More Reasons to Vote Against Proposition 1

Darrel Deide has a reader’s view that explains more reason to vote against Proposition 1:

• Proposition 1 would squeeze nearly $4 billion from Idaho’s taxpayers over the next 13 years. Worse, there is not a single plan for spending the money. That makes it highly unlikely that our children will see a penny of it.

• Supporters can’t say what tax would have to be raised. Do they want to raise the sales tax to 7 percent? Do they want to raise property tax again? Idahoans deserve answers to this very basic question.

• Proposition 1 is a blank check for Idaho schools. If you give government a blank check for any amount, government will always find ways to spend it. Usually that money will be poorly spent.

• Proposition 1 is a social experiment on our kids. The law would stay in effect until 2020. We would have to wait an entire generation and spend nearly $4 billion before getting a chance to examine whether the law has worked.

• Proposition 1 cons voters into thinking that students will benefit from the money. In fact, there is no guarantee that a single book or computer will be funded by Prop 1…

Proposition 1 will increase expenditures but NOT student achievement. Utah spends less than Idaho on education, but has better results with student achievement. Likewise, there are states that spend more than Idaho and their students do not perform as well as Idaho students. Also, Idaho’s charter schools provide an equal or better education at a significantly lower cost.

It’s a very good argument, read the whole thing over at the Statesman.