After Hopkinton’s town meeting wrapped up its routine business and warrant articles, the final item on the agenda sparked a charged debate over school choice, specifically, whether state funding for Education Freedom Accounts is fair to taxpayers and local towns.
Bryce Petruccelli stepped up to the microphone to air his frustration.
“We have a separation of church and state in this country, and I have a significant problem with using taxpayer funds to pay for religious education,” Petruccelli said, drawing applause from the crowd. “It is absolutely a parent’s right to decide where their child goes to school. It is not their right to use taxpayer money to fund education that is of any sort of religion.”
Similar articles passed in Bow and Epsom this year, and in Pembroke and Salisbury last year. They all centered on the same core argument that taxpayers have a right to know where their money is going and how it is being spent when tax dollars are diverted to religious or private schools.
But some residents, like Frances Blamey, were opposed to the advisory article against EFAs.
“If New Hampshire is the state of lift free or die, then why would we want to restrict parents’ ability to put their children where they know best that those children could learn,” she said. “Even though I don’t personally have any children in the school district, I feel very much that the parents here need to have the right to choose where their children should be educated.”
Critics argue that while the state sends an increasing amount of money toward this program, public school funding remains largely underfunded, shifting a growing financial burden onto local property taxpayers.
School board members say some of their tax increase is due to gaps in state funding, particularly for special education and programs such as career and technical education tuition.
The question at hand read: “Shall we call on our legislators to protect taxpayers by requiring the education Freedom account program to provide fiscal and educational performance reports comparable to those required of public schools and by limiting eligibility to families with demonstrated financial need?”
The article passed and the results will be sent to the state Legislature.
After all warrant articles passed at both the town and school district meetings, Hopkinton is expected to see a municipal tax rate of $5.65 and a school tax rate of $16.45.
Residents voted to approve the town’s operating budget of $10.4 million, a 4.4% increase over last year. It passed by secret ballot with 189 yes votes and 33 no votes.
Among the major expenses baked into the budget are repairs to a landfill cap damaged in a rainstorm in June and a long-overdue culvert repair on East Penacook Road near the transfer station.
Vicky Bram, select board, said the bridge is on the state’s red list of municipally owned bridges.
“It’s pretty bad. It’s not critical. It’s a step away from critical,” Bram said. “So we’re trying to fix it before it gets closed down by the Department of Transportation for being unsafe to drive over.”