Kids Matter

Unmasking another leftist front group

Everyone agrees that children are important, but different political factions demonstrate that belief in very different ways. For example, conservatives believe that children should be cherished and protected, and their innocence defended, as they are gradually introduced to a world full of both wonders and dangers. We believe the most important relationship in a child’s life is with his father and mother.

Progressives, on the other hand, seem to believe that children must be exposed to the worst the world has to offer from a young age. They believe the state should step between parents and children to prevent them from learning politically incorrect ideas, and that children should be given drugs and subjected to mutilating surgeries rather than be allowed to grow naturally into the person they were meant to be.

Despite both sides claiming to support children, our ideas of how to do so are wildly divergent. Both sides will proclaim that their political projects are “for the children,” so it’s important to dig deeper to understand exactly what those projects entail.

Recently on social media, several conservative legislators, including Sen. Tammy Nichols, shared pictures of their scores from an organization called Idaho Children Are Primary (ICAP):

Oh no! With a score of only 29%, Sen. Nichols must not care about children at all — at least, that’s what ICAP wants you to think. But head over to their so-called Kids Matter Index to see what legislative priorities actually earned those scores:

• S1199 - Amend Idaho Parental Rights Act (SUPPORT)

• S1179 - Newborns Required Tests Exemptions (OPPOSE)

• H382 - Student Immigration Status (OPPOSE)

• S1145 - Early Literacy Readiness Program (SUPPORT)

• HJR001 - Parents, Education, Compulsory (OPPOSE)

• H345 - Medicaid Amendments, Leg Approval (OPPOSE)

• S1070 - Parent Tech Awareness Program (SUPPORT)

• H138 - Medicaid Expansion Conditions (OPPOSE)

• H135 - Public Benefits Lawful Presence (OPPOSE)

• H111 - Federal Food Stamps, Photo ID (OPPOSE)

• H273 - Firearms, School Property (OPPOSE)

• H279 - Education, Per Student Funding (OPPOSE)

• S1096 - Education Funding, Weighted per Student (SUPPORT)

• S1069 - Literacy Intervention (SUPPORT)

• H236 - Denial of Attendance, Enrollment (SUPPORT)

• H243 - Daycare Licenses (OPPOSE)

• H75 - Public School Facilities Funding (SUPPORT)

• S1025 - Education Choice & Competition Act / Empowering Parents Grant Program (OPPOSE)

• S1023 - "Medical Freedom" (OPPOSE)

• S1036 - Human Gene Therapy Moratorium (OPPOSE)

• H44 - School Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) (SUPPORT)

• H42 - School Safety & Advisory Board (OPPOSE)

• H93 - Parental Choice Tax Credit (OPPOSE)

• S1021 - Parental Rights & Adoptions (SUPPORT)

As you can see, ICAP seems to use a few simple heuristics in determining whether to support or oppose a bill:

• Does it spend tax dollars? Support

• Does it protect children? Oppose

• Does it increase the power of the education bureaucracy? Support

• Does it give parents more influence in their children’s lives and education? Oppose

A look at ICAP’s 2025 index shows that all fifteen Democrats in the Legislature scored a perfect 100%. Meanwhile, the highest-scoring Republican was Sen. Jim Guthrie at 93%, and the lowest was Rep. Jaron Crane at 10%. ICAP scores correlate negatively with scores from the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Index:

It seems obvious to me, and I hope to you as well, that ICAP is a progressive front group seeking more tax dollars for the education bureaucracy and more government control over our children. That raises the question: why would any self-identified Republican give this group legitimacy?

At the top of ICAP’s advisory board is Julie Yamamoto, a former state representative who lost her primary in 2024, largely due to her opposition to school choice. The organization Stop Idaho RINOs posted a video earlier this year of Yamamoto joining Democrats to denounce school choice:

Yamamoto received a 79% score from ICAP in 2024, tied for the highest among Republicans. (As in 2025, every Democrat scored higher than every Republican.) That year, ICAP opposed bills that would have prohibited schools and libraries from giving obscene materials to children, made the childhood immunization registry opt-in rather than opt-out, and stopped taxpayer dollars from being used for transgender drugs and surgeries.

In 2023, Yamamoto received a 92% — again, the highest among Republicans, and again trailing every Democrat. That year, ICAP opposed bills to protect children from obscene materials and sexually explicit performances, and to prohibit child gender mutilation.

Groups like Stop Idaho RINOs took a lot of heat for criticizing Yamamoto during the 2023 and 2024 sessions, but their instincts have been vindicated. Her appointment to ICAP’s advisory board is just further confirmation of her far-left positions.

In addition to Yamamoto, the advisory board includes former Republican representative Fred Wood, former Idaho first lady Patricia Kempthorne, and several others with whom I’m less familiar. The organization’s “members emiritus” include lobbyist Luke Malek and Idaho GOP Region VIII chair Trent Clark, among others.

This isn’t the first time I’ve examined ICAP. In December 2023, I wrote about how ICAP and its counterpart, Idaho Voices for Children, advocate for ever-greater government control and ever-larger taxpayer subsidies:

These organizations, which claim to act on behalf of children and families, are all about taking your tax dollars and redistributing them to others through the bureaucracy. This is where the pro-life movement needs to take a strong stand on free market solutions to society’s problems. Proponents of socialist policies understand that pro-lifers are compassionate people, so they play on that compassion to push their government programs. People support organizations like Idaho Voices for Children and Idaho Children Are Primary because they assume that anyone working on behalf of kids must be worthwhile, without perhaps considering the long term consequences of bringing every citizen under the umbrella of government bureaucracy.

Beware of organizations that use children as a front for radical left-wing advocacy, and beware of so-called Republicans who give them cover. Our children are too important to trust to the government or ideological NGOs.

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