In Dover our current budget is $2.1 million over the tax cap. The bulk of the overage is due to a inadequate state funding to our school district. This while the state of New Hampshire gives out more than $24 million this year to support PRIVATE SCHOOLS in the form of school vouchers. It is my belief that school vouchers only further exacerbate the existing inequality in our education system.
By diverting funds away from public schools and towards private institutions, school vouchers ultimately benefit those who are already privileged enough to attend these schools. This leaves students in underfunded public schools at a further disadvantage, as they are left with fewer resources and opportunities to succeed. Or, in the case of Dover, an unfair burden on our local taxpayers.
Furthermore, school vouchers can also result in a lack of accountability and oversight in terms of how taxpayer dollars are being spent. Without proper regulations in place, there is no guarantee that private schools receiving vouchers will provide a high-quality education or prioritize the needs of their students.
The Republicans on New Hampshire’s House Education Committee voted in favor of FIVE different bills that would send millions more tax dollars into the ever-expanding sinkhole known as the school voucher program.
Since when is it “fiscally responsible” to expand a program that has been operating with virtually no public accountability or transparency and has produced no verifiable data to show that it’s having a positive impact on student outcomes?
The school voucher program was established with the express goal of offering “choice” to low-income students in public school, whose parents wanted a different option for them. In reality, three-fourths of the students who took vouchers were already attending private or home school without public subsidy – the only “choice” they made was to take free cash when the state offered it.
Over the past 2½ years, the program has spent a total of $45 million in taxpayer dollars on “educational service providers” (private or religious schools, for-profit “learning centers,” ski areas, summer camps ). Most of the people and entities being paid with voucher funds do not have to be vetted or accredited by anyone; they need not have any experience, training, or even criminal background checks; and whatever these vendors’ qualifications may or may not be is information unavailable to the taxpayers who are paying them. Nor are they required to make public any information about their students’ progress.
Last year $265,948 was spent on 705 tutors and tutoring services. Who’s to say a parent isn’t hiring a relative, even possibly one of her own children, to tutor a child? Are the tutors qualified? Are the rates we’re paying them reasonable? Are students showing up for the tutoring, and are they making appropriate academic progress? We, the public, have no way of knowing.
I believe that we should be focusing on investing in and supporting our public schools, rather than implementing a system that only serves to benefit a select few at the expense of the majority. Education is a right that should be accessible to all, and school vouchers risk further widening the gap between the privileged and the marginalized in our community.
