Much of the discussion around the issue of using taxpayer dollars to help families send their children to private schools has centered on coming up with a compromise, because it’s inevitable this is the year — finally — that Idaho legislators approve some form of taxpayer-funded private education.

It’s a tempting position to take: “Well, something’s going to get passed this year, so we should at least work with the school voucher proponents to put guardrails and limits on it.”

Setting income limits, limiting total funding, including a sunset clause or making it just a tax credit all sound like reasonable compromises.

But Idaho legislators — and Idaho taxpayers — shouldn’t take the bait.

Any proposal that diverts any amount of money under any circumstances to help fund private education is the camel’s nose under the tent.

“It’s a mistake to treat this as something you have to compromise on because … once you compromise you open the door,” Sen. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, said at a meeting in December between education leaders and lawmakers, according to Idaho Education News. “Even if there are sideboards put on … those sideboards will be removed in another few years. So this is the place to take a stand.”

We’ll let you in on a secret: All of these voucher programs started out small and with sideboards.

For example, the Indiana program, when it first started in 2011, targeted just low- and middle-income families, limited scholarship amounts and set a cap on participation.

In its first year, the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program cost approximately $15.5 million.

Today, the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program costs approximately $500 million a year.

Indiana’s program now includes households with incomes up to 400% of the amount required for a student to qualify for the federal free or reduced price lunch program, equal to about $220,000, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Aside from the slippery slope argument, we’ll add that it’s OK for Idaho legislators to just say no simply because it’s the right thing to stand on principle.

It’s OK to not compromise on your principles.

Idaho lawmakers have an obligation “to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools,” according to the Idaho Constitution.

That’s it. End of story. Idaho lawmakers do not have an obligation to fund a second system of private, paid schools.

Please note that the word “system” is right there in the Constitution, so don’t listen to those national school voucher grifters who try to get you to mindlessly repeat the mantra “fund students, not systems.”

That’s not how it works. We all pool our money to fund a system that educates students.

Idaho taxpayers already fund one education system; why should we now have to fund yet another education system?

Regarding the tax credit idea, if a family gets a $5,000 tax credit for sending their kid to private school, that means they’re not contributing to the big pool of money that everyone else is contributing to to fund public education.

“But by removing their child from the public education system, the state doesn’t have to pay to educate that child,” the argument goes.

By that logic, every family who doesn’t have a child in the public school system should get their money back because they’re not placing a financial burden on public education.

It doesn’t work that way.

We all provide a little bit of money to provide for the education of all of Idaho’s children — whether they’re our children or not.

We pay for roads we don’t drive on. We pay for firefighters who never darken our door, police officers whom we never meet and, yes, schools we never set foot in.

And that’s not just our position, it’s also the position of Idaho’s homeschooling community.

Don’t let the school voucher crowd convince you that it’s inevitable this year, so you should compromise.

Stand firm and stand against any scheme that diverts taxpayer dollars to private education.

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