HB1716

Educational Freedom Accounts should be more accountable!

The EFA program is long overdue to provide full accountability and transparency to ensure the participating schools and home schools are giving students a quality education. Please support HB1716. Thank you.

The EFA program is long overdue to provide full accountability and transparency to ensure the participating schools and home schools are giving students a quality education. Please support HB1716. Thank you.

I support this bill.

SUPPORT HB 1716 If public dollars fund Education Freedom Accounts, the public deserves to know the outcomes. HB 1716 requires basic academic reporting so results—not rhetoric—guide policy. Choice without accountability is not acceptable. Support HB 1716.

No tax money to fund this please

Demands some EFA accountability per objective benchmarks.

The EFAs need more accountability than is currently required.

I support this bill. There needs to be accountability and a way to compare public school students with private school students that are receiving state money through vouchers. There are many, many, many requirements placed on public schools and none placed on these other schools which are mostly religious. Please stop increasing the enrollment until the state decides how to manage these vouchers so that the public knows what their money is going towards.

Dear Members of the House Education and Administration Committee, Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony regarding HB 1716. I am writing in support of the bill’s intent to add accountability requirements to Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs), specifically as they relate to assessment portfolios and performance data. As an educator working within the public school system, I believe this measure is both reasonable and necessary to ensure equity, transparency, and responsible stewardship of public funds. Public schools in New Hampshire operate under extensive accountability requirements. We are required to collect, analyze, and report student performance data, participate in state and federal assessments, and demonstrate measurable outcomes in order to justify continued funding, including federal grant allocations. These requirements are not optional; they are an essential part of maintaining public trust and ensuring that taxpayer dollars are used effectively to support student learning. When public funds are allocated to parents through EFAs for educational purposes, it is appropriate and fair that similar standards of accountability apply. If families are receiving public money to educate their children outside of the public school system, there should be clear expectations for assessment, documentation, and performance outcomes. This is not about limiting parental choice, but about ensuring that public investments in education are accompanied by meaningful oversight. HB 1716 represents an important step toward parity. Holding EFA recipients to comparable standards of assessment and accountability as public schools helps ensure that all students in New Hampshire, regardless of the educational pathway chosen, are being supported in ways that are transparent, measurable, and in the best interest of the state. I urge the committee to support HB 1716 and its efforts to strengthen accountability for all publicly funded educational programs. Thank you for your time and consideration. Amy Kopp

The EFA program is funded by NH taxpayers. We have a right to know student achievement under the EFA program to see if student outcomes warrant our tax dollars. Public school students undergo frequent state-mandated testing to determine student achievement. EFA students should as well.

I support this bill. It is essential that transparency, accountability and oversight are implemented in the Voucher/EFA program. We should know where the money is going and put controls on the am0unt that is distributed.

EFAs need to be overseen and analyzed for their academic effectiveness

Nh definitely needs to have academic accountability for the EFA program - it's costing the state Education Fund a lot of money with no way to see what the academic benefit is for those students.

note testimony is for non-german amendment as well as HB1300

Any use of tax payer dollars should be transparent and accountable.

The current NH Education Freedom Accounts (NH EFA) are oversubscribed and run with virtually no oversight of the quality of education alternatives, e.g., whether or not these children are making appropriate academic progress. This bill will establish reasonable monitoring of the NH EFA to ensure that taxpayer funds are used for alternative education options that are effective.

Accountability to the EFA program is long overdue

EFA's--the voucher program needs academic accountability.

In particular, I oppose the non-germane amendment.

If my tax dollars are to go to students through the efa, those providing that education have as much responsibility for assuring me that my tax dollars are providing a quality education as the public schools my tax dollars also support.

If the state of NH would pay its fair share, we taxpayers would save far more on property taxes. Stop the gop tax scam for once and for all. NH must fund public education. GOP lawmakers pretend to lower taxes, but it's only for the rich, so New Hampshire families pay for it in the end.