GILBERT SAYS CRITCHFIELD BACKS VOUCHERS, WOULD OPEN DOOR TO FOR-PROFIT SCHOOLS

“She Can’t Run Away from the Republican Party Platform and Her Own Words,” Gilbert says. 

School Superintendent candidate Terry Gilbert says his opponent supports voucher legislation, which would open the door to for-profit education, contrary to Idaho’s Constitution.

Gilbert points to Mrs. Critchfield’s support of the Republican Party Platform, adopted in July, which clearly supports vouchers. It has this to say on the subject:

“We believe in improving the quality of education for every child by maximizing parental choice. This will be accomplished through money following students to their parents’ school of choice. 

In other words, vouchers.

The party website also requires each candidate to commit to an “integrity” statement, which reads:

“Except for the provisions specifically noted below, I support the Idaho Republican Party Platform and accept it as the standard by which my performance as a candidate and as an officeholder should be evaluated.”

Noting that Mrs. Critchfield did not list any provisions with which she disagreed, Gilbert said we must take her at her word:  “By her own words, she supports the platform and she supports vouchers,” Gilbert said. He noted that she has also said she is “open” to vouchers.

Gilbert said the language in the Republican Party Platform is both deceptive, since parents already have school choice, and in conflict with the Idaho Constitution, which reads:

“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.”

“Vouchers are nothing but a scheme put forth by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, its acolytes in the legislature, and its out-of-state corporate funders to destroy public schools and line investors’ pockets,” Gilbert said. “Public money belongs in public schools.”

Gilbert said we should have learned our lesson in the 1980s with the disaster of private prisons. “But these profiteers don’t give up and now they’re after your children,“ he said.