Friends,
One of the many goals of Project 2025 is to dismantle the federal Department of Education. It aims to divert funding from public schools to religious, private, and home schools via a “school voucher” program or “Freedom Accounts,” as they are cynically called. The prevailing argument is that education vouchers offer parents freedom of choice and new opportunities for children with difficulties in a traditional school setting. However, taxpayer dollars are being used to send children to private and religious schools while depleting funds from public institutions, shifting public school funding deficits to local taxpayers.
If Project 2025’s education goals are implemented nationwide, taxpayer money will likely fund the education of wealthy students at the expense of 90% of public school students (ProPublica).
Regarding this national plan, New Hampshire is following the playbook of Project 2025. In her budget proposal, Gov. Ayotte aims to expand Education Freedom Accounts to include all students who have been in public school for a full academic year. The income cap of 350% of the federal budget would apply only to nonpublic school students already participating in the EFA program.
About 98,000 New Hampshire public school students will be potentially eligible for an Education Freedom Account beginning with the 2026 school year. There are currently approximately 5,300 students in the program and approximately 20,000 in private and religious schools. Depending on who is crunching the numbers, the program’s cost could rise as much as $100 million annually. (Concord Monitor, 2-23-25)
For NH state legislators who have been pushing the “freedom” vouchers for the past few terms, this is the stuff dreams are made of.
What are the downsides of this program for the Granite State and its financial health? The Education Trust Fund provides the funding for the EFA program, which covers adequacy grants for our school districts. When a student leaves a public school, the adequacy grant for that child follows them. However, this does not mean that the school’s costs decrease, as there are fixed expenses for maintaining school buildings, administrative duties, special education programs, and paying teachers’ salaries.
What has happened in other states that have implemented education voucher programs? A dozen states now offer private school vouchers to all families regardless of income, including Florida, Arizona, and North Carolina.
Arizona has become the poster child for a voucher program that has become a runaway train wreck. As of 2024, the Arizona program had spent over 300 million dollars, three times the original estimate. This led to a 1.4-billion-dollar budget deficit, forcing the state to cut critical infrastructure programs.
Additionally, Arizona poorly regulates schools benefiting from EFAs. These schools do not need to be accredited, and teachers are not required to have educational credentials. They also have no duty to provide special programs for special needs students, follow standardized curricula, or be accountable for academic performance at a time when scholastic scores are at historic lows.
Evidence indicates that affluent families predominantly utilized vouchers in well-rated school districts. State auditors uncovered instances of program misuse, with funds spent on vacations, clothing, and other items not intended for coverage.
In New Hampshire, private schools are raising tuition to take advantage of this newfound boondoggle and encouraging parents of students already attending private and religious schools to grab the money and run. Would most people say no to a basket of cash worth over $5,000 per child? We already know the answer to this riddle.
Cornelia Swenson of Moultonborough recently passed along a letter she wrote about New Hampshire’s EFA program that is profound and worth sharing:
“The sucking sound you will soon hear is the sound of money being drained from your public school system to pay for wealthy parents who ALREADY send their children to private or religious schools or can educate them at home.” Swenson asks, “Now, where is that money coming from? It will come from our public schools and ultimately require a rise in property taxes.”
How can voters express their concern about New Hampshire’s EFAs and their potential impact on public schools? For starters, you can contact your state representative and express your concern. To learn who your state rep is, go to https://gc.nh.gov/. There are links to contact your representative or your senator. You can tell them that you want to see your tax dollars going to public schools so that you’ll be able to buy that carton of eggs that now costs from $4 – $8 in New England.
Remember, the “freedom” in freedom accounts means the freedom to undermine our public school systems and to allow local residents to pay higher property taxes to cover this inevitable budgetary shortfall. Freedom, indeed!
With Gratitude,
Anita Burroughs
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