Over the past few months, in Rindge, school officials warned they might need to cut their championship winning sports programs entirely just to balance the budget. In Wolfeboro, part of the ceiling at the high school literally caved in. And in Manchester, the state’s largest school district, s say they can’t afford to replace retiring teachers or move forward with long-planned expansions to athletic programs.
This is not a dystopian projection; it’s happening right now in New Hampshire. While communities are scraping together every last local property tax dollar to keep public schools running, the state is already pouring tens of millions into a school voucher program to pay for private and religious schools with virtually no oversight — even subsidizing private ski es, music lessons, and undisclosed Amazon and Walmart purchases.
And it’s about to get worse. While vouchers are limited to households making up to 350% of the federal poverty level today, the state budget that Republicans are writing (and must vote on by the end of June) will eliminate income eligibility limits for vouchers entirely, making even the wealthiest households in New Hampshire eligible to begin receiving taxpayer funds to pay for private education.
This would turn what was once billed as a modest program to help low-income students into a universal entitlement for private education, including for families already sending their children to private schools. Since most students that apply for vouchers were already in private school at no expense to taxpayers, removing the income cap would suddenly add thousands of students to the taxpayer dime and balloon voucher spending to over $100 million this biennium. For a state facing lawsuits over its failure to adequately fund public schools, redirecting over $100 million in state funds away from public schools and toward private vendors with no academic ability or public transparency would be a seismic public policy mistake.
The push to expand vouchers in New Hampshire isn’t about helping kids who are struggling, it’s about advancing a privatized education scheme pushed by D.C. based right-wing organizations like Americans for Prosperity and Club for Growth. By all indications, Granite Staters have soundly rejected the idea of expanded school vouchers.
Between the two voucher bills that the legislature has considered this year, thousands of opponents weighed in, and they outnumbered ers by a ratio greater than 4 to 1. Public polling shows that a majority of Granite Staters oppose voucher expansion as well, and that the more people know about the voucher program, the more likely they are to oppose it. And at town meetings in communities from Andover to Hollis to Weare this spring, resolutions were ed by voters to oppose voucher expansion. These weren’t partisan fights, they were local taxpayers, parents, and school board demanding that the state stop bleeding public education dry.
If this state budget es as it is now and the Republicans’ voucher program becomes universal, it will not be a policy experiment, it will be a disaster. Public schools will continue to collapse under the weight of unfunded mandates and lost aid. Local taxes will spike. And the very idea of a strong, local, public education — the foundation of so many New Hampshire communities — will begin to fade.
This is a choice. And it’s one we can still change.
Our public schools need more than Band-Aids — they need a lifeline. Property taxpayers need lawmakers willing to listen to voters and stand up to the political forces in Washington who push these costly schemes into state politics. Our students need lawmakers who say enough with the giveaways to people who don’t need them. Enough with the quiet dismantling of our public institutions. Enough with a state budget that favors private perks over public good.
If we want our kids to have safe schools, strong academics, and equal opportunities, we have to fight for them today, before the House and Senate take their final vote on the state budget. Before the ceiling caves in, again.
Rep. Alexis Simpson of Exeter is the New Hampshire House Democratic leader.