CONCORD, NH – Today, Governor Kelly Ayotte delivered her first budget proposal to state lawmakers as the Senate confirmation hearing began for Education Secretary Nominee Linda McMahon in Washington, D.C. In her address, Governor Ayotte stated: “We understand the skyrocketing costs facing towns in providing special education and we want to lessen that burden. We are making education freedom available to all public school students.” Moments later, McMahon went on record to say private schools funded by taxpayer vouchers do and should have the right to turn children away if those children don’t those the private schools’ needs.
Megan Tuttle, President of NEA-New Hampshire, provided the following statement in response:
“As the Trump administration attempts to advance policies that would eliminate essential support and protections for students, increase class sizes, and divert funds away from New Hampshire, our students need strong leaders at the state and local levels.
In January, more than a thousand voters attended the Kearsarge Regional School District deliberative session to overwhelmingly support public school funding. This week, more than 30,000 Granite Staters took action to protect learning opportunities for public school students. Time and again, New Hampshire residents are saying loud and clear that they support public education. We should all agree that every student deserves a quality education with qualified educators. But that is not possible until the state of New Hampshire adequately funds public education – including special education.
New Hampshire’s public schools are legally required to provide special education services – to the tune of $745 million total in 2024. While the special education funding increase announced today is a step in the right direction and a sign that the governor has heard the outcry from voters, it is still a drop in the bucket compared to the cost borne by property taxpayers to fund our public schools.
As an educator, I am appalled that the governor is using students who receive special education services as a tactic to divert more public dollars away from public schools to private schools that do not guarantee the rights of the same students she purports to be helping. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how our public schools work, how vouchers work, and what families want. Let’s be clear – any budget that expands our state’s unaccountable voucher program will take more money away from public schools, which are attended by nearly 90% of New Hampshire students and 95% of students with a disability.
Kids thrive when we ensure local public schools have the resources needed to foster a supportive learning environment. New Hampshire deserves – and needs – a state budget that fully funds public education and protects the rights of students with disabilities. Governor Ayotte’s budget proposal, however, falls short of delivering on that promise. We look forward to working with budget writers on both sides of the aisle to build a budget that truly ensures all Granite State students can build bright futures.”
Background:
Governor Ayotte’s Budget Proposal Highlights:
- Governor Ayotte’s budget proposal increases funding for special education reimbursement aid by $32 million over the next biennium ($16 million annually). This move comes on the heels of public outrage over an announcement from Commissioner Edelblut that there was a $16 million gap in funding for school districts.
- In her speech, Ayotte touted universal eligibility for Education Freedom Accounts for students currently enrolled in our public schools to help “lessen the burden” of special education costs for school districts.
- The budget proposal also includes $1 million in grant funding for local school districts to support local policies to get cell phones out of classrooms.
Federal Context:
- Students across New Hampshire benefit from programs run by the Department of Education, especially lower-income students in rural, suburban, and urban communities, students who qualify for federal grants or loans to receive career training or attend 2- and 4-year colleges, and students with disabilities. In our community, these proposed cuts would directly affect local schools, impacting funding, educational opportunities, and support systems for students who rely on vital services.
- More than 35,000 students in New Hampshire receive Title I funds from the Department of Education. Granite State public schools would lose millions in vital funding to hire teachers and other school support staff.
- Losing federal dollars would further exacerbate the educator shortages plaguing New Hampshire public schools, causing class sizes to balloon.
- Special education programs will suffer with the loss of funding that goes to New Hampshire students. New Hampshire educators and parents expect elected officials to prioritize our students’ futures and strengthen our public schools, so they remain a cornerstone of opportunity and equality.
New Hampshire’s current voucher program:
- New Hampshire’s voucher program was launched in 2021 and permits families to use taxpayer funds to pay for tuition or costs associated with private schools, homeschool, and other non-public school options.
- Funds to cover vouchers – which will cost an estimated $24 million this year alone – come directly from the Education Trust Fund.
- A recent analysis from Reaching Higher NH indicates that expanding our voucher program with no income limit could cost the state over $100 million dollars per year.
- 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 data from the NH Department of Education, enrollment in the voucher program reached 5,321 participants in the start of September of 2024, with a forecast of at least $27.6 million for this fiscal year.
- 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.
Additional Voucher Information:
- February 12, 2025 Orlando Sentinel report: Millions flow to wealthy families, pricey private schools under Florida’s supercharged voucher program
- When states collect data on students who use school vouchers, those students do not report improved outcomes compared to their publicly educated peers. In fact, in a study on the impact of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, they performed worse after participating in their state’s school voucher program – which is consistent with findings in other states.
- Recent research out of Stanford University further validates that “school choice” policies only increase segregation. You can read more about Stanford’s research at this link: 70 years after Brown v. Board of Education, new research shows rise in school segregation.
Special Education Funding:
- Many state programs cut the child off from their rights under IDEA. The child is then no longer entitled to the special education and related services or procedural protections mandated by IDEA.
- Families face severe consequences when IDEA rights are terminated such as:
- The evaluation conducted to diagnose the disability(s) and inform school teams about the nature of the child’s disability is not viewed as a valuable tool by the private/religious school.
- Students whose needs ultimately cannot be met [and are discharged from the private school] are then required to start the evaluation and planning process under IDEA all over again – wasting precious time during a valuable formative stage of development.
- Parents have no recourse and are forced to start over in the IDEA process; meanwhile, the child is languishing and not receiving needed services and support.
- Families encounter financial strain because the funding provided by the voucher program does not cover transportation or other necessary services and supports that a student needs.
- Private or religious schools push out children they determine are too hard to educate. There is little to no protection if the child is asked to leave the private/religious school.
- There is often no accountability for student outcomes in a private or religious school. Typical “consumer” accountability does not always work as students with disabilities are often counseled out or found not eligible for private school due to the complexities or challenges of their needs.
- Too little data exists to compare the academic outcomes of students with disabilities [and other students] participating in voucher programs to public school students.
- The Fallacy of Choice: The Destructive Effect of School Vouchers on Children with Disabilities (American University Law Review)
- “We show that for children with disabilities, the price of admission into so-called “school choice” programs is so high that it is effectively no real choice at all. School voucher programs require students with disabilities to sign away their robust federal rights and protections in the public school system. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—the preeminent legislative safeguard for students with disabilities—these rights include the right to a “free and appropriate public education” delivered through an “individualized education plan.”
- By giving up these protections, children with disabilities are left at the mercy of private schools that have no legal obligation to provide them with an appropriate education, and, in the vast majority of cases, are not legally prohibited from discriminating against them on the basis of their disability. We argue that school voucher programs—including a proposed federal voucher program—put the education of students with disabilities back decades and likely constitute a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
- If your child receives additional services in school — like speech therapy or occupational therapy — private schools do not have to provide these services. These supports may have to be purchased outside of school.
- Private schools also don’t have to follow hiring guidelines that public schools do. This means your child’s teachers may not have the same level of special education expertise that public school teachers have.
- They don’t have to provide data on how well their students are doing, either. They don’t have to give standardized tests. That makes it hard to know how special education students are faring.
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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.