Here is Why Public School Families Should Care About Vouchers

January 26th, 2026

Notes from the Margins:

Last week, the Senate Education Finance Committee heard testimony on SB 581, the bill to remove the enrollment cap from the Education Freedom Account voucher program. If passed, the bill would allow any NH resident to take a voucher of roughly $5,000 to cover private and religious school tuition, homeschooling expenses, educational supplies, transportation, tutoring, or other expenses approved by the scholarship organization. 

The hearing room was full of parents who have used vouchers to support their educational preferences. But largely absent from the conversation were parents of the roughly 90% of New Hampshire students who attend public schools. For those parents, and for Granite Staters who don’t have kids in school, the voucher conversation might seem irrelevant – but policy choices aren’t made in a vacuum. Here are a few reasons why public school families might want to pay attention to NH’s school voucher program: 

 1. State education funding all comes from the same place.

The state uses the Education Trust Fund to pay for vouchers and its share of adequate education aid to public schools  (a share the court has said is insufficient), along with some other expenses. The Education Trust Fund functions much like a checking account: taxes on business profits and tobacco sales as well as lottery profits are deposited and checks are cut for public schools, vouchers, school building renovations, and special education. 

The continued expansion of the voucher program has resulted in more and more expenses to be covered by the fund - more checks cut. That is because most students in the voucher program were never in public school, and so the state was not previously paying toward their education. And though the state has made some changes to video gambling to try to bolster the Education Trust Fund, there was no new revenue stream attached to the voucher program. That means the state has committed to sending more money out – to finance choices families had already made – without committing to bringing more money in. 

 2. The voucher program relies on taxpayer dollars but is not accountable to taxpayers.

When you have a question or concern about operations at your local public school, you can attend a school board meeting or file a right-to-know request to get an answer. When you have a question or concern about operations at a private school receiving public voucher dollars, you have no recourse. 

Public schools are routinely asked to justify their expenses and outcomes. They are legally required to provide detailed information on how they conduct operations and the policies that guide decision making. Public schools are governed by democratically elected boards that are responsible for implementing the will of the community. Student learning and growth is routinely reported to families and community members, and taxpayers have a venue to ask questions of school leaders or to raise concerns.

The voucher program is not held to those same standards. Although the money funding vouchers comes from taxpayers, we have little information about what happens with the money. Operational details are not publicly shared, students are not required to reach certain scores on tests, and state standards for teaching and learning do not apply. Private schools can raise tuition with no approval, admit (or not admit) whoever they want, and they do not have to answer to the people whose dollars now fund students’ tuition.

 3. The time and energy spent debating voucher policy is time and energy not spent on public schools.

Whether your neighbor attends a private school or a public school likely doesn’t affect your experience that much. But whether your state representatives are spending their energy on private schools or public schools can. Since the inception of the voucher program, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have spent substantial time and energy on the program, whether aiming to expand it or to put up guardrails. This year alone, Reaching Higher is tracking more than 20 bills related to vouchers. Each of these bills gets a hearing, each demands the time and expertise of the Department of Education, and each, ultimately, does nothing to improve the experience for the 90% of students who attend public schools. 

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