The New Hampshire State Constitution mandates that every child in the state has access to an adequate education. With over 30 years of litigation on this topic, finally in 2023 Superior Court Judge David Ruoff ruled in favor of the plaintiffs who claimed NH failed to meet that obligation. He ruled the state increase its education spending from $4,100 per student to at least $7,356.01.
In June, 2024, then gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte (R-Nashua) took part in a candidate forum stating she hoped the US Supreme Court would reverse Ruoff’s decision. Claiming, “When it comes to education funding, I personally think that that Superior Court decision was wrong. I’m glad that the governor (Sununu) has appealed that to the Supreme Court.”
Ayotte’s long-held opposition to school funding goes back to when she was in the US Senate from 2011 to 2017 (if not before) and includes opposing funding higher education. In 2012 and 2015, she supported a congressional budget which would have cut Pell Grant funding. If passed, then one million college students would not have been able to access that federal financial funding. In both years, those efforts failed.
Instead, Ayotte has long been in support of school “choice” policies that hurt public school funding. Advocates of school choice usually support public funds following a student to whichever school they attend, including private and/or religious schools. This generally happens through vouchers that covers a portion of a private school tuition.
In 2021, Ayotte was in support of the NH legislature’s approval of a voucher program known as Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs). These school vouchers, initially with an income cap, allowed families the use of state funds for private schools, homeschooling, online courses, and tutoring. It wasn’t long before EFAs quickly became controversial due to a continuous lack of accountability concerning their use. This past June, Gov. Ayotte signed into law a bill eliminating the income cap for families looking to avail themselves of public monies for private schools. A direct violation of the NH Constitution’s Article 83. A veritable free-for-all at the expense of property owners, with still no accountability.
Sharon Osborne (no relation to the late Ozzy) is the director and an instructor at Latitude Learning Resources, a nonprofit in Derry offering cross-curricular classes for homeschoolers and other students. “Cross-curricular” learning involves more than one area of learning. For example, art and math might be blended together, or science and vocabulary.
Sharon is very happy to receive the school vouchers.
Now where does the potential conflict come in?
Joseph Daley is a math teacher at St. Christopher Academy, a Catholic school in Nashua. Joseph Daley is the husband of Gov. Ayotte.
Sharon Osborne is the wife of Free Stater and Republican Majority Leader Jason Osborne.
Conflict? Oh, surely not . . .
Fun fact: there are over 800 educational programs approved to receive school vouchers. For example, the St. Benedict Center, a regular fixture on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Map and faux Catholic group in Richmond, NH, are more than happy to feed at the voucher trough.
Who needs accountability?