By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — Supporters of bills expanding the state’s new Education Freedom Account program say it serves as an escape valve for students who do not fit or thrive in the public school environment.
But opponents argued the legislature would be irresponsible to spend millions and millions of taxpayer dollars expanding a program that lacks evidence of its success.
On Tuesday the Senate Education Committee held public hearings on three bills dealing with the EFA program, two of which would expand it, some said exponentially given the vagueness of one of the bills.
Parents in the program turned out to tell the committee their stories of their children, often being bullied or needing special services they said public schools failed to provide.
Renee Austin of Derry said her daughter has a disability and was about to attend Derry public schools. She said they had three meetings and her daughter tested, only to be turned down for an individual learning plan or a 504 plan.
“My daughter is smart, sweet and compliant. We asked for simple things like extra hand washing, direction to chewy items we provided,” she said. “Academically she needed extra reading help and speech. I was told that despite this, no 504 or IEP needed to be established.”
Austin said she has friends in other towns where they had a 30-minute meeting and their child is served wonderfully, noting there are no checks and balances in the system.
“No parent should have to spend thousands to defend basic special education needs. The public school had a chance to have tax dollars to educate my child,” Austin said. “They used that money to deny her rights. I’m using the money to provide her with an education. And that is the goal (of the EFA program), after all.”
Another parent told of her child being constantly bullied and how she used the EFA program to put her child in a private school that is serving the child well.
But opponents said much of the oversight required in statute for the program has not been done, noting the oversight committee has met only twice and failed to produce a report due in November.
The bill was opposed by both of the major teachers unions in the state, the National Education Association — NH and the American Federation of Teachers —NH whose presidents both said the money being spent on the program would be more effectively spent on existing public schools which are chronically underfunded by the state.
Deb Howes, the president of AFT-NH, said the 164,000 public school students in the state have been waiting decades for the state to properly fund an adequate education, and until that is done the state should not be expanding any other alternative program until its obligations are met.
“We really need to be spending our tax dollars on public education,” Howes said. “Not waste taxpayer funds on failed educational experiments.”
She cited studies of other voucher programs in states around the country showing those leaving public schools do not perform as well on assessments as students in public schools.
Janet Ward of Hopkinton noted the lack of data, failure of the oversight committee to meet its obligation and a performance audit planned for the fall on the EFA program.
“As a taxpayer I am required to pay for a product I have not personally been able to see in any way unlike public schools,” she said, which are community schools not government schools as one person called them in supporting the EFA program.
“We should consider our nation’s history. In the 18th century our nation was born of a revolution fought because of taxation without representation,” Ward said. “Through the EFA program New Hampshire taxpayers are enduring taxation without representation.”
The bills before the committee Tuesday were House Bill 367, which would increase parents’ income threshold for a child to be eligible for the program by about $9,000 for a family of four by increasing the limit from 300 percent of the federal poverty level to 350 percent.
House Bill 464 would allow children to automatically qualify if they are in foster care, military families, homeless, transients or are on the free or reduced lunch program. Also children in schools that are in need of improvement, or dangerous would also automatically qualify for the program.
Several of the provisions caused several people to note there may be unintended consequences that would allow any child in the state to qualify for the program.
The third bill, House Bill 446, would require the organization administering the program to inform parents they will lose their federal special education rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act if they participate in the program.
Rep. David Luneau, D-Hopkinton, raised the issue that about 75 to 90 percent of the participants in the program were in private or religious schools or being homeschooled before the program began in 2021, meaning those parents were essentially given a tuition subsidy with state money from the Education Trust Fund, which also pays for the state’s adequacy aid program.
“This is not a secret,” Luneau said. “What is a secret is the results of the EFA program.”
He questioned if spending $60 million on the program over the next two years is one of the legislature’s top priorities or if the money could be put to better use.
He noted the $60 million will be spent on from 3,200 to 6.400 students, instead of the 164,000 other public school students.
Money could be directed to reducing property taxes for retired couples or for early childhood education that would help reduce what young families have to spend, he said.
“Is this the best thing we could do with $60 million in state funds,” Luneau asked.
Rep. Rick Ladd, R-Haverhill, said the state has to recognize that not all children do well in public schools. He noted schools have gotten away from the basics and moved more toward the social and emotional side.
The EFA program is meant to be an alternative and increasing the income cutoff will allow more families to participate.
He suggested the income limit would rise incrementally over the years to the point where it would support all parents who might want to use the program regardless of income.
Rep. Clayton Wood, R-Pittsfield, said he has been a volunteer in his town’s school system for 10 to 15 years and he supports the EFA program.
He did not want to get into what is right and wrong with EFAs but noted it puts the parents in the middle which is most effective for everyone.
He dismissed the call to wait until more data is available.
“Most of us don’t have time to wait,” Wood said. “We have kids in school. What do you do with those kids?”
But Mary Wilke of Concord, said the legislature would be wise to wait until the Legislative Budget Assistant’s performance audit of the new program is done.
And she also noted the failure of the oversight committee to produce reports on the program’s progress.
“After a year-and-a-half and an expenditure of $22.5 million,” Wilke said, “questions have not been answered and in some cases refused to be answered. We need safeguards in place.”
The committee did not make any immediate recommendations on the three bills.
