HB1820

I strongly support this bill. I believe the legislature and the governor have been very irresponsible with tax payer money, by not providing a financial requirement (i.e. these should go to families with need) and NOT providing for any oversight of the EF accounts. I do not believe the state should support families wishing to send their children to private school, especially if those families make that choice and can afford it anyway. These accounts have not provided families with need any further education choice. AND why should we give 10% of our tax payer money to a private entity, again a rip0ff of tax payer money, when the private entity has no responsibility to be acountable.

support HB 1820. Placing the Education Freedom Account program under the Department of Education improves transparency, accountability, and public oversight of taxpayer funds. Please vote Ought to Pass.

The school voucher program should be administered by the Deptarment of Education, not by a private entity that is paid 10% for every EFA dollar, refuses to allow audits, and has no accountability.

I have every confidence that given the appropriate staffing levels, the NHED under its current leadership would be quite capable of providing the necessary administration, and level of transparency required, to support this program in a more cost effective solution. The savings to the Educational Trust Fund would afford more public funding available to support the needs of all students.

AFT-NH supports this bill. While we oppose the voucher program, especially where the State has not met its obligation to fully and fairly fund its obligation to provide a robust public education to the 90 percent of Granite State students in public district schools, we feel that as long as this program does exist, this bill would improve it. This keeps more of the scarce state revenue spent on vouchers, used only by a small minority of Granite State students, and have less of it siphoned off in overhead, as is the current case with the thrid party non-profit that administers the program. Having the vucher program administered by the NH DOE would make it more accountable to NH taxpayers, as well,

NH Department of Education should oversee the EFA program.

Support public education so our children understand each other in future politics.

The Education Freedom Account program is presently administered by a contractor and there has been difficulty obtaining information to audit or monitor the program administration. This bill would have the state administer the program. Kent Street advises, “The school voucher program is currently administered by a private entity that is paid 10% for every EFA dollar and that has 0 accountability." The elephant in the bill is that supporters of the free for all on public money don't want to audit so I urge the sponsors of this bill to bring this situation up every single time the house groans about spending any money on investing in people's rights to have the dignity they deserve. Moreover, this voucher program is a harmful sham. Not only does it infringe on our religious freedom by allowing tax money to go to religious institutions, but the few thousand dollars it gives away without oversight takes away from the public's right to have an adequate education. Who is looking at outcomes from the education the voucher families are receiving? And who is speaking out for those kids who need special education? These students will not be served.

As a member of the public and as a member of my local school board, I oppose Education Freedom Accounts in entirety as they are designed to destroy public education and create inequities in educational access and quality. However, I support this bill because one of the major issues with EFAs is private companies using them to make a profit off of public dollars. Requiring the EFAs to be administered by the state of NH has a chance to provide oversight and shut down some of the obvious graft.

This is a step in the right direction and would give back the 10% skimmed off the top of Voucher dollars by the current out-of-state administrative entity. And, were the program administered by the NH DOE, the public might just get to see if these voucher students are succeeding academically and where the public tax dollars expended through the program are being spent, information that has been hidden (or perhaps failed to be collected) by the current administrator.

The Education Freedom Account vouchers must have more transparent oversight of how this money is spent. The private company that administers the program has done a terrible job on sharing information and they are being paid 10% for every EFA dollar spent. The State should administer this program.

The school voucher program needs governmental oversight for a taxpayer-funded program for accountability!

We do not have enough information about what we are getting for our voucher money. Need better control and oversight.

Where is the accountability in the school voucher program, financial and otherwise???

I support this bill because I think the current private company administering the bill is not assuming enough accountability for how the money is spent.

This bill requires the oversight and accountability needed by these Education Freedom Accounts.

The EFA funds must be audited continuously and not by the company that is administering it. That could be a conflict of interest.

Good bill

The scholarship organization administering this program has withheld data from the auditors trying to complete a performance audit - that alone should justify shifting responsiblity to the Dept. of Ed. Moreover, the limited oversight that's been provided - DOE's 2024 "compliance review" - found a 25% error rate; presumably the DOE would do better. Childrens' Scholarship Fund has also chosen at times to withhold from the public and from the legislature reports about where the money is going and even the spending reports it has now disclosed don't require all the information required by the Ed. Rules. For these reasons and more (including saving the 8-10% fee CSF collects) it makes sense to have the DOE administering this program.

The current admin fee is excessive, no doubt the state can do it cheaper with better control

The Members of the NH Council on Developmental Disabilities believe this will could have a positive effect on the NH disability community.

State Dept. of Ed. should administer & oversee the EFA program (if it has to exist at all) to prevent fraud and to allow transparency. A state agency should handle state funds, not a private third party as is currently the case.

While I oppose EFAs, I support this bill to regulate in state by our DoE.

If New Hampshire truly values fiscal responsibility, then they owe it to the taxpayer to ensure all monies spent have transparency and oversight. It is after all our money that is being used and should be handled by an instate agency.