If New Hampshire’s SB 193 passes and a “voucher” in the form of an Education Savings Account becomes available for a significant number of New Hampshire students, I believe the rewards and benefits touted by the supporters of the bill will prove hollow for a majority of those eligible for some fundamental reasons: There is not enough room for them, they cannot find a school that is near enough or affordable, or their student would not be accepted.
The figures that support my contentions come from the most recent attendance and enrollment reports on the New Hampshire Department of Education’s website. The link to those reports is: www.education.nh.gov/data/attendance.htm.
In recent articles in the Valley News covering the debate over SB 193, estimates of eligibility have been listed as over 84,000 students. Not all who are eligible would seek to attend a private school, surely, but consider the fact that the total enrollment for all non-public schools in New Hampshire in 2017 was 16,266.
That’s actual enrollments, not capacity, so let’s assume those schools could take in an additional 10 percent, bringing the total to 17,848.
Keep in mind, though, that 90 percent of those seats are already taken. New seats available to students with vouchers will depend mostly on that extra capacity and existing students leaving (graduating seniors being the largest group).
Taken together, that is about 3,600 places.
All this math means that if new places in non-public New Hampshire schools were given over exclusively to those eligible for vouchers, they could accommodate approximately 4 percent of the eligible students.
Of course, one cannot go to the office of a non-public school with an Education Savings Account in hand and say, “I would like to enroll my child,” the way you can at your public school. There are conditions and competition to being accepted.
Some of the private schools in New Hampshire are among the most exclusive, competitive and expensive in the county. A $3,600 voucher by itself does not make a school costing more than $50,000 per year for tuition, room and board affordable, especially if low family income is a qualification for the voucher in the first place.
Logistics and finances will also prevent families from enrolling their children in schools where they can afford the tuition simply because there are none nearby.
SB 193 also has an eligibility provision that students must have an “education plan.”
A large number of students with such a plan are special education students. Here is where I believe the promise and reality are the furthest apart.
Of the 16,266 students listed as enrolled in non-public schools 2017, just 336 were also listed as enrolled in special education at those schools. That is just 2 percent. Non-public schools in New Hampshire simply do not have to accept students with special needs, as public schools are required to, and the numbers show that they don’t.
A voucher program, by whatever name, in New Hampshire will not be a driving force for broad improvement of all our schools. The conditions are too uneven and unfair for that.
It will not even present a realistic opportunity to a significant number of students who qualify to go to a non-public school. It will benefit a few at the expense of many.
William H. Waste, of Lyme, is a former teacher in both the Orford and Lebanon school districts, a former administrator in Lebanon, and served on the board of directors for Thetford Academy.