I think it’s time for the fiscally minded legislators of NH to face an important fact. We, as a state, cannot afford the Education Freedom Account (EFA) program any longer. We have spent $27 million of our state education funds on just 5,000 students so that they can attend private schools or be home schooled. However, while doing so we have starved our local towns of much needed education funds that are needed to adequately educate over a 165,000 children in our state. In NH, we rely on property taxes to pick up the local tab for the money the state doesn’t provide. It’s the NH way but now property taxes are getting way too high and school costs are rising each year and this is with NH already being 50th in the nation in school funding.

So, it’s time for the fiscally responsible wing of the NH legislature to realize that while the EFA program might have been a wonderful ideological pipe dream of the right it is just not a practical, fiscally responsible way to do education. It may be a ‘nice to have’ program but it’s not necessary. So, in these times of rising costs and cities and folks having to tighten their belts, it’s time for our legislature and governor to do the fiscally responsible thing and end this program and send the much-needed money out to the communities to take the pressure off us local taxpayers.

Wayne Fuller

Concord