CONCORD, NH – Today, the New Hampshire Senate voted 13-11 in support of SB 442, which would expand our state’s private school voucher program and undermine the state manifest hardship exemption. SB 442 next goes to the Senate Finance Committee for further consideration.
Megan Tuttle, President of NEA-New Hampshire, provided the following statement after the vote:
“New Hampshire is dead last in our country when it comes to state investments in public education. Our courts have recently ruled once again that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to fund an adequate public education for our students. It is incredibly discouraging that instead of working together to meet that obligation to the 90% of Granite State students who attend neighborhood public schools, state senators are choosing instead to prop up a second education system that diverts public dollars to private and religious schools with little to no oversight.”
Background:
New Hampshire’s current voucher program:
- New Hampshire’s voucher program launched in 2021 and permits families to use taxpayer funds to pay for tuition for costs associated with private schools, homeschool, and other non-public school options.
- According to data from the NH Department of Education, enrollment in the voucher program grew 40% between 2022 and 2023, to a total of 4,211 participants in the 2023-2024 school year.
- Funds to cover vouchers – which will cost an estimated $24 million this year alone – come directly from the Education Trust Fund.
- Current eligibility requirements for New Hampshire’s school voucher program include that the child must be at least 5 years old and no older than 20 years old and entering Kindergarten – 12th grade.
- As part of the 2023 state budget, lawmakers increased the income threshold for voucher eligibility to 350% of federal poverty level.
- According to Reaching Higher NH, based on data provided by NH DOE, fewer than half (44%) of students enrolled in the voucher program this year are classified as low-income, down from 54% when the program launched in 2021.
SB 442 relative to student eligibility for education freedom accounts
- Under current state law, students can receive a reassignment to another school if their parent or guardian requests and it is deemed in the best interest of the child, or if a manifest hardship exemption exists where it is shown the student faces a detrimental impact on academic achievement in their current school.
- SB 442 would allow any student who has NOT met that best interest or hardship test to receive a private school voucher regardless of their family’s financial means. This bill lifts an income cap for anyone DENIED a school reassignment under the state’s change of school assignment that could dramatically expand New Hampshire’s private school voucher program and have negative consequences on the sustainability of New Hampshire’s Education Trust Fund that jeopardize public education funding.
Other Legislative Attempts to Expand Vouchers in 2024:
- SB 522: As written, SB 522 would further expand vouchers by extending the program to ages 2 ½ to 5, with similar wide-open usages of these public funds as the current unaccountable K-12 voucher scheme. There is no requirement in the bill as written that funds be used for pre-school education that best prepares a child to enter Kindergarten; rather, it permits similar wide-open usages of these public funds as the current K-12 voucher program using public funds from the Education Trust Fund.
- HB 1634 – would simply remove any income qualification making vouchers available to any child who is eligible to go to public school, even if their parents are millionaires and the student already attends private school.
- HB 1677 – extends eligibility for the voucher program to students who participated in the program in the preceding year, students whose enrollment transfer requests were denied, and to students in school districts which performed at 49 percent or below in statewide assessments. The vague language of the various categories of this bill could effectively open the program to anyone. These categories also hold no income limit.
- HB 1561 – expands the definition of who can qualify for vouchers to such broad categories of students that it is also effectively a universal voucher program. One allowed category states anyone “who is concerned that attending school could lead to the spread of contagious diseases such as COVID-19, the common cold, the seasonal Flu, pneumonia, or other similar diseases” qualifies with no income limit.
- HB 1665 – raises the income eligibility from 350% of the federal poverty level to 500%, which for a family of four is $150,000 per year. This would also be a significant expansion of the program.
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About NEA-New Hampshire
NEA-New Hampshire is the largest union of public employees in the state. Founded in 1854, the New Hampshire State Teachers Association became one of the “founding ten” state education associations that formed the National Education Association in 1857. Known today as NEA-NH, and comprised of more than 17,000 members, our mission to advocate for the children of New Hampshire and public-school employees, and to promote lifelong learning, remains true after more than 165 years. Our members are public school employees in all stages of their careers, including classroom teachers and other certified professionals, staff and instructors at public higher education institutions, students preparing for a teaching career, education support personnel and those retired from the profession.