Last year, the American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit objecting to the use of New Hampshire’s Education Trust Fund money being used to fund Education Freedom Accounts (EFA). These accounts are a large part of Education Commissioner Frank Edleblut’s long term goal of undermining public education by taking our taxpayer dollars and making them available for parents who want to send their children to private, religious or home school. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the American Federation of Teachers by its president, Deb Howes. The lawsuit claimed that this money, being used for non public school education, was not only unconstitutional but illegal.
In Nov., Edleblut and his like-minded cronies had reason to celebrate as the Merrimack County Superior Court dismissed the lawsuit. Howes gave the following statement, “The court actually said the quiet part out loud, stating that the state does not have an obligation to provide a constitutionally adequate education to children whose parents opt to provide them a private education. That stunning admission should shock the public to its core and give everyone pause about the accountability and quality of voucher schools.”
On Monday, Mar. 18th, Edleblut made noises about state auditors, specifically NH’s Legislative Budget Assistant (LBA), who were trying to review the Education Freedom Account school choice program. The LBA is looking to audit the school voucher program that spent $24 million of our taxpayer dollars last year! The “Children's Scholarship Fund of New Hampshire” is the administer of the voucher program, and Edleblut felt the LBA should not have requested financial data that is not owned by the state. He called it a “fishing expedition.” I call it the state auditors wanting to clarify on what and where $24 million of our taxpayer dollars are going!
The LBA, which is nonpartisan, has been in existence since 1953 and carries out investigations, analyses, or research into the financial activities of New Hampshire State government entities. Whether Edleblut likes it or not, some of the state’s private and/or religious schools are benefitting from the use of our taxpayer dollars and should be held to state scrutiny.
We’ll have to watch how this little tug-of-war turns out between state transparency with (can’t be said enough) our taxpayer dollars and the ones who want to destroy public education.