When some of our Idaho Republican leaders say they support family values, they try to project a vision of a secure future with a stable and healthy home life. But do their policies really benefit Idaho families?
Some of these politicians say book bans protect our children’s innocence, but I think going hungry makes life for kids a lot harder than opening their minds by reading a book. Earlier this year, nearly every Senate Republican in Idaho voted down a bill for a modest federally-funded summer EBT program for low-income families struggling to put food on the table. Protecting a narrow worldview seems to be a higher priority to them than keeping our kids from going hungry.
Some of our local representatives support school “choice” voucher programs, which take money away from our disastrously underfunded public schools. School vouchers move us away from the great equalizing institution of public education and in the direction of privatizing schools, where children from lower-income backgrounds and kids who need disability accommodations will not get an equal education.
Many of these same politicians attempt to thwart progress for healthcare in Idaho time and time again. After Idaho’s citizens voted Medicaid expansion into law, they have repeatedly tried to repeal it. They have also gone so far as to attack the ballot initiative process protected by the Idaho constitution to take the power of policymaking away from everyday Idahoans. Healthcare is a human right. If a mother can’t afford insulin, rations it, and dies from kidney failure, her kids are left without a mom. Maybe parent 1, sick with cancer, needs parent 2 to have a second job in order to avoid bankruptcy. With both parents sick or working, the kids suffer. You can only imagine how a lack of healthcare disrupts, adds immense stress to, and tears families apart.
While wages have remained stagnant for decades even with recent price gouging, GOP leaders (who have been in charge of our state for 30 years) have voted against minimum wage increases at every turn. They have also spoken out against rent regulation that would keep housing affordable, as demonstrated earlier this year by the party-line votes on House Bill 545. Without better pay or affordable housing, financial stressors undermine the security and stability of home life.
Instead of using our tax dollars to benefit all families, the current crop of policymakers want to enforce a narrow vision of what a family should be. If you are a single-parent family, if you want the reproductive freedoms to plan your family, if you have LGBT+ family members, or if you prefer not to follow traditional gender roles, some local legislators have actively supported legislation against your best interest.
I urge you to consider this when you head to the ballot box this November. Look forward and consider casting a vote down ballot for real family values that benefit all of us.
Cecile Pérez is a concerned citizen who wants to make a difference. She is a Chicane serving on the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee as chair of legislative district 32.