On Friday, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld the new Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit. “The program, which was enacted last year and launched on January 15 of this year, provides a refundable tax credit that families can use to defray educational costs such as private school tuition, tutoring, curricula, and industry-recognized certification exams. As of February 3, more than 5,000 applications for the tax credit had been submitted for more than 9,000 students,” notes the Cato Institute:
The credit is worth $5,000 per student or $7,500 per student with special needs. The refundable aspect means parents can receive the full credit, up to their actual expenses, even if their tax liability is less than the credit. For example, if a parent spends $4,000 on education for a child but only has a tax liability of $3,000, they will receive the full $4,000 refunded on their taxes.
Last September, the Idaho teachers’ unions and other opponents of education choice filed a lawsuit to halt the tax credit program. The suit claimed that the Idaho constitutional requirement for the state to establish a system of public schools also forbids the state from supporting any other educational options.
Fortunately for Idaho parents and children, the court disagreed. The constitution sets “a floor, and not a ceiling,” the court ruled. “When a constitutional provision mandates the legislature do something that it has authority to do, it is not reasonable to read that mandate as restricting the legislature’s broader power to do something more.”
Similar programs are being challenged in other states under their state constitutions.
In 2025, a Utah state trial court ruled the direct opposite of the Idaho Supreme Court, striking down the Utah Fits All scholarship. The judge in that case found that “Utah’s Education Article Is a Ceiling,” meaning the state constitutional duty imposed on the state legislature to create public schools bans the creation of other education programs. But parents can temporarily keep using the scholarships while the case is appealed to the state supreme court.
Also last year, an Ohio state trial court ruled that Ohio’s EdChoice school voucher program was unconstitutional, because the state constitution required establishing public schools. the challenge to the voucher program was filed by a group of underperforming school districts that would likely lose students due to educational choice programs. Families can temporarily keep using the program continues as an appeals court considers whether to reverse the trial court’s ruling.
On November 20, a lawsuit was filed against Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarships on similar grounds. Challengers argue that the state constitution’s requirement to create a system of public schools means the state legislature can’t create other programs. The law firm bringing the lawsuit is mostly funded by teachers’ unions. A judge has yet to rule on that lawsuit.
The Cato Institute notes that “Educational freedom has made tremendous advances in recent years. More than 30 states have programs that either provide tax credits for educational expenses or allow parents to direct state education funding to the educational environment that they think is best for their kids. But, as these cases show, the ‘education establishment’ continues to use the courts in an attempt to kill choice programs. Hopefully, the Idaho ruling helps bolster supporters in other states.”
