Dems misrepresent the education tax credit program.
I attended a candidates’ night last evening in Northfield and listened carefully to the Democratic candidates for state representative and senate. They all opposed the new education tax-credit program (and, oddly, spoke out against voucher programs as well, which aren’t even available to NH parents). The reason the Democrats gave for opposing these programs was their belief that the tax-credit program would, in some unique way, take valuable dollars from the public schools. They clearly don’t understand the tax-credit program or state aid to local districts.
Two of the Democratic candidates, Lorrie Carey and Andy Hosmer, admitted to sending their own children to private schools. They do this presumably because those private institutions provided a better fit for their children than their local public schools. But when they made that decision, the state stopped paying adequacy aid for their children. The state doesn’t pay for empty chairs. If any student leaves the public school for any reason, state aid stops for that student. This is true regardless of the parents’ income or reason for removing the child.
The new tax-credit program provides low- and moderate-income parents a way to send their children to the school that best fits their child. There is no difference in state funding to local districts when wealthy parents remove a child using their own money for private school or a lower-income parent does the same thing using the new scholarship program.
The question we must ask anyone in opposition to the tax-credit scholarship program is this: Why is it acceptable for wealthy parents to take children out of public schools but not acceptable for low- or moderate-income parents to do the same? If the answer involves “taking money away from public schools,” then you know that person doesn’t understand – or chooses to misrepresent – the tax-credit scholarship program. The fact is that whether a rich kid leaves a public school or a poor kid leaves, state money to that school stops.
Democratic candidates: Why are you against poor kids having the same chance as rich kids to attend the school that will give them the best opportunity for success?
Rep Gregory Hill
Northfield, NH
603 286-7329
