Critical comment sparks final EFA committee vote

Yahoo

28-05-2025

The House budget chairman's claim that all New Hampshire school board members were 'corrupt' sparked the final committee vote Wednesday recommending legislation (SB 295) to remove income limits for families eligible to get Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs).
The comment from Rep. Ken Weyler, R-Kingston, came as he lashed out over what he described as the failure of public schools to improve student test scores even as taxpayers pay more to support K-12 education.
'This educational system we have in our state is a failure; it just keeps going up in costs and no increase in testing results, no discipline at all because school boards are just corrupt,' Weyler said.
He accused the public-school lobby of pulling out all the stops to try and stop expansion of the taxpayer subsidies for parents to send their children to private, religious, alternative public or home school programs.
'You have thousands of people working for this corrupt system and they are the ones making phone calls and I object to it,' Weyler said.
In response, Rep. Rosemarie Rung, D-Merrimack, called on Weyler to apologize to all present and past school board members such as herself and other Republicans on the panel.
'Perhaps it is an exaggeration, but I don't see any improvement,' Weyler answered. 'Maybe it's an exaggeration but it is a failure.'
The House Finance Committee approved a rewrite of Sen. Victoria Sullivan's EFA bill on a party-line vote, 14-11, with all Democrats in opposition.
Leading Democrats said the bill violated House budget procedure because it would spend $17 million more next year than what was contained in the $15 billion state budget that the House approved last month.
The House budget's EFA program (HB 115) would raise the income limit next year from 350-to-400% of the federal poverty level.
For families of four, that would raise the family income threshold from $112,525 to $128,600 annually.
Ayotte proposed more modest EFA expansion
But Sullivan's bill that cleared the House panel Wednesday would eliminate any income eligibility restriction right away though it would set an enrollment cap of 10,000.
Currently, about 5,300 students receive EFAs that cost the state budget $30 million annually.
The proposal goes well beyond what Gov. Kelly Ayotte had proposed for an expansion of EFAs.
In her budget address in February, Ayotte endorsed eliminating EFA income limits, but only for parents whose children are enrolled in public schools.
Studies have shown that as many as 80% of parents who received EFAs already had their children enrolled in non-public schools.
Rep. Kate Murray, D-New Castle, charged the cap was illusory since the bill states there would be no enrollment limit if it doesn't reach 10,000 students for two straight years.
'This cap is more of a diversion than anything else,' Murray said.
'There is no cap on this; it seems to me this is somewhat an attempt of diverting the attention away from the facts that our constituents do not support expanding this program.'
Rep. Daniel Popovici-Muller, R-Windham, said Sullivan and other EFA supporters proposed the cap to counter what he called baseless claims from Democratic critics that this expansion could bankrupt the state.
'This will regulate the growth of the program to ensure that these doomsday scenarios do not come about,' Popovici-Muller said.
Rep. Keith Erf, R-Weare, amended the bill to ensure that those already enrolled, their siblings, any students with disabilities and those from families making less than 350% of FPL would always be enrolled regardless of the cap.
Under the amendment, if the enrollment in any one year approaches 90% of the cap then it would be increased 25% which would raise it to 12,500.
Rep. Laura Telerski, D-Nashua, said it's fiscally irresponsible to increase spending on the program for wealthier parents while the state budget cut spending and would force moderate-income families to pay a 5% premium for their Medicaid-provided health care.
'Of all years, this is not the year we need to spend like this,' Telerski said. 'We need to tighten our belts like we are telling every department that they have to do.'
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What's Next: The full House is expected to approve the amended bill next week.
Prospects: Ayotte has not said she would reject the EFA expansion that's more generous than what she wanted. This bill could mean EFA supporters don't have to wait for a final state budget compromise to get the expansion they want.
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