By Colleen Prieto

As a New Hampshire citizen/taxpayer, and as a past home education parent who did not seek or receive any voucher, tax credit, or other taxpayer funding during our homeschool years, I find the ongoing debate about expansion of New Hampshire’s EFA (Education Freedom Account) program particularly fun to follow. So it was with great interest that I watched Representative/House Majority Leader Jason Osborne’s recent interview on WMUR (Close Up, January 12, 2025).

There are several points of information about EFAs that were left out of that interview, and are not usually mentioned by those advocating for expansion of the EFA program:

*EFAs are not saving New Hampshire taxpayers a single cent, because they are paid for through an entirely separate funding stream that pulls directly from the state’s Education Trust Fund. Property taxes (which fund 50-75% of public education in New Hampshire towns) have gone up consistently, not down, since EFAs began.

*Over 70% of kids who are currently receiving EFAs were not public-school students in the first place; over 70% of kids receiving EFAs were already in private school, or already homeschooled. That means less than 30% of EFA recipients have “switched” out of the public schools – and over 70% of EFA funds are going to families who could already afford to pay for private school tuition or homeschooling expenses. The vast majority of funds are therefore *not* helping low-income families – and expansion of EFAs to “universal” will mean more wealthy families qualify, not more low-income families (since low-income families already qualify under the current EFA income guidelines!).

*The EFA program has not been audited since it began several years ago, and the organization that is managing the program (Children’s Scholarship Fund) is based in New York, and receives 10% of all EFA funds as an administrative fee. Children’s Scholarship Fund is receiving millions of New Hampshire dollars each year to administer a program that has no audit, and therefore no accountability back to New Hampshire taxpayers.

*The EFA is used by families to fund ski equipment, horseback riding lessons, Amazon purchases, driver education classes, and other non-essential extracurricular activities. There is no question as to whether these expenses can be considered educational – lots of things are educational! The question is, should taxpayers be covering these expenses for EFA kids, especially since taxpayers do not cover ski equipment, equestrian activities, driver education, or laptops and toys for public school kids.

These are just a small handful of the issues related to New Hampshire’s EFA program. It’s interesting that Rep Osborne and other NH leaders and legislators are calling for expansion of an unaudited program, while admitting that the cost of “universal EFAs” is indeterminable. All while our property taxes continue to go up, not down – and all while many of the other states (Arizona, Georgia, West Virginia, and Florida, for example) that have expanded their school choice programs are facing significant issues and questions related to cost and accountability.

There are people on both sides of the aisle pushing back on the idea that EFAs should become “universal” in New Hampshire, especially as the state is facing budget shortfalls, and there is no extra money just sitting around to fund such things. It’s not fiscally conservative or fiscally responsible to expand programs or services without knowing exactly how much they will cost, and where the money will come from.

Colleen Prieto
Deerfield, NH