To the Daily Sun,
For those that may not be following the debate on Educational Freedom Accounts (EFA), aka vouchers, EFAs are accounts that would be set up for eligible families and funded by the state. Parents could use the money toward their child’s private or religious school tuition, expenses related to homeschooling and/or other educational costs. Senate Bill 130 (SB 130) states that to be eligible, students must be school-aged residents of NH and according to the family income must fall at or below 300% of the federal poverty level ($79,500 for a family of four). About 40% of NH families fall into this category.
A Reaching Higher NH report projects that in the first three years of implementation, SB 130 would cost the state $69.7 million and NH school districts would lose $13.6 million. Please go to reachinghighernh.org to read the full report.
The costs associated with SB 130 needs a deep and thorough financial analysis but it has not been done by the Legislative Budget Assistant. Why hasn’t SB 130 followed the normal procedures for review? Could the reason be that the bill is going to be rolled into the budget so that those that oppose the bill will be forced to vote against the entire budget? A bill like SB 130 should be a stand-alone bill subject to the normal scrutiny used when new programs with significant impacts are being considered.
I encourage NH taxpayers to contact the Senate Finance Committee members and insist that SB 130 get the in-depth fiscal analysis taxpayers deserve.
Senate Finance Committee Members are:
lou.Dallesandro.leg.state.nh.us
cindy.Rosenwald@leg.state.nh.us
erin.Hennessey@leg.state.nh.us
Marcia Hayward
Laconia
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