By GARRY RAYNO, Distant Dome
Proposed legislation for the upcoming 2026 session would make sweeping changes in the state’s Education Freedom Account voucher program from eliminating a cap on enrollment to the Department of Education managing the program.
As of Friday there were 17 separate bills that have been proposed, mostly in the House, and range from allowing other organizations to bid on the contract to administer the program, which is currently held by Children’s Scholarship Fund NH, to adding new requirements to the legislative oversight committee that came under fire this year for failing to meet until last week and with another meeting scheduled Tuesday to work on the yearly report that was due last month.
Another bill would allow EFA grant money to pay a portion of tuition and transportation costs to attend one of the state’s regional career and technical schools, but another would prohibit students from receiving both an EFA grant and another from the Education Tax Credit Scholarship program.
Both programs are administered by the Children’s Scholarship Fund NH which is allowed to withhold up to 10 percent of grants for its work, although last school year the percentage was a little less than 8 percent.
Several of the bills will have public hearings during the second week of January.
Lawmakers last year removed any earnings cap on the program and it nearly doubled in size from 5,765 to 10,510 students with the state’s costs increasing from $30.4 million to an estimated $51.6 million, which is more than the $39.3 million lawmakers appropriated for the program.
For the biennium, the program projects to cost about $108 million or about $28 million more than lawmakers budgeted, all coming from the Education Trust Fund, which also covers state adequacy grants to school districts as well as special education state aid, and some school building aid.
The program was touted as a pathway for low-income parents to provide an alternative educational setting for their child if he or she did not do well in the public school environment, but now largely provides grants to students who are already in religious or private schools or homeschooled.
Given the increased students and costs there are a number of bills that seek more detailed information from program administrators.
Greater Reporting
There are three bills proposed, one in the Senate, Senate Bill 576, and two in the House, House Bill 1513 and House Bill 1567, that would require the program administrator to provide additional information on a quarterly basis that would be available to the public.
The House bill sponsored by Republican representatives is more general but would allow the Department of Education, State Board of Education and the legislative and the parent and service provider oversight committees to seek electronic data, reports and testimony before committees from the administrator, who would have 45 days to respond.
The bill would require the administrator to provide quarterly reports 45 days after the state releases the funds to the organization.
The organization would be required to “collect and summarize education freedom account expense information by category and by education service provider.” each quarter and a yearly report summarizing the school year transactions.
Under the bill, the program administrator “shall provide the department of education with timely access to eligibility and enrollment data and any additional information requested by the department to facilitate its monitoring and compliance with its contracts and other relevant laws and rules.”
Senate Bill 576 is more detailed and wider reaching, seeking more specific information from the administrator including the number of applications per quarter and the number approved, the number of students who withdrew, the amount of money distributed to each vendor by name and account, the total distributed to each vendor by category such as tuition, tutoring or educational supplies, and the total reimbursement to parents or guardians.
The bill would also require the administrator to provide student demographic information including sex, race, if the student is a English language learner, on free and reduced lunch, or receiving special education services, and the methods used to determine the differentiated aid to those students; the number of students in public school, private or religious schools, or home schooled the prior year; the amount of state adequacy money used to cover administrative costs, and whether students complied with the state’s compulsory education requirement.
The bill would also require the administrator to provide any additional information requested by the department, the EFA Oversight Committee as well as House and Senate committees and the Legislative Budget Assistant’s Office in order to complete the program’s required performance audit.
The Children’s Scholarship Fund claimed it owned the data and declined to provide it to the LBA for the performance audit on the advice of former Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut.
Also the administrator would have to file the electronic reports quarterly and they would be available on the Department of Education’s website.
The bill is sponsored by Sens. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, and Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth.
House Bill 1567 is nearly identical and is sponsored by Democratic members of the House education committees.
Enrollment Cap
On the other side of the coin is Manchester Republican Sen. Victoria Sullivan’s bill, Senate Bill 584, which would eliminate the current cap on student enrollment in the program, which this year is 10,000 students although there are several exemptions that raised the number to 10,510.
Under current law, because the cap was reached this year, next year the cap would be increased by 25 percent to 12,500 students.
Under Sullivan’s bill, the cap would be eliminated instead.
Her bill would also eliminate the priority categories that allowed some students to participate although the cap was hit this year, but would not be needed if the cap is eliminated.
However, House Bill 1834 would retain the 10,000 student cap for the next school year, 2026-2027, and then allow enrollment to increase 25 percent the following year.
More Uses
Senate Bill 491 would allow EFA grants to be used to pay tuition and transportation costs for a student to attend one of the regional career and technical schools.
Under the bill sponsored by Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, the Department of Education would have to determine the per pupil tuition cost to attend the schools as well as per student transportation costs.
DOE Oversight
House Bill 1820 could have the Department of Education become the administrator of the EFA program.
Sponsored by Rep. David Luneau, D-Hopkinton, the bill lays out the department’s responsibilities including determining eligible expenses and when a student no longer qualifies for the program due to withdrawal, graduation or misuse of funds, among other reasons.
The bill would not allow state grant money to roll over from year-to-year as is currently done, and would require parents to return any unused money to the state.
The bill also addresses the issue raised about reimbursement of parents for expenses which some view as currently too lax.
The bill also requires vendors to meet all state and federal discrimination laws, another concern of many program critics.
In the past, the department has not wanted to take over the administration of the program.
Two other bills deal with the current arrangement for the Children’s Scholarship Fund NH to continue its no-bid contract to manage the program.
Senate Bill House Bill 1401 would open the bidding for the administration contract to organizations other than the Children’s Scholarship Fund NH, and Senate Bill 533 would require the state to seek bids every three years.
No Cross Pollination
House Bill 1803 would not allow a student to have grants from both the EFA program and the Education Tax Credit Scholarship program.
Currently students are not prohibited from applying and receiving grants from both programs for the same school year, but the bill would prohibit that beginning next school year.
EFA Oversight Committee
Two bills would expand the responsibilities of the Education Freedom Account Oversight Committee.
Senate Bill 532 would expand the committee’s responsibilities to include reviewing student data, eligibility requirements, and EFA expenditures.
The bill also requires the committee to meet monthly, to be live broadcasted, and to be recorded for the General Court’s website.
And agendas, minutes, and reports for committee meetings shall be posted to the Department of Education’s website.
House Bill 1264 has the same requirements.
Vote on Participation
House Bill 1512 would allow municipalities to vote to prevent residents of their towns from receiving Education Freedom Account vouchers.
Accountability
House Bill 1716 would have the Department of Education develop a model to judge student portfolios submitted to determine whether the student has achieved the educational thresholds to advance to the next level or graduate.
Currently a teacher can determine if a student’s portfolio is sufficient to allow the student to progress to the next grade level.
The bill would also encourage the use of standardized tests and other examinations to determine if a student can graduate or progress.
Vendors
Under House Bill 1819, service providers would be required to develop policies and implement policies under state and federal discrimination laws.
The House and Senate education committees will need to set aside some significant time for hearings on many of these 17 bills on the state’s voucher system.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.
Distant Dome by veteran journalist Garry Rayno explores a broader perspective on the State House and state happenings for InDepthNH.org. Over his three-decade career, Rayno covered the NH State House for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Foster’s Daily Democrat. During his career, his coverage spanned the news spectrum, from local planning, school and select boards, to national issues such as electric industry deregulation and Presidential primaries. Rayno lives with his wife Carolyn in New London.