COEUR d’ALENE ­— The message of Reclaim Idaho when it comes to the “Invest in Idaho” initiative, isn’t tax those who have more money, said Luke Mayville.

“It’s not some kind of populism against the rich,” said the co-founder of Reclaim Idaho. “Our message is simply, we need to give our kids a better chance to make a living.”

The ballot initiative campaign seeks to invest $170 million in K-12 education. All new revenue will be deposited in a Quality Education Fund to meet the most urgent needs of students, according to Reclaim Idaho.

And in looking closely at who is best able to pay more for that to happen, the group believes it falls to couples making more than $500,000 a year, singles making more than $250,000, and corporations.

“It doesn’t drive up the corporate income rate,” Mayville said Monday night. “It just restores it back to where it used to be, 8%.”

It would create zero new taxes on about 95 percent of Idahoans, Mayville said.

“However you look at it, it’s a very modest proposal,” Mayville said.

“All for the basic purpose of giving our young people a better chance to make a living,” he added.

Each of the crowd of about 30 people gathered in the living room of the Coeur d’Alene home nodded in agreement.

Reclaim Idaho is on a statewide tour to organize volunteers and supporters for the initiative, including stops in Sandpoint Saturday and Coeur d’Alene. Mayville and Executive Director Rebecca Schroeder spoke at both meetings.

The “20 Days of Action” tour will then head to southern and eastern Idaho.

Reclaim Idaho is a volunteer, nonpartisan, volunteer organization responsible for getting Medicaid expansion on the November 2018 ballot. The measure passed with 61 percent of the statewide vote.

“In addition to providing healthcare access to tens of thousands of Idahoans, Medicaid Expansion is expected to bring back $400 million in federal funds to Idaho, shore up Idaho’s rural hospitals, and create thousands of jobs around the state,” a press release said.

On the back of that success, Reclaim Idaho has turned its attention to public education.

Mayville and Schroeder said that during the past 20 years, K-12 education in Idaho has been underfunded, while tax breaks have gone to corporations and the wealthy.

The initiative needs 55,000 valid signatures by April 30 to be on November’s ballot.

Suzanne Marshall, who hosted the meeting, is a historian who taught in college 27 years. She supports the initiative and more funding for public education.

“It’s not good to live in a community of uneducated people or poorly educated people. It’s not good for anybody. I just think we should fund it,” she said. “I’m not a greedy person, most teachers aren’t, but they need to have a decent salary because they do an important job.”

Mary Foster, another resident at the meeting, also said Idaho schools are underfunded.

She said she has taught in the past and when she moved to Idaho, she earned a teaching certificate.

“I found I made more money working for the University of Idaho as a custodian than I could earn as a teacher,” she said.

Schroeder said the group’s success in 2018 with Medicaid expansion “was really inspiring to see what we could accomplish as citizen lawmakers.

“Now we’re taking on another policy crisis that is a fundamental Idaho value and impacts every community in the state, and that is public education,” she said.

Mayville is confident Reclaim Idaho will have success with “Invest in Idaho” because it will use a similar strategy.

“That’s how important events like this are,” he said. It’s not just a statewide campaign, but “20 or 25 local campaigns. That’s really the way we win.”

He credited most Idahoans with wanting to leave the next generation with at least as good as opportunities as they had growing up, if not better.

Mayville wanted to make clear the “why” behind the initiative is to give more opportunity to the young people of Idaho.

“But more basic than that, it’s about giving them a chance to make a living,” he said.

“Invest in Idaho” does that in two ways, he said. One is providing students with access to strong programs, and two, with more access to qualified, experienced teachers. “And it does that to the tune of $170 to $200 million a year,” he said.

There hasn’t been any organized opposition to the initiative — yet, he said, but as the initiative gets closer to being on the ballot, he expects there will be.

Which is why he said volunteers with Reclaim Idaho must deliver a clear message: Teachers are leaving Idaho, programs are being cut, and students are paying the price.

The Invest in Idaho initiative can help keep teachers, maintain programs and enhance education without costing the vast majority of residents any money, he said.

“We as a state have to start getting serious about investing in education and that means picking up the pace and doing more,” Mayville said.