New Hampshire policy, followed through to the outcome.
Issue
The state programme that places public education funds in family-controlled accounts for approved educational expenses.
Bedford sends seven representatives to Concord. Once there, those representatives vote on statewide budgets, education policy, housing policy, municipal authority and dozens of other decisions whose effects eventually return home.
When government programs are targeted toward struggling households, politicians routinely debate eligibility requirements, limits and accountability. Sullivan’s signature education policy moved in the opposite direction. First, she sponsored legislation opening EFAs regardless of household income. Then she sponsored legislation seeking to remove the enrollment cap and priority guidelines.
Two things can happen when the state subsidises something: it causes a choice that would not otherwise have happened, or it pays for one that was happening anyway. New Hampshire does not publish the data to tell them apart.
A public dashboard now shows Education Freedom Account participation by municipality. It does not show what the accounts changed — and the statewide reporting that would answer that question does not exist.
A comparison of two decisions by the representative for Sullivan County District 7: a bill that would have moved $28 million of pension cost off local property taxes, and an expansion of state education spending to $51.6 million.
