New Poll: What Idahoans Say on Refundable Tax Credits and School Choice

Idaho isn’t usually at the center of conversations about school choice, but that’s changing. Earlier this year, Idaho established the state’s first school choice program, the Parental Choice Tax Credit. It provides a refundable tax credit (up to $5,000 per student) for families sending their kids to nonpublic schools.

The program launched this school year, and applications for reimbursements of educational expenses open in January. However, the future of school choice in Idaho has been thrown into doubt due to an ongoing legal challenge against the tax credit legislation.

But what do people in Idaho think?

To help answer that question, EdChoice and Morning Consult surveyed a nationally representative sample of US adults and school parents with an oversample of Idaho residents. The survey reached Idahoans (N = 425) and Idaho school parents (N = 326) from October 10-19, 2025. See the full crosstabs for Idaho parents and adults.

On Refundable Tax Credits

We asked Idahoans if they support or oppose a refundable tax credit for K-12 education expenses. Almost two-thirds of Idaho adults (63%) support refundable tax credits. Notably, a substantial number (22%) are undecided, leaving only 16% of Idaho adults who oppose the policy.

Support is even higher among Idaho school parents, with nearly 78% saying that they support refundable tax credits for education. Once again, the number who are undecided on the issue (12%) is greater than the number who actively oppose tax credits (10%).

These findings show that Idahoans are ready for a refundable tax credit that offers school choice options. The Parental Choice Tax Credit seems like a program that has the will of the people behind it.

On Vouchers and ESAs

We also surveyed Idahoans on what they think of other school choice models, like vouchers and education savings accounts (ESAs).

ESAs receive similarly high levels of support from Idahoans. Two-thirds of adults (66%) and 79% of school parents support ESAs. The majority of Idahoans support vouchers as well, with 60% of adults and three-fourths of parents (74%) expressing support. In other words, the survey suggests that people from Idaho are generally receptive towards private school choice and support a variety of policy models that enable school choice.

On Where Parents Would Send Their Child to School

Another pertinent question is whether, given the opportunity, Idaho school parents would want to send their kids to a school outside of the public district school system. We asked Idaho parents what type of school they would choose for their child, if they had the option.

About 4 in 10 parents said they would choose a public school, either in their assigned school district (34%) or in another area (5%). However, the majority of school parents (55%) would choose another option, such as a charter school (11%), homeschool (9%), or private school (35%).

To put that in perspective, approximately 80% of Idaho students attend public schools according to the 2025 EdChoice Share, compared to 39% of parents who actually prefer a public school option to educate their children. That’s a large divide between parents’ schooling preferences and the current reality.

On the Direction of K-12 Education

Finally, an important bellwether question is how Idahoans feel about the direction of education in the country right now.

In October, the majority of Idahoans (53%) said that education is on the wrong track in the U.S. Only 23% said education was moving in the right direction. Idaho parents have a comparatively more positive outlook, with 43% expressing pessimism about education and 41% feeling optimistic.

Idahoans tend to feel more positive about education in their own state, with 51% of parents and 35% of adults feeling optimistic—but that still leaves substantial room for improvement. Perhaps offering parents more options in their children’s schooling will help build more confidence in the direction of education.

Visit the EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker site to access more information on our polling, including:

• Idaho School Parents Crosstabs
• Idaho Adults Crosstabs
• Survey Questionnaire October 2025
• Description of our methodology

EdChoice sponsors and develops the monthly Public Opinion Tracker survey series. In partnership with Morning Consult, the online survey was administered October 10 to 19, 2025. This project obtained unweighted state samples of 425 adults (ages 18+) and 326 K-12 school parents in Idaho. To ensure representativeness, statistical results were weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies based on certain demographic information provided by the U.S. Census Bureau based on: Age, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Education.