The Children’s Scholarship Fund (CSF) takes up to 10% of all CSF taxpayer funds off the top of Education Freedom Account voucher moneys. Last year, NH paid $ 2.3 million of the national CSF’s $5.2 million for running their organization.
New Hampshire taxpayers have every right to be angry. While we are told the state “cannot afford” to meet its constitutional obligation to public education, tens of millions of dollars are quietly being drained from the Education Trust Fund to subsidize private, religious, and homeschooling families who were never in our public schools to begin with.
The process to create the Republican report — and the reaction to it by Democrats — showcased deep partisan divisions over the voucher-like program.
In addition to appeals to school choice, Republican lawmakers have argued the EFA program saves money for local property taxpayers because when a student leaves a public school district, the residents no longer pay the local portion of public school tuition for that student.
School districts around the state are scrambling to draft policies about whether and how to charge tuition to students enrolled in the Education Freedom Account program — students who, unlike traditional homeschoolers, are not legally entitled to free participation in district programming.