It was an amazing display two weeks ago in the Idaho Capitol. Simultaneously, two bills were being debated in the House and Senate. In the House was the Medicaid expansion reinforcement bill, House Bill 138. In the Senate was the school choice tax credit bill, House Bill 93. Hold on for the amazing part.

Let’s start with Medicaid. The voter initiative for Medicaid expansion was advertised to cost Idaho just over $400 million, but in just five years has quickly swollen to over $1.36 billion — more than a threefold increase!

The Medicaid bill would force accountability in the program in a variety of ways, including adding work requirements for able-bodied recipients, establishing enrollment caps, reducing improper payments to less than 5%, and putting time limits on recipiency for working families. If passed, it would either establish efficiency to the tune of $106 million in savings, or it would undo expansion and thereby save $136 million in state spending and close to $1.22 billion in federal spending. It’s an accountability bill.

Regarding education, since 2006, spending on public education in Idaho has increased from $1 billion to over $3 billion, but reading and math proficiency are stuck at roughly 32%. If you start to view education choice as the ultimate accountability for public education, things begin to make sense.

The school choice bill provides families tax credits up to $5,000 per child not enrolled in public schools (i.e., choosing homeschool or private school). It would prioritize low-income families, require some reporting from families, and hold homeschools harmless from regulation. Parents with qualifying kids for the tax credits can claim a credit for their documented education expenses. School choice is education accountability.

Now for the amazing part. Opponents of the Medicaid accountability bill claimed such measures would likely reduce or undo Medicaid expansion entirely. They were worried that accountability would kill the bloated government program (recall the nearly $1 billion in over-spending). At the same time, opponents of the school choice bill claimed there were not enough accountability measures in the bill. Remember, the bill was for $50 million in education tax credits.

Did you catch all that?

The Medicaid bill received opposition because it required “too much” accountability (nearly $1 billion worth) — huge spending on the line.

The Education Choice bill was opposed because it provided “too little” accountability for just $50 million — a tiny fraction of the Medicaid bill. Remember, advocates for public education insist on spending more and more money despite zero improvement in outcomes and zero accountability for themselves.

What does accountability mean?

The opposing factions of the two bills were of the same ilk in each chamber. The Democrats and the mostly moderate (squishy) Republicans wanted to leave untouched the biggest waste in government (Medicaid) and oppose the very modest try at education reform (education tax credits).

It boils down to this: those who prefer government solutions to every problem — in other words, the leftists — measure “accountability” by control. And those who prefer freedom and individual choices — in other words, the conservatives — measure “accountability” by results.

The leftists always want another program, more spending, and/or more managers to address problems. They want more government and more control. Meanwhile, the conservatives insist on measuring whether the program, spending, and management produce the outcomes they’re supposed to achieve. Conservatives want to see positive, actual results.

We couldn’t have seen a starker contrast than we did with these two bills. The leftists opposed Medicaid accountability and public education accountability (by paradoxically claiming school choice wasn’t itself accountable). The conservatives wanted both bills, but for consistent accountability reasons. Idaho’s political divide was rarely as clear as the votes on those two bills demonstrated.  The Medicaid accountability narrowly passed the House, 38-32, and the school choice bill narrowly passed the Senate, 20-15, and the governor ultimately signed this bill into law.

Idaho rarely sees the two views so clearly displayed. The people want the freedom to choose for themselves, to choose well. Many of leftist legislators don’t trust the people to make decisions for themselves, they just want control — never mind the results. Idaho can do better.