This back-to-school season is unlike any other in New Hampshire. Thanks to Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s signing of SB295 in June, 10,000 students are walking into classrooms their families chose—not because of a home address or district line, but because parents were empowered with Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs). For most, EFAs alone made that choice possible. For others, donors stepped in through the Education Tax Credit (ETC) program to bridge the gap, ensuring finances would not stand in the way of opportunity.
Under the new law, EFAs are available to 10,000 students at all income levels statewide. To protect families already in the program and those with the greatest needs, enrollment is guaranteed for returning students, their siblings, low-income families, and students with disabilities. This ensures the program always serves the most vulnerable children.
These protections are more than policy mechanics; they reflect a belief about what education should be. Education Freedom Accounts were never about labels or sides. They are about children. We owe them more than a system that sorts them by zip code. We owe them the freedom to thrive.
As the nonprofit administrator of EFAs and ETC scholarships, Children’s Scholarship Fund New Hampshire (CSFNH) sees firsthand how every one of the 10,000 students being helped is a child whose life has been transformed.
For one high school senior mourning the loss of her father, an EFA meant she could remain in the school that carried her through her grief. For a young boy with school-related anxiety, it meant a fresh start with a plan designed around his needs. For a single mother, it meant her younger children could finally wake up excited to learn.
EFAs are modest in scale but life-changing in effect. They make up barely 3% of the State of New Hampshire’s overall K–12 spending. The average grant is roughly $5,000 compared to more than $25,000 in per-pupil costs in district schools. With that $5,000, parents craft an education plan – sometimes piecing together curriculum, homeschool classes, or tutoring – showing what happens when families are trusted to lead.
Some critics have twisted EFA enrollment numbers into a tale of runaway costs. That’s not honest. Lawmakers set an estimate for expansion and a cap of 10,000 scholarships. Families responded enthusiastically, and enrollment quickly reached the cap. Now opponents are treating the growth of a successful program as if it were a problem. But calling it a crisis when more students are educated at a fifth of the average state cost per pupil doesn’t add up. Even today, EFAs remain only a sliver of the education budget – a small investment with an extraordinary return.
And EFAs do this without drawing on any locally raised resources. When a student uses an EFA, their public-school district still keeps all locally collected property-tax dollars. The result is the same local funding spread across fewer students. In that way, EFAs actually increase funding available per student at the local level.
EFAs are also among the most tightly monitored education programs in the state. Purchases run through a secure online platform, vendors are pre-approved, receipts are required, and staff review each transaction. CSFNH undergoes and publishes annual audits and submits quarterly reports and other data to the NH Department of Education. Few areas of public spending are tracked this closely, line by line. Even with all of this compliance and program oversight, CSFNH spends less than 10% of the EFA grants on administrative overhead, operating at what many consider the gold standard for efficiency.
Best of all, EFAs reach the children who need them most. Last year, more than one-third of participants came from low-income households, along with many children with disabilities who used funds for therapies and supports. But this year revealed something even more striking: while officially 15% of EFAs are going to low-income families, CSF also identified returning low-income families who hadn’t completed the income section of their application this year and were therefore missing from the official count.
That means the critics are doubly wrong when they claim EFAs are just for the wealthy. Not only do the numbers already show strong participation from low-income families, but the reality is even higher once families who hadn’t provided income information at the time of filing are considered. Just as in public schools, where some families never fill out free or reduced-price lunch forms, missing information doesn’t erase the reality of poverty. That is why CSF is helping those families re-certify, since low-income families are eligible for increased funding. From the beginning, EFAs have placed the highest priority on students with the greatest needs – and that will not change.
These successes belong not only to the families, but also to the donors and legislators who made them possible. However, many families still face expenses, such as uniforms, transportation, or tuition, that exceeds their EFA amount. That’s when private generosity makes the difference. Through the ETC program, businesses and individuals provide scholarships that work alongside EFAs so families can cover the full cost. Together, the two programs often supply the final piece a family needs to choose the best option for their child.
This partnership of public commitment and private generosity reflects the strength of a community that values education as a shared responsibility. Every donor who contributes, every legislator who expands opportunity, and every parent who takes the leap of faith to choose something new is part of the story of how educational freedom is working for New Hampshire families.
