InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/author/garry-rayno-indepthnh-org/page/7/)
The advocates for opening the state’s school voucher program, Education Freedom Accounts, to all students in the state regardless of their parents’ income did a massive public relations and organization effort before the public hearing last week on House 115, which would remove the salary cap from the four-year old program.
Removing the salary cap from the Education Freedom Account program will expand alternative education opportunities to all the state’s children, supporters said Thursday at a public hearing.
New Hampshire is not alone in facing budget cuts, increased taxes or tapping its rainy day fund in the next few years to balance its financial books.
Under a cloud of shrinking state revenues some lawmakers are proposing a bill that could add $102 million or more a year in state spending.
But in recent years, the New Hampshire legislature has been attempting what was once the unthinkable in our Granite State, trying to upend once precious “local control.”
With the 2025 fiscal year half over, the state faces a revenue deficit large enough to wipe out last fiscal year’s surplus and end the biennium in red ink.
If you followed the New Hampshire legislature the last few terms and listened to Education Freedom Account advocates, you would think public schools are cesspools of indoctrination, obscene materials, bullying and protectors of perverts.
The program in its fourth year has grown from 1,635 students its first year to 5,321 students this school year, an increase in four years of 225 percent.