The Never Ending NH Education Voucher Boondoggle
Your taxpayer dollars are going to subsidize wealthy children to go to private schools
This week, New Hampshire public schools received a double blow when the NH House passed two troublesome bills with an overwhelming Republican majority.
The House passed HB 125 to enable universal school vouchers, which would be available to families regardless of income. The second bill, HB 675, placed a statewide spending cap on all local school budgets despite the majority party’s past commitment to local control. This budget cap means that local school boards’ budgets will be limited by state control.
School vouchers are available to families whose annual income is under 350 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, or $109,000 for a family of four (In-Depth NH). HB 125 will eliminate the income limits so that any family can get a voucher regardless of income. The House and Senate voted on comparable bills and are now heading to their respective finance committees.
Governor Ayotte proposed restricting vouchers to children who have been in public school for a year or are in kindergarten or first grade.
A universal voucher system means wealthy families paying tuition at schools such as Phillip Exeter and Brewster Academy will receive taxpayer funds to offset tuition at these private institutions at the cost of funding our public schools. Today, day students at Phillip Exeter pay $54,312 per year, while Brewster Academy Day student tuition is $39,900. Notably, Phillip Exeter has an endowment of $1.6 billion (as of June 2024).
In New Hampshire, a substantial portion of Education Freedom Account (EFA) funds—approximately 90%—is allocated to religious schools, with most directed toward Christian-affiliated institutions. (Concord Monitor, February 21, 2025)
These are the New Hampshire Christian schools that are receiving voucher funds:
Laconia Christian Academy, $ 372,000
Concord Christian Academy, $370,000
Portsmouth Christian Academy, $331,000
Mount Royal Christian Academy, Lancaster, $322,000
Trinity Christian School, Concord, $215,000
Trinity High School, Manchester $237,000
Dublin Christian Academy, $215,000
Families can use vouchers to offset tuition costs. The base amount is $4,182, with an additional $2,346 ($6,528 total annually) going to low-income families and $2,142 ($6,324 total annually) going to children with special education needs.
Reaching Higher NH estimates that the school vouchers have cost Granite State $50 million to date and could cost $100 million yearly or $1 billion over the next ten years.
The House also passed a statewide spending cap on every local school budget.
The state budget cap locks in local school spending at its current level. It takes local control away from taxpayers, and any sudden increase in expenses would cause schools to make significant cuts. Make no mistake: your kids’ school may no longer be able to afford “extras” such as sports, arts, music, etc., beyond core math, English language arts, science, and history.
Voters will need a two-thirds majority vote to override the cap (NHPR), which will be a difficult threshold to meet.
The argument supporting school vouchers is that not all children do well in a public school environment, which is unquestionable. However, Granite Staters have always had the option of sending their children to private or charter schools or homeschooling without relying on taxpayers or higher property taxes to pay their bills.
Our state has a projected revenue shortfall of $112.9 million (Source, NH Fiscal Policy Institute) for the first half of 2025, with the elimination of earned interest income and the interest and dividends tax. The same source notes that the state of NH would have had a surplus of approximately $900,000 had these two taxes, which predominantly impacted high-income people, remained intact.
It's difficult to justify how the state of New Hampshire can repeal these taxes while spending money that drains our education funds. Other revenue sources that would make up for the difference have not been identified to date.
Before New Hampshire's school voucher program, It is estimated that 75% of students who received vouchers were already enrolled in private or religious schools or were homeschooled, meaning the vouchers are primarily subsidizing existing education choices.
The AFT-NH (American Federation of Teachers stated that this fight is not over.” Both the votes in the House on vouchers and the spending cap had bi-partisan opposition. The House and Senate Finance Committees now have these bills, and we need to tell them that the budget should focus on funding schools for all our students and not just more tax breaks for the wealthy few.”
The AFT-NH Bulletin provided two links to inform the House and Senate that many Granite Staters oppose the expansion of school vouchers and the removal of local school board control.
Tell the Senate Finance Committee we cannot afford school voucher expansion.
This is an effective and easy way to ensure that your voice is heard in Concord and to protect local control of our public schools
Quite a few of the legislators I’ve spoken to who are inclined to support vouchers say they want alternatives because our schools are
"Your taxpayer dollars are going to subsidize wealthy children to go to private schools."
This is an outright lie. Rather, these vouchers are refunding parents the taxes they already paid to the state. Given that these parents are saving the state money by not sending their kids to public schools, it's only fair the parents should receive a refund of part of the taxes they paid for public schools.
The bigger issue is that the way schools handle education of special ed students are drastically driving up the cost of public education while not improving the educational outcomes for the vast majority of students.
I don't know of a good solution, but having a full-time teacher/assistant responsible for a single special ed student is not remotely cost-effective and diverts resources away from the bulk of the student body.