By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — Enrollment in the state’s Education Freedom Account program continues to rise, growing 26 percent this year and costing an estimated $28 million.

The growth in the system was one of the reasons one member of the legislative Education Freedom Account Oversight Committee called for greater accountability for how the growing amount of taxpayer dollars is being spent on the program.

Historically 75 percent of the students in the program were not in public schools when they entered the program with about 70 percent never attending public schools, while the program was originally sold as an option for low-income parents to seek an alternative educational setting if their child or children did not do well in the public school environment.

The high number of parents receiving taxpayer subsidies to help pay for private or religious school tuition for institutions their children were already attending, caused state Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, to say the program is not the one sold as an option for low-income parents whose child does not do well in public schools.

According to a report by Reaching Higher New Hampshire, a public education advocacy organization, the percentage of low-income students have dropped since the program began three years ago, and more and more participants are families earning around the median state income.

For the 2024-2025 school year, approximately 37 percent of EFA participants are classified as low-income, while the figure was 54 percent in the program’s first year beginning with the 2021-2022 school year.

“Over 70 percent never go to public schools,” Altschiller said. “Now people never set foot in a public school and immediately go with an EFA and start in kindergarten . . . when they may have done great in a public school.”

Committee chair Sen. Ruth Ward, R-Stoddard, asked if Altschiller was saying a student should have to attend a public school before being eligible for the EFA program, and Altschiller noted she did not say that.

Long-time voucher advocate Rep. Glenn Cordelli, R-Tuftonboro, said parents have the ultimate responsibility for the upbringing of their children and their education.

“The parents should be judging and that is what they do in this program,” he said. “Do we set some arbitrary benchmark?  How many public schools meet their benchmark?”

The observations of the parent should be sufficient if they want a different option for their child, Cordelli said.

“A requirement that they go to a public school is not at all valid,” he said.

Altschiller noted that up until three years ago, parents had three options for their child if they did not want him or her to go to the public school in their district: a charter school, a different public school in another district or Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (VLACS).

There are also private and religious schools some parents choose for their children, she said. 

“You always have been able to go there, but (the State of) New Hampshire did not fund it for you,” Altschiller said.

“Once the taxpayers start funding your choices, yeah there is a little accountability, that is going to happen.”

She said public schools and charter schools have accountability, but in the EFA program it is voluntary. EFA students may take the statewide assessment test, or other national tests or present a portfolio for review, but they are not required to do any of the three alternatives.

“Once the student goes off into the wilderness, all the accountability of what they might be learning goes out the door,” Altschiller said. Yes parents have a choice, “but if the parents want to get a little money from the state, we get to have a little accountability. Maybe they ought to be able to read.”
Cordelli shot back “and maybe public school students can learn to read too.”
House Education Committee chair Rep. Rick Ladd, R-Haverhill, said there are issues with testing in public schools, saying if one school teaches a subject in seventh grade, but another school teaches the same area in ninth grade, and the assessment test is given in eighth grade, what are you measuring?

“There are a lot of ways of measuring whether a student is successful,” he said. “Accountability means attention not just the EFA level, but at the local level as well.” 

“I’m glad we have alternatives,” Ladd said, noting “overall we do a pretty good job, but there are a lot of areas we have to clean up in every one of these programs.”

Compliance Issues

Several committee members wanted additional information from the Department of Education and the managers of the program, Children’s Scholarship Fund New Hampshire, on issues raised in a compliance report done last year.

The report indicated nearly one quarter of 50 applications selected randomly used incorrect documentation to approve participation in the program.

The scholarship fund returned more than $18,000 to the state as result of the report and revamped some of their training manuals and guidebooks to reflect such things as that gross income has to be used to determine eligibility not net income as was done in some of the applications and that up-to-date data has to be used to determine additional money for such things as students in poverty, English language learners and special education.

Ward said, “I see a lot of not mistakes, but things that were accepted that should not have been.”
And Ladd said he would like to see the revised handbooks that were done.

Other members of the committee were concerned the Department of Education was not providing the data necessary for the Legislative Budget Assistant to do a performance audit of the program required by law.

“We don’t have the kind of data we need to assess the (program’s) impact in local school districts,” Altschiller said, noting she was concerned about the school districts that were seeing a larger number of students leave the public schools for the EFA program.

New Statistics

Information released by the Department of Education indicates that this school year, there are 5,321 students enrolled in the program, up from 4,211 last school year, 3,925 the year before, and 1,635 the first year.

The average grant to an EFA student for the current school year is $5,204, down from last year’s average of $5,255.

The estimated cost this year is $27.7 million, up from $22.1 million last year, $14.7 million the year before and $8.1 million the first year.

At the end of this school year, the program will have drawn $73 million from the Education Trust Fund, which was established to pay for public education after the Claremont education funding decisions.

Earlier this year, the legislative advocates proposed increasing the income cap from 350 percent of the federal poverty level to 425 percent, but the compromise figure was defeated on the last day of the current session, until lawmakers return next week to attempt to override Gov. Chris Sununu’s vetoes.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.