Get rid of School Vouchers

I agree! I am retired and married… we live off our Social Security and my husbands pension. Barely getting along. We own our home but have high taxes. Don’t want to live in nursing facilities. Why doesn’t the state of NH allow couples like myself, to be tax free while living in their homes.

I will give you a clear idea of what happens in the school systems today. Parents of Special Needs Students take their children out of Public Schools due to bullying and place their children in parochial (private) schools. Not because they are elite, (because most private schools are not) but because they enforce morals and education. This is true for a broad spectrum of parents, not just those with special needs. But more on the special needs children. Parochial schools don’t have the budget for a special needs department, each individual teacher has to take on that role for each individual IEP. If parents could route vouchers to these low budget schools 1) parents could better afford placing their children into a better environment and 2) those schools could potentially hire special needs teachers or more teachers to adapt to the student’s needs.

What’s really concerning is how the General Court shot down so many measures this term that were simply about transparency and accountability on where the money is going.

My main objection apart from draining money from the public schools coffers I don’t my tax money should be paying for religious schools, especially church schools which teach fairytales instead of fact. It’s fair to say there are any number of schools with church connections, with excellent outcomes. Inculcating students into thinking there is only one way to think, excluding everything, except whatever that child’s parents believe should be taught and what should not be taught. Should this go forth tax the churches, but do not burden those of us with opposing beliefs. The Constitution still draws a line between church and state with good reason. I put my girls in private academies and incurred hefty expenses My son needed the resources a public school provides, having Asperger’s. Vouchers just drain the system and those students with disabilities suffer.

Maybe if there wasn't so much misapplication of the money they do get. The irony being that administrator's salary is in the hundred grands and their boots on the ground staff, Lara's and TA's and substitutes(some there everyday) make less than a fast food worker. Which is 18 an hour. Isn't it embarrassing that a support staff employee can qualify for food stamps? And still pay student loans? Shameful.

EFA’s are grants, not vouchers. They are an allocation of funds raised mostly by “sin taxes” and donations. The recipient parents pay property taxes toward public schools they’re not using. EFA’s are a fraction of the cost per student of all NH public schools. EFA popularity is a result of public schools producing poor proficiencies, bullying, and toxic indoctrination in values antithetical to many families. Fix the education quality, and EFA popularity will decline.