New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Account program reaches 10,000-student cap

New Hampshire’s newly-expanded Education Freedom Account program reached its 10,000-student cap for the upcoming school year, program administrator Kate Baker Demers confirmed this week.

“This is a historic moment for education freedom in New Hampshire,” she said in an interview. “And it’s seriously a powerful testament to choices families are making for their kids’ future.”

The program will roughly double in size from the beginning of last year, when 5,321 students participated. Administrators placed 295 students on a waitlist.

The program provides families whose children aren’t enrolled in public schools at least $4,266 per child to spend on private school tuition or other educational expenses.

The program will cost the state at least $42.6 million this year, more than the $39.3 million that lawmakers allocated in their budget. Last year, the state spent $27.7 million, according to the Department of Education.

The department will release more detailed data on the demographics of the participating students in the coming weeks, but Baker Demers shared some initial details.

At least 60% of the 10,000 students fall into at least one of four priority groups:

Their families earned less than the previous income eligibility threshold, which was 350% of federal poverty guidelines, or $112,525 for a family of four; they previously participated in the program; they have a sibling who is a participant; they have a disability. The true percentage of children in a priority group is likely higher than the initial data suggest, Baker Demers said, because roughly 1,000 returning children who previously qualified for an additional free and reduced lunch stipend didn’t submit their financial information this year. That information is no longer required in the new iteration of the application.

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Families who qualify for the free and reduced lunch stipend earn an additional $2,393 per child. Baker Demers’ organization, the Children’s Scholarship Fund, will encourage families who have previously qualified to submit their financial information again.

Still, because that information is no longer required to apply for an education freedom account, it will not be possible to calculate the number of families who qualify for the additional stipend or the percentage who earn more than the previous income threshold for program eligibility.

During the program’s first four years, the percentage of students who exited public schools to enroll in the education freedom account program had been an area of interest. That percentage had yet to be calculated as of this week.

Total enrollment could rise to roughly 11,000 students by the end of the upcoming school year, because the law allows those who fall within a priority category to continue enrolling despite the cap having been reached.

In previous years, between 200 and 500 students enrolled mid-year. Baker Demers guessed the mid-year growth might be around 1,000 over the course of the coming year, due to the increased interest in the program.

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