Last week, Rachel Hazelip of the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) reported that Idaho Business for Education (IBE) had received over a million dollars in taxpayer money last year, money that had been appropriated for the STEM Action Center. The two organizations combined to create the Idaho STEM Ecosystem, which takes in state and federal money that is then dispersed as grants to schools, libraries, museums, etc.
IBE’s board is a who’s who of corporate executives whose names often appear in political discussions:
- Vice Chair Kurt Liebich also sits on the State Board of Education
- Treasurer Brad Ryan is a partner at Chigbrow Ryan Murata, an office that has done work with PACs associated with Gov. Brad Little
- Rep. Lori McCann is an outspoken opponent of school choice in the Idaho Legislature
- Molly Lenty sits on the board of trustees for the College of Western Idaho
- Butch Otter is a former governor who most recently promoted Proposition 1.
Hazelip’s report showed how IBE had received $1.065 million via the STEM Action Center in fiscal year 2024 alone. The Legislature appropriated $6.2 million for the STEM Action Center for fiscal year 2025.
In addition to promoting STEM apprenticeships, IBE has been one of the leading lobbying groups against school choice in Idaho. The organization’s Twitter account was fairly active in 2023 but has since gone dormant. That year, it spent considerable time promoting Gov. Little’s LAUNCH Grant, an $8,000 voucher for college graduates to use toward training in so-called in-demand careers. At the same time, IBE denounced Senate Bill 1038, which established education savings accounts, dismissing it as a “voucher system.”
IBE’s final post in 2023 was a retweet of Gov. Little promoting LAUNCH, while its only post in 2024 criticized “universal vouchers.”
IBE is back in the game this year, with two lobbyists registered with the Secretary of State’s Office. Paula Kellerer is the president and CEO of IBE, while Chuck Winder is a former state senator who was defeated in the primary election last May.
Kellerer’s January lobbying report shows what must have been a nice dinner at the Cottonwood Grill for Sen. Dave Lent, the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Lent introduced his own school choice bill this week, an expansion of the Empowering Parents Grant that would significantly expand government oversight of private institutions.
Kellerer also represented the anti school choice position at Sen. Codi Galloway’s forum last month, while Chris Cargill of Mountain States Policy Center represented the pro position.
Winder’s January report showed lobbying efforts in the governor’s office regarding Lent’s Senate Bill 1025 as well as House Bill 39, the parental choice tax credit. H39 was reintroduced as H93, and will likely see a vote in the House on Friday. I wonder what conversations the former pro tem has had with the governor regarding this legislation. Recall that Gov. Little announced tepid support for some form of school choice in his State of the State Address this year. Both S1025 and H93 are capped at $50 million, which aligns with Little’s plan.
Winder did not testify on H93 during its committee hearing on Monday, but he sat in the front row, taking it all in.
Obviously, IBE will argue that the taxpayer funds channeled through the STEM Action Center for STEM apprenticeships come from a completely separate pool than the one used to pay lobbyists to oppose school choice. However, you and I both know that money is fungible, and the public will inevitably see a connection. Taxpayer dollars go into IBE, and lobbying comes out.
This kind of arrangement may explain why those invested in the current system are so resistant to reform. School choice threatens the comfortable gravy train that runs from taxpayers, through the Legislature and Governor’s Office, and into organizations like IBE. Recall how IBE wholeheartedly supports the LAUNCH Grant, which directs tax dollars to organizations aligned with groups like IBE and the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry (IACI), while it opposes school choice initiatives that would send that money directly to families instead.
This is what a political patronage machine looks like. We have all watched in amazement as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk take on the massive federal bureaucracy that has funneled American tax dollars to leftist organizations. But consider that the same system operates here as well. If we start pulling at the threads — just as Musk is doing in DC — what might we uncover as the whole thing begins to unravel?
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About Brian Almon
Brian Almon is the Editor of the Gem State Chronicle. He also serves as Chairman of the District 14 Republican Party and is a trustee of the Eagle Public Library Board. He lives with his wife and five children in Eagle.
