Reclaim Idaho announces statewide tour to promote K-12 funding initiative

Reclaim Idaho has announced a statewide tour to promote the Quality Education Act, a ballot initiative to increase K-12 funding by over $300 million annually.

Reclaim Idaho, the organization that spearheaded the successful 2018 campaign to expand Medicaid, says a boost in education funding is needed to give Idaho kids access to qualified teachers and the skills they need to earn a living.

If volunteers succeed in collecting 64,945 valid signatures by May 1, 2022, the Quality Education Act will appear on the November 2022 ballot and give Idaho voters a chance to boost funding for K-12 education.

Beginning Aug. 28 and lasting through mid-September, Reclaim Idaho will tour the state in their bright green camper and visit communities in every region of Idaho. The tour will promote the Quality Education Act and also join local signature-gathering events led by Reclaim Idaho volunteers.

Stops will include the Eastern Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot, Paul Bunyan Days in St. Maries, and the Under the Freeway Flea Market in Wallace. Numerous tour stops are already posted on Reclaim Idaho’s website and organizers say more will be added soon.

“The Idaho Legislature has failed to invest in education for the past 25 years, leaving us dead last of 50 states in education funding,” Reclaim Idaho co-founder Luke Mayville said about the need to put the Quality Education Act on the ballot. “It’s time to put the Quality Education Act on the ballot and give Idaho voters a chance to start investing in our kids again.”

Idaho ranks last among 50 states in education funding per student. School districts across the state, especially in rural areas, lack stable funding for a wide range of programs — including programs like welding, carpentry, and agricultural science that provide students with job-ready skills.

According to numbers from the State Department of Education, the average Idaho teacher salary dropped by nearly $900 last year. And a 2018 report by the State Board of Education found that 1 in 10 Idaho teachers are leaving the profession each year.

The ballot initiative, dubbed the Quality Education Act, would be paid for by a tax increase to corporations and Idahoans making over $250,000 per year, Reclaim Idaho officials said.

For individuals, the tax would apply to income above the $250,000 mark. Married couples would pay the new tax for income over $500,000.

Reclaim Idaho says 20 volunteer teams have already collected 8,000 signatures for the Quality Education Act, despite the uncertainty caused by the Legislature’s anti-initiatives law and the still undecided court challenge that followed.

Reclaim Idaho filed a lawsuit in May asking the Idaho Supreme Court to strike down the anti-initiatives law, which would have required campaigns to collect signatures from 6% of registered voters in each of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts — up from the 18 districts previously required.

Monday, the Idaho Supreme Court unanimously ruled the law was unconstitutional, saying the law wrongly created a "dramatic check on the ballot qualification process without showing a compelling need for such a check," and noted that all qualifying initiatives or referenda are already subjected to a statewide vote.