(The Center Square) — A New Hampshire program that diverts taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools and homeschooling is “widely popular and successful,” according to a new report, which pushes back on claims that the program hurts traditional public schools.
A draft report by the Republican-led Education Freedom Account Oversight Committee, released Wednesday, said its analysis found the program has not reduced state education aid to local school districts, with overall funding expected to increase to $1 billion next year.
“Over the past five years, state funding for local district schools has steadily increased, despite a falling student population,” the committee, chaired by state Sen. Ruth Ward, R-Stoddard, wrote in the five-page report. “There is no evidence that increased participation in the EFA program has reduced state support for local school districts across New Hampshire.”
New Hampshire, which approved its EFA program in 2021, is expected to spend more than $30 million to help fund private and religious school education in the current school year, with an average grant of $5,300 per student, according to the Children’s Scholarship Fund, which oversees the program.
Demand for the vouchers has increased dramatically since the plan was first rolled out. The number of students receiving funding from the program increased from 4,663 during the 2023-2024 academic year to 10,510 at the start of the 2025-2026 academic year after lawmakers lifted an income cap for enrollment, according to the state Department of Education.
Democrats and other critics argue the program siphons away tax dollars from local school districts, forcing communities to increase property taxes. New Hampshire’s local property tax burden is among the highest in the nation. They’ve pitched plans to limit the EFA expansion and require income verification for families, but those attempts failed along party lines.
A minority report issued by Democrats on the panel criticized Republican members for not meeting their statutory obligations by meeting only once in the past year.
“No oversight has been conducted in any capacity,” they wrote. “The committee has failed to be the watchdog for this program that is costing the New Hampshire taxpayers $30.3 million so far.”
In the report, the committee’s GOP majority — which included House Speaker Sherman Packard — acknowledged the critics of the program would likely never be swayed and noted that Democrats have filed bills for next year’s legislative session aimed at scaling back the program.
“After five years of growth and success, it is obvious that opponents of school choice will never accept the value of giving New Hampshire parents discretion to use state education funds in the manner they believe would best benefit their children,” they wrote.
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This committee recommends that the Department of Education develop a plan to aggregate data from EFA student annual assessments in a manner that protects student privacy and present the Legislature with any recommendations if legislation is necessary to accomplish this goal.
Nationwide, the 32 states with some form of school vouchers provided an estimated $6.2 billion in subsidies to nearly 1 million students through vouchers, education savings accounts, tax credits, charter schools, and other forms of school choice, according to a recent EdChoice report.