NH: Ramping Up Vouchers

There was a time when we used years to measure the gap between "We need this small, limited voucher program to serve this very needy population" and "Free money for anyone willing to walk away from public education!" 

Arizona passed vouchers in 2006, got them thrown out in 2009, tried again in 2011 with a super-special voucher program just for students with special needs, then proceeded to expand that program year after year until they finally passed universal vouchers in 2022. Lots of patience in that crowd.

But nowadays, the voucher crowd is about as patient as a hungry labrador looking at a huge pile of doggy treats. And this year, they want to chomp away at some more goodies.

In the past, legislatures have gone slow because, despite the rhetoric, school vouchers are not particularly popular with voters. What has changed is the boldness with which legislators simply ignore that hurdle. The path to universal vouchers in Arizona involved sidestepping voters twice, most recently when voters forced a referendum on universal vouchers, the vouchers lost, and then legislators just passed them anyway. 

New Hampshire has a similar tale. After years of fruitless attempts to privatize public ed in the Granite State, the GOP captured the legislature in 2020, and immediately began pushing again. A proposed voucher bill drew over 3,000 people to testify against it. So legislators waited till the last minute, stuck it in the budget bill and passed it anyway. In May of 2021, supporters promised that the vouchers would cost a measly $130,000. Within two years that estimate proved to be off by roughly 11,000%. Currently the voucher program is up to a $23.8 million price tag. 

But that is not enough for some folks, and so the new legislative session is considering an assortment of bills intended to simply open the door wider, so that more folks can enjoy free public dollars for their private choices. 

SB 442 is the first one down the chute. Right now there's an income cap of 350% of federal poverty line on New Hampshire vouchers, but SB 442 would remove the cap for any student who requested transfer to a new public school and was denied. Another suggests raising the cap from 350% to 500% (that would be $140,000 for a family of four). Another removes the cap for students in under-performing districts. Another removes the cap for students who have been bullied or who have been diagnosed with mental illness, as well as students who identify as LGBTQ. That last is a particularly cynical move as those are precisely the students that many private schools prefer to reject or expel. And according to Rick Green at the Keene Sentinel, there's also a bill to just plain remove the income cap and go straight to universal vouchers.

That last bill at least has the virtue of honestly not pretending that there is any other sort of goal here. The other proposals are all about widening the door as a way to build up to universal vouchers. 

Have New Hampshire legislators been conned by voucher lobbyists into thinking the public really wants this? Are they simply pursuing their own agenda? Have they correctly noted that as much as voters make noise about schools and education, it's generally not an issue that influences their vote? Whatever the case, the New Hampshire GOP is ready to keep expanding and pushing their costly voucher program so that taxpayers can help foot private school bills for the well-to-do.