Gov. Chris Sununu, unable to push his school privatization schemes through the legislature, keeps trying backdoor approaches. His latest would unilaterally divert $1.5M of CARES money to two scholarship organizations currently administering NH’s Education Tax Credit (“ETC”) scholarship program. Last year they awarded 362 scholarships for private school tuition; the Governor wants to fund 800 more.

Claiming that 22% of students with ETC scholarships are students of color, Governor Sununu touts this plan as a means of addressing inequity. But statistics can be deceiving. Using the 22% estimate, his plan would offer private school tuition to about 176 nonwhite students. Meanwhile, though, 26,000 nonwhite students attend our chronically underfunded public schools. If the Governor truly wants to help students of color, why not send the $1.5M to the public schools that serve the overwhelming majority of them?

Moreover, while Sununu praises his designated scholarship organizations for their claimed diversity, he seems unperturbed by their apparent bias in making award decisions. Why did they give 16% of last year’s ETC tuition scholarships to students attending one particular private school? Why did 86% of the scholarships go to students at religious schools, when nearly 2/3 of New Hampshire’s private schools are secular?

The governor’s $1.5 million CARES plan is consistent with his history of pushing for school vouchers and other privatization programs that are paid for by, but unaccountable to, taxpayers, while denying adequate funding for the public schools that most children attend. He says it’s all about equity; the facts show otherwise.

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