New Data Illustrates Voucher System Giveaway to Wealthy Families that Undermines Community Public Schools
Like other states with universal voucher programs, New Hampshire isn’t seeing a mass exodus from our public schools, which are attended by nearly 90% of students—and 95% of students with a disability. New data released recently by the NH Department of Education reveals that what we are seeing is precious public dollars diverted to fund a second, private and unaccountable, education system that leaves less money to properly fund public schools and control property taxes.
Year over year, the voucher program more than doubled since the Legislature removed all income eligibility requirements and is forecasted to cost the state at least $51 million this Fiscal Year. Unsurprisingly, as we warned, the percentage of low-income students participating in the program fell precipitously – and wealthier families are reaping the benefits of this giveaway of taxpayer dollars. Of the new enrollees to the program, 97% were already in a setting other than a public school.
Public dollars belong in public schools. Full stop. If you agree, please join us on Wednesday, December 10 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. for a voucher accountability visibility event at the State House arch, hosted by Kent Street Coalition.
Further Reading:
- New Hampshire Bulletin: As New Hampshire education freedom accounts double, percentage of low-income recipients drops
- Keene Sentinel: Less than 10% of new EFA participants switched from public schools
- Concord Monitor: Data: Under expanded EFA program, few students switched from public schools
New Bill Language Faucet Opens Up: Highlights Thus Far
Last month we mentioned that language for new bills was starting to trickle out, but now the faucet is completely open with lots of language being published daily, so be sure to look if that title you were following is now a full-fledged bill for 2026 legislative year using tracker here!
Here are the titles of a few bills we anticipate will be especially significant:
- SB 403: requiring all schools to start the school year after Labor Day
- SB 581: modifying education freedom account (EFA) eligibility and removing priority guidelines and the enrollment cap relative to EFA eligibility.
- SB 434: relative to regulation of public school materials.
- HB 1358: establishing a commission to study transitioning all public schools to public charter schools and relative to the method for converting to a charter school.
- HB 1355: relative to eliminating the default budget from the official ballot referenda.
SAVE THE DATE: Get Prepared for Petitioned Warrant Articles with Webinar on 12/16
It’s almost school district meeting season and that means it’s time to start thinking about how you can work to protect public schools in 2026 and beyond. Legislators have been busy making tweaks to state laws and creating new options for anti-public education activists to cut school budgets at the local level. We want to make sure you’re prepared to monitor and fight back against harmful petition warrant articles—at traditional in-person annual meetings and ballot votes in SB 2 communities.
Join NEA-New Hampshire on Tuesday, December 16 at 6 p.m. for a members-only webinar about petition warrant articles. Even if you don’t have a collective bargaining agreement up for a vote in the New Year, this is a critical opportunity for educators to learn about how to look for and combat potential attacks on your local schools that would negatively impact your students, your community, and your profession.
Registration is required for this webinar. If you’re unable to attend in person, a video recording will be sent to registrants following the event. This will be the first of two webinars, with a follow-up in January focused on how to defeat these petition warrant articles.
Questions?
If you have questions on any of these bills or ones not mentioned here, please feel free to contact Brian Hawkins, NEA-NH Director of Government Relations at [email protected].
