A resolution that aims to toss out Idaho's so-called Blaine amendment has been introduced in Senate Education Committee Monday afternoon.

Idaho’s Blaine amendment says public funds cannot be used for any sectarian or religious purpose, including for religious schools.

Sen. Brian Lenney (R-Nampa) and members of the Idaho Freedom Caucus have pointed to recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions in claiming that part Idaho’s constitution is dead.

“Article 9, section 5, known as the Blaine Amendment is a relic of religious bigotry that prohibits funds, state funds, I should say, from flowing to sectarian organizations, given the recent Supreme Court’s, multiple Supreme Court rulings over the past few years that have rendered it null and void,” Rep. Lenney told the committee.

Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, a member of the Senate Education committee, does not agree that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling has made Idaho's Blaine amendment null.

"What the Supreme Court said is that if you open the door to spending public funds for private schools, then you also have to open the door for religious schools," said Ward-Engelking.

The motion to print the resolution passed without discussion. If the proposal gets a public hearing, there will likely be discussion.

Ward-Engelking says she thinks this part of Idaho's constitution needs to stay in tact.

"We try not to amend [the constitution] or repeal provisions on it. We think it's a piece of work that has guided us very well in the past, and we're looking at a record surplus, and really quite a lot of positive things, and it's because we adhere to the Idaho Constitution," said Sen. Ward-Engelking.

She said she believes it would be very difficult for this proposal to pass the Senate floor.

"We really currently underfund public education in Idaho, and we don't have the money needed to also fund every religious school and every private school in the state," Ward-Engelking said. "We have almost a billion dollars in backlog deferred maintenance, so we've got a lot of things yet to do for our public charter schools and public traditional schools before we should take on anything else."

If the resolution were to move out of committee, amending the state’s constitution would need two-thirds of each chamber’s support before the question goes before voters in the next general election. A simple majority of voters would be needed to amend the constitution.