funding? Hard no. We homeschooled for years and have done small schoolhouse style academy the last two up here with our youngest two. I voted no to the last school bond they tried to push in Lakeland school district and will vote no to any other bill/bond. Let them have bake sales and candy fundraising like we used to have to as kids.

I agree. Most of Idaho has experienced record breaking growth (and lately most of the growth is not affordable to long time residents of average incomes); I’m not one to favor impact fees for development but those are exactly what these local jurisdictions need to be taking from developers. Why should grandma and grandpa have to pay to build a new high school for all the new residents when the new residents and the developer got a pass on the initial building costs?

I think pretty gnarly impact fees coupled with a sunset clause (so they don’t turn into CA style red tape and exorbitant building costs if things slow down or suffer during a recession) are long overdue. Schools and essential services are at close to breaking points in many places in ID; and the new folks moving in should have to cover the lions share of the initial costs to improve and expand those services IMO