Cornelia Schneider: Education freedom accounts are robin hood in reverse

To The Daily Sun,

The more we look at education freedom accounts (EFAs), as school vouchers are euphemistically called in New Hampshire, the more they disappoint.

The director of New York-based Children’s Scholarship Fund, which takes a tidy 10% for administering NH EFAs, describes the program as “ensuring that every child — regardless of income or zip code — has access to the learning environment that fits them best.” Rubbish.

Private schools are few and far between in rural areas; even families with a stay-at-home parent are hard pressed to find private schooling within reasonable transport distance.

Carroll County has one private and one religious school. One costs $40,000 a year and the other is a tiny Christian school with six teachers for eight grades. Unlike, public schools, both can reject a child. These schools choose the parents and children, not the other way around.

Unless readers fancy a small stipend to home school their children, EFAs do not offer much freedom to people who live in rural areas, or people who can’t afford private tuition, or parents who don’t want a Christian-heavy curriculum. Money is siphoned to that NY-based company and to parents who can already afford private tuition. We already know a huge chunk of money goes to items like ski passes, sport camps, summer camps and the like.

Readers should ask their elected representatives to stop expanding NH’s EFA school voucher program. Better still, ask them to repeal it entirely and return those millions of dollars to our public schools.

Cornelia Schneider

Moultonborough