House Budget: School voucher expansion - More money for wealthy families’ private school tuition, less money for public schools

April 8th, 2025

The school voucher expansion in the budget would increase the income eligibility guideline slightly in FY2026, then completely remove it in FY2027, meaning that every family that enrolls their children in private schools or homeschools would be eligible to receive a school voucher, regardless of income. According to Reaching Higher NH estimates, if all private and homeschooled students signed up for a school voucher, it would cost the state about $102 million per year. 

School vouchers are especially harmful for communities across New Hampshire because they divert critical funding away from public schools. Because they’re funded from the same funding source, the Education Trust Fund, every dollar that’s spent on school vouchers is a dollar that’s not available to fund public schools, for the school building aid program and for Career and Technical Education. 

Since the program began in 2021, it’s already diverted about $73 million away from public schools -- money that could have funded Special Education Aid (which had a $16 million shortfall this year), school building aid (which has not been funded at capacity in years), or targeted funding programs for high-need districts to reduce property taxes, hire and retain qualified teachers, or preserve academic and extracurricular activities that have been recently cut. 

Contrary to common pro-voucher talking points, school vouchers do not save taxpayers money in New Hampshire. The vast majority (77%) of voucher recipients were already enrolled in private schools or were homeschooled when they enrolled in the program, meaning that they were not included in local school district budgets, or included in any property tax calculations. In fact, they cost taxpayers more because they’re added to the public funding calculations -- it’s new spending that the state must find money to fund. 

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