House and Senate committees vote to expand school voucher program despite overwhelming public opposition, full vote scheduled for Thursday

March 11th, 2025

Last week, both the New Hampshire House and Senate education funding committees voted to recommend the expansion of the state’s school voucher program, which gives taxpayer dollars to parents of private and homeschooled students to pay for tuition, supplies, and other costs. The full House and Senate will vote on the bills on Thursday, March 13. 

Both bills, House Bill (HB) 115 and Senate Bill (SB) 295, would eliminate the income eligibility requirements for the voucher program. Under current law, parents qualify if their family meets the income threshold, which is $109,000 for a family of four. 

The median household income in New Hampshire is about $93,000 per year, meaning that the majority of families already qualify, and any expansion would give taxpayer dollars to wealthy families. 

The House Education Funding Committee recommended delaying the universal expansion to July 1, 2026 because of the expected cost of it. According to our estimates, universal expansion could cost the state over $100 million each year if all eligible students enrolled. 

The Senate Education Finance Committee recommended a phase-in approach that, while complicated, would eventually lead to universal eligibility. The amendment recommended by the committee would remove the income eligibility requirements, making all families in New Hampshire eligible regardless of income. The amendment would cap the program to 10,000 recipients in the first year. If more than 9,000 students request a voucher in the year, the cap automatically increases by 25% to 12,500 students. 

Granite Staters have shown that they overwhelmingly oppose expanding school vouchers in the state. Thousands show up year after year as lawmakers attempt to expand the program. In January, over 3,400 people signed in opposition to the House version of the bill, HB 115. Last month, the hearing for SB 295 had over 2,800 people sign in opposition and fewer than 220 people in support. 

House amendment

The House Education Funding Committee approved an amendment along party lines that would increase the income eligibility requirement from 350% to 400% of the federal poverty guideline in the 2025-2026 school year, and would remove the income requirement altogether in the 2026-2027 school year and thereafter. 

Senate amendment

The Senate Education Finance Committee approved an amendment along party lines that would:

• Remove the income eligibility requirement, effective shortly after passage (which could impact this school year’s enrollment)
• Cap the enrollment in the 2025-2026 school year to 10,000 students
• Automatically increase the enrollment cap by 25% if applications reach 90% of the cap
• Require the NHED to publish updates about the enrollment cap twice per year

According to estimates, SB 295 could cost the state about $72 million per year. 

What’s next

Lawmakers are expected to vote on the amendments and on the final bills at their next session on Thursday, March 13. 

Up to $102 million dollar price tag for universal voucher expansion

Earlier this session, Reaching Higher NH released a report that showed that efforts to expand school voucher eligibility to all students, regardless of family income, could cost the state approximately $102 million in the 2025-2026 school year. 

In the 2024-2025 school year, school vouchers will cost the state approximately $26 million. The cost has surged since the program was created in 2021, far exceeding initial state cost estimates. Most of the cost is new state spending since over 75% of students who received a voucher were not enrolled in public schools and therefore had to be added to the state’s funding formula. Read our full analysis here.

Without expansion, cost of vouchers expected increase 35% by 2027 

According to the New Hampshire Department of Education, if lawmakers killed both bills, the cost of the school voucher program would grow by 35%. Under the NHED’s conservative estimates, the program would grow to 7,500 students in 2027 at an expected cost of $41 million. 

About school vouchers in New Hampshire

New Hampshire’s school vouchers are personal accounts that can be used to pay for certain education-related expenses, including private school tuition, homeschooling expenses, tutoring, books and materials, and transportation. Eligible families receive the base amount of state funding per student plus any additional aid for which their student qualifies (eligibility for school meals, special education services, English Language Learner program, or the third-grade reading aid). 

When participating in the program, families agree not to enroll their child full-time into their resident district school or public charter school; however, families may enroll their children into public and charter schools part-time, depending on the policies of the school.

Currently, students are eligible for participation in the program if they are eligible to enroll in a New Hampshire public school and meet the income eligibility guidelines at the time of application. Students only need to qualify in the first year of the program and do not need to meet the income eligibility guidelines in subsequent years. 

Independent studies have found that outcomes for participation in similar school voucher programs in other states are, at best, mixed. However, more recent studies have suggested that these programs have had significant negative effects on student outcomes for the students who participate in them and have diverted funding from public schools. Researchers have stated that school vouchers “cause catastrophic academic harm” and have had a worse impact on student outcomes than any other policy or event in public school history, including the global pandemic. 

Controversy surrounds New Hampshire’s school voucher program  

The New Hampshire Department of Education is under growing scrutiny for refusing to provide key program data to state auditors, citing a lack of authority. The NHED contracted out the administration and management of the voucher program to a private organization, the Children’s Scholarship Fund, in 2021. As part of the contract, the NHED limited the data that the Fund is required to share with the agency and the state regarding key performance metrics, spending metrics, and other critical data. 

The NHED performed a compliance review of 50 total voucher accounts over two years, and found that 25% of them were missing information, including unverified residency and inaccurate income reporting. The Fund will be required to pay the state back for several of the accounts that were awarded in error. 

Efforts to increase transparency and tighten monitoring of the program have been killed by Republicans every year since the program’s inception. 

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