Brenda Jones: Increasing funding for public education harder than handing out vouchers

To The Daily Sun,

As a retired public school teacher, I see an alarming trend in New Hampshire state educational funding. The use of vouchers is depriving public schools of the necessary funds to offer a rich and varied curriculum. Years ago, I saw the loss of art and music programs in public New Hampshire schools start to disappear. What will go next? How can public schools compete for the best and brightest teachers if they cannot afford to pay them?

According to AI, the enrollment in New Hampshire’s public charter schools has increased by 13.89% during the last school year. With a total of 28 charter schools, the funding for public schools has decreased significantly.

Public charter schools tend to spend less per student than the traditional public schools. Traditionally, New Hampshire public schools have spent nearly $20,000 per student. Charter schools spend less than half of that, on average. With this trend, the total funds that the state spends on education will continue to go down dramatically.

New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Account allows families to use public funds for private schools and independent studies. Again according to AI, the impact on achievement is negative.

Although I can understand the temptation to take the voucher money, we are selling short the education of the future generations of New Hampshire citizens. What future events or results could make this turn around? I suggest that increasing funding to public education is much harder than it is to get parents to accept voucher money without understanding the longterm impact.

Brenda Jones

Alexandria