Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

Very few functions of government are mandated by Idaho's Constitution, but education is one of them. Our Constitution states: "The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature of Idaho, to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools."

Knowing this, I find it unfortunate that school districts have felt it necessary to go to the tax payers every year or two to ask for more funding to support our educational needs through bonds and levies. It isn't fair to the schools or to the tax payers. Part of the problem with our education budget is in regards to how the money is allocated. West Ada School District gets less money per student than just about any other district in the State and the Kuna School District doesn't receive much more per student either. The fact is Idaho spends a greater percentage of its budget on education than just about any other state in the country. The real problem is that we don't have enough funds to go around. Instead of solely focusing on how to properly fund schools with our limited budget, I will support legislation that will encourage job growth that will bring more money into the state. By encouraging and helping to grow our economy, we will be able to adequately fund our schools removing the need to ask taxes payers to agree to raises property taxes.

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