"A packed house of friends and foes of Education Freedom Accounts battled Thursday January 16, 2025 over legislation to allow even the super-wealthy to receive taxpayer-paid grants to send their children to private, religious, alternative public, or home-school programs.
The legislation to eliminate the income limit attracted a flood of attention Thursday, so much that committee Chairman Rick Ladd, R-Haverhill, had to open two other double committee room suites to accommodate the overflow crowd that couldn’t fit into the room where testimony was taken.
Online, 3,700 people registered against the bill while nearly 800 supported it."
"Reaching Higher NH, an advocacy group for public school spending, has warned that making EFAs available to everyone could raise the total price tag by $100 million a year.
Several opponents on Thursday cited the tight fiscal climate as a reason to scale back or abandon the proposal. “We know what builds student success: smaller class sizes, more one-on-one attention for students, and increase salaries to address the teacher and staff shortages in New Hampshire schools,” said Megan Tuttle, president of the National Education Association of New Hampshire. “These goals can’t be achieved if the state takes more taxpayer funds from public schools and gives them to private institutions with no accountability measures.”
With credit to reporting by the Union Leader