Rep. Rick Ladd, R-Haverhill is chairman of the House Education Committee

CONCORD — An unanticipated amendment to the new law establishing Education Freedom Accounts has angered Democrats, who are calling it a stealth attack on public education.

Education Freedom Accounts, which provide public funding to make it easier for parents to choose the schools their children attend, have proven more popular than anticipated, with Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut saying they now expect between 1,000 and 1,500 students to join the program. The New Hampshire Legislature had budgeted enough money to cover 28 students.

The amendment approved by the House Education Committee on Nov. 16 establishes a formula to allocate a portion of public school funds to cover those costs. The calculation takes the previous year’s local education tax revenue and subtracts special education funding. Eighty percent of the resulting figure would be divided by the average number of students in daily attendance to determine the per-pupil EFA grant amount.

In the examples provided, Newfields would have a local EFA grant of $11,462 per student; Rumney’s would be $10,788; Conway’s would be $4,872; and Deerfield’s would be $8,871.

If the amendment is approved by the full House and Senate and becomes law, the superintendent of each school district would make that amount of funding available to each student requesting an Education Freedom Account. The money could be used toward educational costs at any private, religious, or charter school of the parents’ choice.

Under the original bill passed in June, the program was targeted at low-income families with earnings as high as 300 percent of the federal poverty level. Each student could receive as much as $4,600 under that plan. Income eligibility restrictions and across-the-board grant amounts were eliminated under the amendment.

A statement from the House Democratic Office said, “The last-minute amendment jammed through House Education, with no public hearing, is a stealth attack on New Hampshire taxpayers as it would create a new voucher program that would draw exclusively on local property tax dollars and remove the parental income requirement. Expanding the voucher program in New Hampshire will dramatically increase property taxes statewide and swing the door wide open for absolutely anyone, regardless of income level, to force local property taxpayers to pay their private school tuition bills.

“Just last week, it came to light that the current voucher program Gov. Sununu signed into law this June is under-budgeted by five thousand percent in its first year, with most funds going to families and children already homeschooled or enrolled in private school.”

Grants for the 1,500 students potentially participating in the first year of the program under the original bill would amount to $6.9 million, while the state had budgeted only $129,000. The amendment apparently addresses that shortfall by transferring the funding source to local property taxes. The total cost is not readily apparent because the individual district expenditures would have to be calculated.

An attempt to reach Committee Chair Rick Ladd, R-Haverhill, for comment on Wednesday was unsuccessful.

The Democrats’ statement continued, “The amendment passed yesterday exacerbates the already massive burden on local municipalities. While no fiscal note was included on the amendment, even the Republican’s [sic] hand-picked examples passed out in committee show that taxpayers in Rumney, a rural town of about 1,500 people, would spend 117% more than the current voucher program cost to fund the tuition of children attending private and religious schools. In towns lucky enough to have an ocean or a lake or a ski area, it could be thousands more to subsidize families who already send their kids to private schools, no matter how much money they make.

“Make no mistake, this has been the Republicans’ plans all along. Their ultimate goal of defunding public education and sending tax dollars to private and religious schools is here and is expanding every chance they get. Just like the current voucher program, this new program lacks accountability and is nothing short of stealing your tax dollars. Granite State taxpayers deserve better.”

T.P. Caldwell is a writer, editor, photographer, and videographer who formed and serves as project manager of the Liberty Independent Media Project. Contact him at liberty18@me.com.

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