Can we agree that when the government spends our money, it should do so responsibly? If so, then the reckless action taken by some of our state senators last week should be setting off alarms, regardless of your political leanings.

On May 26, all five Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee voted to fold SB130 – the school voucher bill – into the state budget. Even those who support vouchers (and, for the record, I don’t) should object to SB130’s inclusion in the budget, because it lacks even minimal safeguards to protect against mismanagement or misuse of our tax dollars.

Under the bill, public funds would be transferred to a private scholarship organization to set up accounts for participating students. The organization would use the funds to reimburse private schools, tutors, and others who provide the students with educational services and products.

Inexplicably, the bill grants the scholarship organization immunity from legal liability in performing this function. That means the normal standard of reasonable care that applies to you, me and the treasurer of our local Brownie troop won’t apply to an organization that will handle tens of millions of taxpayer dollars – and collect a 10% commission, to boot. What were the senators thinking?

Moreover, SB130 leaves the door wide open for self-dealing. For instance, nothing prohibits an employee of the scholarship organization from starting her own tutoring business, steering parents to it, and writing checks to herself from the taxpayer-funded accounts. In their rush to achieve their policy goal, the senators didn’t take the time to close an obvious loophole.

The bill’s definition of reimbursable services is unacceptably vague. When asked whether summer camp would qualify as an educational service reimbursable with tax dollars, a sponsor of the bill said it would depend on the circumstances. What circumstances? He couldn’t say, and the bill doesn’t either.

Nor are there standards for quality. Teachers, therapists, and others paid with our tax dollars would need no credentials, expertise or experience whatsoever. They wouldn’t even have to pass criminal background checks, because every Republican in the NH Senate voted against an amendment requiring them.

This lack of standards means the privately operated scholarship organization would have unfettered discretion to decide what gets reimbursed and what doesn’t. This is especially troubling since the organization isn’t required to have any expertise in education, special education, child development, or anything else. And the fact that it’s entitled to keep 10% of every dollar it pays out gives it an incentive to approve even questionable payments.

Perhaps most shocking of all is the senators’ lack of interest in the bill’s price tag. Reaching Higher NH predicts it would cost the state $70M in the first three years ($7M of which would go straight to the scholarship organization), while local school districts, already facing a dramatic drop in state support, would lose an additional $30M in the first five years. The senators dismissed these projections, while at the same time refusing to follow the normal procedure of asking the nonpartisan Legislative Budget Office for its fiscal analysis. It seems they prefer to fly blind.

Why the recklessness? SB130 is unlikely to pass the House as a stand-alone bill. By burying it in the budget (a shameless tactic Republicans have used with other unpopular bills, as well), they make it more difficult for our representatives to reject it, since to do so they’d have to vote against the entire budget.

And that’s exactly what they should do. Whether they agree with the policy behind SB130 or not, they should draw the line at playing fast and loose with our hard-earned dollars and using procedural shenanigans to avoid a clear-eyed study of the bill. Please urge your state representatives to reject any budget that contains SB130.

Mary Wilke is retired public school teacher and volunteer advocate for public education. She lives in Concord.