“Whether we understand it or not, we’re going to vote on it”: 5 Things to know about the House subcommittee’s budget plan
March 28th, 2025
This week, the House Finance Division II Subcommittee, which handles the education sections of the state budget, wrapped up most of their work and voted on key amendments to the state budget. They will meet on Friday before sending their recommendations to the full House Finance Committee next week.
Here are five things to know about the House Finance subcommittee’s budget plan:
1. There’s disagreement and lack of understanding about the implications of some of the proposals.
The cost of the school voucher program is one of the biggest points of disagreement among committee members: Republicans, who voted to include the universal school voucher bill in the budget, insist that allowing every private and homeschool student to participate would only cost an additional $10 million in the first year (FY 2027). For context, there are nearly 20,000 private and homeschooled students in the state, and the vouchers cost an average of $5,200 each. Earlier this year, Reaching Higher analysis showed that expanding school voucher eligibility to all students, regardless of family income, could cost the state up to $102 million in the 2025-2026 school year.
One of the other points of confusion: The implications of an amendment to authorize lottery revenue to fund NH public schools. The proposal estimates that revenue will increase by nearly 50%, to $320 million in FY 2027.
“Whether we understand it or not, we’re going to vote on it,” Division II Chair Keith Erf (R-District 28) told the committee on Tuesday, after a committee member said that she didn’t fully understand the implications of one of the amendments.
2. It includes the state-mandated budget caps and universal school vouchers, despite record opposition from Granite Staters.
Both ideas are overwhelmingly rejected by voters: Every district who had budget caps on their ballot voted them down this year, and every district that had one passed their warrant articles urging lawmakers to reject voucher expansion. And, thousands of people signed in opposition of both bills this year during their public hearings.
In the past few years, the state budget has been a vehicle for the majority party to pass unpopular legislation. In 2021, Republicans rolled the creation of the school voucher bill into that state budget because “it probably [wouldn’t] pass if it stood alone.” The inclusion of HB 675 and HB 115 appears to be following the same trend.
3. It slightly increases special education funding, but doesn’t close the funding gap.
The budget would increase funding for the Special Education Aid program, which reimburses school districts for pre-approved costs for out-of-district placements and services that exceed a certain threshold. The NHED told school districts last fall that they would receive significantly less state funding from the program because it’s prorated, and the NHED has held the budget request flat since 2021 despite significant increases in the need for the program.
Governor Ayotte’s proposed budget allocated about $50 million per year into the fund, which matches this year’s requests (but doesn’t make up for the current school year’s shortfall). The House Finance Division II proposal goes a step farther to ensure that the program is funded to at least 80% each year (this year, the proration rate was 67.5%, the lowest in recent history).
4. Reduces funding for Adult Education.
Committee members voted along party lines to reduce funding to the Bureau of Adult Education, which provides classes to New Hampshire residents to improve basic skills in reading, writing, and math. It also provides English classes to adults who are learning English, and supports Adult Diploma Programs (including GED and HiSET) across the state. The program would be cut by about 20%.
5. Not included: Increasing access to school meals for students.
The committee rejected, along party lines, a proposal to use Medicaid Direct Certification, which would lower the barrier for school meal access for low-income children by automatically enrolling them into the school meals program. When discussing the bill, Rep. Daniel Popovici-Muller of Windham stated, “There is no specific example of kids being denied food in school because of their inability to pay.”
Rep. Eileen Kelly of Bradford countered, “I have come to the conclusion that unless Tiny Tim with his crutches were to appear before you and beg for food you will not believe that we have children going hungry."
Reaching Higher NH will continue to follow the budget proceedings.
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