“Universal school vouchers are turning out to be exactly what we said they would be:” said Deb Howes, President of AFT-NH. “They are a government handout to mostly well-off families to pay for private school tuition, homeschooling, summer camp or enrichment activities that families previously paid for on their own. The new data released by the NH Dept. of Education last week shows State taxpayers are handing over about $4800 per voucher most of which is new state spending since prior to the existence of vouchers, the state only funded students in public education."
Some might ask why we should worry about funding a few thousand more voucher students when there are 160,000 Granite State public school students. New Hampshire raises so little in state tax revenue that even a few thousand school vouchers are draining money out of the state’s education trust fund that is actually needed to fund our public schools so all the students there can learn and thrive. Despite numerous court rulings, the state isn’t meeting its constitutional obligation to fund robust public education in all districts, so removing the income cap from the voucher program was an irresponsible move by the majority in the State Legislature and Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
We have public school students in several districts starting their new school years facing larger class sizes, less art, music and electives, and pared back or eliminated extracurricular activities. Despite those challenges, Granite Staters show in polling, in the hard choices they make to raise local taxes to fill some of gaps left by the state’s chronic underfunding, and in where they choose to send their own children, that they like and value their local public schools. They trust the teachers and school staff to make their students feel safe and welcome, and to help them learn and thrive. It’s time to fix the state funding issue and stop siphoning money into unaccountable school vouchers.