Lawmakers seek to expand school voucher program while gutting required academic subjects for public schools

February 7th, 2025

Next week, lawmakers will hold hearings on a bill to expand the state’s school voucher program to any private or homeschooled student in New Hampshire, as well as a bill that would drastically cut the required subject areas that public schools must offer. 

Both efforts have been met with intense opposition from Granite Staters, who have urged lawmakers to focus their efforts on supporting and strengthening public schools instead of dismantling them and using funds to subsidize private education.  

Senate Bill (SB) 295 would expand eligibility for school vouchers, which gives taxpayer dollars directly to parents to pay for private and religious school tuition and homeschooling expenses, to all school-aged children in the state who are not enrolled in a public school. According to our analysis, school voucher expansion would cost over $100 million per year. The hearing for the bill will be on Wednesday, February 12, at 3:20 p.m. 

During the same week, lawmakers will hold a hearing on House Bill 283, which would gut the required subject areas that public schools must offer. The bill would eliminate the requirement that public schools offer art and music, physical education, technology, civics, US history and other critical subjects. This is the third attempt by lawmakers to gut the core knowledge domains -- prior efforts have been soundly defeated. 

The hearing for the bill will be on Monday, February 10 at 1:30 PM.

School voucher expansion

Expanding the school voucher program is a top priority of Governor Kelly Ayotte and the majority parties of the House and Senate. It has been a major push this session to expand school vouchers to every private and homeschooled student in New Hampshire. 

Granite Staters are overwhelmingly opposed to expanding school vouchers. Thousands show up year after year as lawmakers attempt to expand the program. Just last month, over 3,400 people signed in opposition to a House version of the bill, HB 115.

Universal school voucher expansion could cost taxpayers over $100 million per year, diverting critical state funds away from public schools. Every dollar spent on school vouchers is a dollar that cannot be used to fund public school programs, CTE centers, special education, school building aid, school safety grants, or other essential programs. 

Learn more about school voucher expansion here: https://www.reachinghighernh.org/content-item/464/7-things-to-know-about-hb-115

The hearing for SB 295 is scheduled in the Senate Education Funding Committee on Wednesday, February 12, at 3:20 p.m. in Room 100 at the State House.

Removing core knowledge domains

Under HB 283, public schools would only be required to teach English Language Arts, math, science, social studies, health, and physical education. It would remove art, civics, United States and New Hampshire history, economics, engineering, computer science, digital literacy, personal finance literacy, and world languages from the core academic domains.

Similar bills have been proposed in the past at the request of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut. The public has been sharply opposed to these proposals.

When a similar bill was proposed in 2022, Commissioner Edelblut defended the idea, saying, “we’re basically signaling to [school districts] that we think these are important areas, and you can continue to offer them as a separate thing if that’s what you want to do, but otherwise we think you should look for opportunities to integrate [into the core subjects].” 

That was met with concern from the then-committee and public. 

“If a district were trying to save money, could they get rid of their world languages teachers? Their arts education program because it’s no longer part of the requirement?,” former State Representative Marjorie Porter (D-Newmarket) asked in the 2022 public hearing. 

“This legislation will clearly exacerbate already existing opportunity gaps which exist between communities in NH…This appears to be saying [that] since we can not address the known existing funding disparity issues we will attempt to provide relief by reducing what we believe is essential to be an educated citizen. This approach does not support the students in New Hampshire schools who need a well-rounded comprehensive public education,” a school leader from Bow wrote in opposition to the similar bill in 2022. 

This year’s version, HB 283, is very similar to the previous bills. The hearing is scheduled to take place in the House Education Policy and Administration Committee on Monday, February 10 at 1:30 p.m. in the Legislative Office Building, Room 207. As of this post, over 12,000 Granite Staters have signed in to oppose the bill.