Melissa Johnston used to send her four kids to neighborhood public schools in Manchester. But they weren’t a good fit. She says one of her sons got suspended in second grade for stealing his teacher's gum. All of her kids have ADHD and struggled to focus.
So she went looking for another option. She started by searching online for “alternatives to traditional public schools.”
“That was my first introduction to charter schools,” she remembers. “Each charter school has their different philosophy, their different way of teaching things, their way of being, their community — everything.”
Johnston eventually landed on Kreiva Academy, a charter school in downtown Manchester. She appreciated the school's diversity and spirit of inclusion, and its approach to learning. Classes are small, and lessons are hands-on and driven by students’ individual interests. She’s been so impressed by her kids’ success that, last year, she left her old job to work as Kreiva’s family engagement specialist.
'Why wouldn't you want your child to have a choice if something doesn't work for you?'Melissa Johnston, Kreiva Academy family engagement specialist and parent
To many school choice advocates, Johnston’s experiences reflect the promise of offering more families alternatives to traditional public schools. The idea that school choice improves educational outcomes has been popular in some circles for decades, but it’s gained momentum — and significant funding — since Gov. Chris Sununu took office in 2017.
Sununu and his education commissioner Frank Edelblut have championed the idea of funding students over public school systems. With the help of Republican majorities at the State House, they’ve put millions of dollars toward charter schools and programs designed to promote alternatives to traditional public schools, including “learning pods” run by private tutoring companies and Education Freedom Accounts, which give parents money to pay for homeschooling or private school tuition.
Today, more than 90% of New Hampshire’s student body still attends traditional public schools. But charter school enrollment is growing; it’s up 30% in the last five years. And over 4,500 children are using Education Freedom Accounts, which give parents money to pay for homeschooling expenses or private school tuition.
The political and financial influx of state support also overlapped with another watershed moment for the school choice movement: the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by frustrations around school closures and the subsequent toll on students’ academics and mental health, more parents began seeking out alternatives.
As New Hampshire’s school choice programs grow in popularity, they’re confronting questions about how to judge their success — and how to balance flexibility with oversight, particularly with millions in public dollars at stake.
But the programs’ supporters favor another, harder to quantify indicator: parental satisfaction.
“Parents have their own metrics and they have their own ways of deciding what's the best educational fit for their kids,” said Andrew Cline, the chairman of the State Board of Education and director of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank.
A Concord mom says public schools work for many kids, but her family wanted other options
When her son was about to enter kindergarten in Concord last year, Morgan Ring couldn’t ignore stories about the fallout of the pandemic on schools: staff shortages, student behavior issues and burnout.
“I was watching friends who were teachers that are just like - ‘I can't even find a substitute’ or ‘I can't even do this,’” she recalled. “And I was like: ‘That's concerning.’”
Ring’s son has ADHD and trouble controlling his emotions. She worried he would get lost in a large public school or labeled as a “trouble kid.” So she and her husband started looking for places with smaller class sizes and one-on-one support.
That led her to Concord Christian Academy, where staff introduced her to the state’s Education Freedom Accounts program. Because Ring’s family of four made below $105,000 a year at the time, her son qualified — which meant they could get state aid to help cover tuition.
Education Freedom Accounts are the latest of New Hampshire’s growing school choice options. They started three years ago, as part of a wave of laws in Republican-led states that send taxpayer dollars to families to pay for the education of their choice.
Students whose families make below 350% of the federal poverty income level and are not enrolled in public school are eligible for EFA’s. About 4,700 children currently participate, according to the New Hampshire office of the Children’s Scholarship Fund, which administers the program.
Families get an average of $5,255 per student. They can spend this on any vendor approved by the Scholarship Fund. Current vendors run the gamut from a Catholic boarding school in Pennsylvania to local institutions like the Concord Community Music School.
If families don't spend their allotted annual amount, they can use it for future educational expenses, even if that student starts attending a public school.
Supporters originally billed the EFA program a last-ditch option for low-income public school students who were struggling in the aftermath of the pandemic, but according to the Children’s Scholarship Fund, only about a quarter of students using EFA’s were formerly at public school; the rest were already homeschooled, in private school, or — like Ring’s son — too young to enroll in formal education.
'It’s not: One’s better than the other. It’s: What’s best for my child and who my child is as a whole?'Morgan Ring, Concord
Now that her son is at Concord Christian Academy, Ring stays in touch with his teachers via email and text regularly. A few months ago, he got the kindergarten award for optimism.
“He wasn't a perfect kid, not going to lie — but he was never labeled as a ‘bad kid,’” Ring said. “Which to me was huge.”
Ring said she still supports public schools and believes they can succeed. But she wants her kids to attend the same school, so she’s planning to apply for an EFA to send her younger child to Concord Christian Academy as well.
“It’s not: One’s better than the other,” she said. “It’s: What’s best for my child and who my child is as a whole?”
School choice expansion drives surge of interest in faith-based schooling
Religious schools like Concord Christian Academy have been among the largest beneficiaries of New Hampshire’s school choice program. According to public records from the 2022-2023 school year, the school received around $370,000 from EFA participants. Of the $10.4 million that EFA families spent on educational expenses last year, about half went to tuition and fees at private Christian schools. Another $142,000 went to three companies that produce Christian homeschooling curriculum.
Ring said Concord Christian Academy’s emphasis on religion wasn’t a draw for her family. But for other EFA participants, the ability to pay for faith-based private schools or homeschooling curriculum is one of the program’s major perks.
In the last three years, the Diocese of Manchester, which oversees about two dozen Catholic schools that serve K-12 students across New Hampshire, has reported large enrollment increases — in part driven by families using EFAs to cover tuition. Alison Mueller, the marketing director at the diocese, said parents used to cite academics as their primary reason for enrolling. But recently, families who were surveyed cited “strong moral foundations” as their top reason.
That’s also part of what led Donna Chick, of West Ossipee, to sign her family up for EFAs.
“Schools have taken on the mantra that our children are theirs to raise,” she recently told NHPR. “Public schools may be fine for families whose beliefs align with this value set but for those of us who want something different, we should have the financial choice to choose what educational program is best for our children.”
Chick lives with her husband, three of their adopted children, and eight of their grandchildren. Five of her grandkids get state support to attend a local Christian school and pay for other educational expenses; two other kids get financial assistance to pay for home education expenses.
'Public schools may be fine for families whose beliefs align with this value set but for those of us who want something different, we should have the financial choice to choose what educational program is best for our children.'Donna Chick, West Ossippee
Chick identifies as a conservative Christian, and she’s worried that schools are expecting students to embrace a “liberal ideology” — by acknowledging different gender identities or carrying library books with sexually explicit content.
Concerns about a lack of behavioral and academic support in other schools also factored into Chick’s decision to homeschool. Before he moved in with her, one of her grandchildren only attended school sporadically; his parents struggled with addiction. At age 8, Chick said he barely knew his numbers and letters.
“That child needed direct one-to-one,” she said. “And public school couldn't offer that. They couldn't offer what I can intensely give him on a daily basis.”
Chick’s desire to homeschool him was made easier by New Hampshire’s EFA law, which is one of a few nationwide that supports home education programs. Chick bought science and technology supplies, organized field trips and hired a tutor to work with him daily.
“I can’t stress this enough: The EFA has given us the flexibility of meeting his needs," she said.
As funding and enrollment grow, so do calls for oversight
The future of Education Freedom Accounts, and school choice at large, has dominated recent debates over education policy in New Hampshire. Some argue that the state should eliminate income barriers entirely.
But in some states, such as Arizona, expanding this kind of program without an income cap has led to a budget crisis. In New Hampshire, the EFA program is already millions of dollars over its forecasted budget.
That's drawn concern from many Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Hope Damon, of Croydon. She said redirecting public funds to families for school choice programs ignores the state's responsibility to adequately fund public schools. And she said it also undermines a primary goal of public education: to create common ground for students from all backgrounds.
“I think one of the risks of leaving all of it up to parents is that parent choice means children may or may not be exposed to the broad array of knowledge that is beneficial to have,” said Damon, who serves on the House Education Committee. “I don't have to agree with everything that kids might learn in school, but I think it's important for kids to learn.”
When it comes to enrollment, New Hampshire’s school choice experiments are a mixed bag. Education freedom accounts and charter schools are doing well. Other school choice initiatives spearheaded by Edelblut's Department of Education and lauded by Republicans — such as Learn Everywhere and Prenda learning pods — have had far lower enrollment than anticipated.
Nationwide, studies of school choice programs haven’t concluded any clear academic advantages or disadvantages when compared to traditional public schools. Some show that vouchers, charter schools and EFA-like programs improve student achievement; others show the exact opposite.
In New Hampshire, measuring education with test scores only tells part of the picture. Statewide, traditional public schools have higher test scores than the country’s average, but they still raise alarms: Just about half of eighth graders test proficient in English Language Arts, and only about a third test proficient in math.
It’s also hard to make direct comparisons between public charter schools and traditional public schools. Many of the charter schools are so small that they don’t share detailed testing data, to protect student privacy. The larger schools that do publish detailed data don’t perform any better, as a whole, than traditional public schools.
Jenn Siegfried, who leads Kreiva Academy, said some of this has to do with students’ experiences before they arrive at charter schools. Kreiva’s student body is relatively small, so its testing data is limited; what is reported shows that only about one-fifth of students in some grades were proficient in science and English. But Siegfried said it’s important to keep in mind that Kreiva attracts students who have struggled in traditional classroom settings.
“We are seeing students make significant strides in assessment scores from the time they start with us to when they graduate,” Siegfried said.
Education Freedom Accounts are even harder to measure. Students enrolled in the program don’t have to take the same statewide assessments as public school students, though some choose to do so. Families aren’t required to meet any performance thresholds to continue qualifying, and the program doesn’t have the same financial transparency as public schools.
State auditors are required to review the EFA program, but state education officials argued the information needed to complete that audit isn’t subject to public disclosure, since it’s administered by a private contractor. A staffer with the New Hampshire Office of Legislative Budget Assistant, which oversees the audits, said they are planning to discuss the scope of the EFA audit in August.
'I think one of the risks of leaving all of it up to parents is that parent choice means children may or may not be exposed to the broad array of knowledge that is beneficial to have.'Rep. Hope Damon, of Croydon
Damon and other State House Democrats have pushed for more oversight over how families spend EFA money and more thorough vetting of the adults being paid through the program. But those efforts have so far failed.
“New Hampshire is a microcosm of the national landscape in education,” Damon said. “And there is a culture war between those who value public schools and those who do not value them and do not trust them.”
Rep. Katy Peternel, a Republican from Wolfeboro who also serves on the House Education Committee, said when it comes to these programs, “parents have the ultimate accountability.”
“If the parents think that their students are succeeding, then that's the measure of success,” Peternel said.
