The expansion would cost the state government more than $100 million a year, according to analysis.
By Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative
Lawmakers will hear testimony Thursday (Jan. 16) on a bill that would expand eligibility for educational freedom accounts — commonly known as school vouchers — to all New Hampshire families, regardless of income.
That expansion, proposed in House Bill 115, could cost the state $102 million during the 2025-26 school year, according to Reaching Higher NH, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on education in the Granite State.
Educational freedom accounts provide families vouchers averaging $4,600 per child toward the cost of homeschooling or private school tuition. That is based on the amount that the state pays per pupil to public and charter schools.
Vouchers are currently available to families with incomes at or below 350 percent of the federal poverty level, equal to $109,200 for a family of four. House Bill 115, sponsored by 15 Republican lawmakers, would remove the income cap altogether. A hearing on the bill will be held Thursday, Jan. 16, at 1 p.m. The public can also submit written testimony.
People who oppose the expansion say the state is already underfunding public education. They point to ongoing court battles in the ConVal and Rand cases, in which judges have ruled that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to fund an adequate education for students, thus putting the funding burden for schools on local taxpayers.
“Every dollar that is spent on school vouchers is a dollar that’s not available for public schools, charter schools and property tax relief,” said Christina Pretorius, policy director for Reaching Higher NH.
Pretorius argues that the voucher expansion would steer state dollars to families that have already opted for private education or homeschooling.
“Basically, it’s just finding ways to subsidize money they’re already spending,” she said.
Kate Baker Demers is executive director of the Children’s Scholarship Fund NH, which administers the educational freedom account program. She argues that state education funding should be available to every student, whether they’re educated in public school, private school, or at home.
“Having the income limits on this state adequate education grant that otherwise follows the child, really it shouldn’t be there,” she said. “It should be for every child in the state, logically.”
She said last year 325 children applied for educational freedom accounts, but were found ineligible because their family’s income exceeded the limit — $109,200 for a family of four. Families with incomes “a few dollars over that [limit] feel like this is the most important discussion of their children’s lifetime,” Baker Demers said.
The effort to expand education freedom accounts comes amid concerns about the transparency of the program. Last year, the state Department of Education declined to make all data available for a legally required performance audit, InDepthNH reported. In addition, a state audit in 2024 found that Children’s Scholarship Fund NH approved some families for the voucher program when their income exceeded limits.
“There is growing concern over the lack of transparency and accountability with the school voucher program,” Pretorius said.
Baker Demers disagreed, saying there’s “adequate transparency” around the program.
Zandra Rice Hawkins, executive director of Granite State Progress — an organization that promotes progressive solutions to critical community problems — said that lawmakers’ top priority should be fully funding public schools and addressing taxpayer concerns about school costs, not expanding vouchers.\
“The first question is whether or not we’re fully funding our public schools and we know that we’re not,” she said. She points to recent public concerns, such as those voiced during a deliberative session in the Kearsarge School District, where voters on both sides of a proposed spending cap expressed frustration with the state’s funding formula.
“It has been very clear that the message from local communities is support for the public schools,” Rice Hawkins said, “but we haven’t seen that call be answered from Concord.”
State Reps. Valerie McDonnell, R-Rockingham, and Rick Ladd, R-Grafton, sponsors of House Bill 115, did not respond to requests for comment.
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