Article 6 of the New Hampshire State Constitution reads (in part):
“. . . But no person shall ever be compelled to pay towards the support of the schools of any sect or denomination. And every person, denomination or sect shall be equally under the protection of the law; and no subordination of any one sect, denomination or persuasion to another shall ever be established.” (emphasis added)
Article 83 of the New Hampshire State Constitution reads (in part):
“. . . that no money raised by taxation shall ever be granted or applied for the use of the schools of institutions of any religious sect or denomination.” This part of the article was amended in 1877 to keep public monies out of religious (private) schools. (emphasis added)
School vouchers, (this is an excellent explanatory link) also known as Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs), are taxpayer-funded accounts giving state funding directly to parents to pay for homeschool expenses, educational supplies, transportation, private and religious school tuition, tutoring and other items. Auditing for this program (scheme) has been sketchy at best.
New Hampshire established EFA’s in 2021, becoming the 19th state to implement a universal school voucher scheme. Initially, the program was for students from families with incomes at or below 300% of the federal poverty level, but eligibility rapidly expanded to include all students. This occurred a mere four years later in 2025 with Free Stater bill SB 295, signed into law by Gov. Ayotte. Free State Majority “Leader” Jason Osborne was one of the original planners and supporter of EFA’s. His wife runs a non-profit called Latitude Learning Resources in Derry and in 2023 received more than $28,000 in voucher money. According to data recently released by the NH Dept. of Education, participants in 2023 spent approximately $2.76 million at private schools and roughly $805,000 at Amazon.com. For what?? Again, auditing has been sketchy at best.
The Children's Scholarship Fund (based out of New York), is the administrator of the school voucher scheme. ClassWallet doles out your property tax money to educational providers. This includes homeschools, on-line learning, out-of-district public schools and private/religious schools. And yes, they get paid to do this. With your property tax dollars.
Cost projection for this school year 2026-27 is now at $60 million.
Now, what does all this have to do with Articles 6 and 83 of the NH State Constitution?
Well, those two articles specifically state “that no money raised by taxation shall ever be granted or applied for the use of the schools of institutions of any religious sect or denomination.” Now there’s this problem of how to get around those two articles.
Enter The Children’s Scholarship Fund. A portion of your property tax dollars gets diverted to them, who in turn has ClassWallet give it out for homeschool expenses, education supplies, transportation, tutoring and schools of institutions of any religious sect or denomination.
BOOM! Problem solved! Does this sound like misappropriation of public funds to you? If so, the money being misappropriated . . .
Is yours!
Misappropriation: Unauthorized spending, diversion, or improper allocation of government money outside legal authority.
Malversation: A misconduct in public office; a form of corruption which misuses public funds.
Had enough? Want your local control back? How about fully funding our public schools with public money?
Then be sure to vote.
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."
~ Benjamin Franklin