Cornelia Schneider: Bait, switch, repeat: The history of NH's school vouchers

To The Daily Sun,

Now that Education Freedom Account vouchers are draining tens of millions from New Hampshire property taxpayers, it's worth remembering how this program became law.

In February 2021, the House heard the original voucher bill, HB 20. Granite Staters responded with the largest public testimony this state had ever seen: roughly 3,200 opposed, only 600 in favor.

The bill came from the American Legislative Exchange Council, which supplies corporate-funded templates to state legislators. NH Rep. Ken Weyler, an ALEC state chair, happened to chair the House Finance Committee. Facing overwhelming opposition, Weyler pulled the stand-alone bill and buried it inside the massive state budget, HB 2, where the public never got another chance to weigh in. It passed on a party-line vote. Gov. Chris Sununu signed it, saying he couldn't veto the whole budget over one line item.

Then came the bait and switch. In 2021, vouchers were sold as a safety net strictly for lower-income families. Four years later, Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed legislation wiping out the income caps entirely. A "targeted" program became a universal entitlement — even for wealthy families. Enrollment exploded, and every voucher dollar comes straight out of public education funding, pushing at least $50 million onto local property taxpayers. Classic downshifting.

It hasn't stopped. Ayotte has since expanded universal vouchers, tied New Hampshire into a federal tax-credit scheme that diverts more money to private schools, and signed HB 1300's restrictive local school budget caps. Now, under HB 1817, voucher students can walk into their local public school and take high-cost classes — AP Chemistry, foreign languages, computer science labs — for free, while public schools foot the bill.

This isn't school choice. It's a slow-motion transfer of public money to private hands, and local taxpayers are stuck.

Cornelia Schneider

Moultonborough