House Leaders Advocate for Education Freedom Accounts

Concord, NH- NH Speaker of the House Sherm Packard (R-Londonderry) and Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn) released the following statement after the introduction of HB20, establishing the Richard “Dick” Hinch education freedom account program.

Speaker Sherm Packard (R-Londonderry): 

“The challenges that students, families, and educators are facing are unprecedented. While schools are working to reopen and/or provide alternative models of instruction, the quality and consistency of offerings varies from school to school and district to district. Parents are being left to pick up the slack with educational, social, and emotional needs of children.”

“In the wake of the pandemic, education funds must be provided directly to families so that they can foster stable and continuous learning, and to pay for any educational option that works best for their situation – at their sole discretion. Education Freedom Accounts ensure and support a high quality, flexible, and unique publicly funded education for all New Hampshire students.”

Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn):

“This bill is about finding the right fit for the child and giving families an opportunity to choose the right school for their child’s needs and abilities. The myth perpetuated from the other side is that this program would destroy public schools. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that, and these are more of the same scare tactics we heard years ago before the passage of the successful education tax credit scholarship program.”

“The fact of the matter is that state adequacy dollars belong to every child in the state.This program would effectively be the same as a child moving out of the school district. Every parent in the state contributes to education funding through their tax dollars, and through this pandemic it is clear that this funding should remain with the parent to benefit their child.”

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