New Hampshire
As EFA program grows, Democrats push for more oversight • New Hampshire Bulletin
New Hampshire’s education freedom account program grew by 12 percent over the past year, the Department of Education announced Thursday. But as Republican lawmakers seek to expand the program and potentially remove all income limits, Democrats continue to raise concerns over the use of funds in the program.
At a hearing for the program’s legislative oversight committee Tuesday, Sen. Debra Altschiller, a Stratham Democrat, argued that more data is needed to demonstrate that students who are taking EFAs are doing better than they would have in public schools – particularly those in religious schools.
“We do not have aggregate information as to how the students in the program are performing using accepted statewide academic assessments or measured progress toward mastering any competencies that are considered part of an adequate education,” Altschiller said.
She added: “You know, we have schools that are not teaching to the standards of some very, very highly respected private, independent schools. They’re not all teaching to the same standards.”
Created in 2021, the education freedom account program allows parents in families making up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level – $109,200 for families of four – to use per-pupil state education funding toward private school and home-schooling costs such as tuition.
The program follows the state’s adequacy formula to determine how much each student receives: Families get a minimum of $4,182 per year per student, but can get more for students who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches, who are English language learners, or who require special education services.
In the 2024-2025 school year, the program’s fourth year, 5,321 students joined the program, according to the department. About 37 percent of those students – 1,974 – came from families making up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $57,720 for a family of four.
In total, the program is using $27.7 million of funds from the Education Trust Fund this school year, with an average payout per student of $5,204. That’s a 25 percent increase over last year’s spend of $22.1 million. So far, that spending makes up 2.2 percent of the total $1.2 billion estimated to fill the Education Trust Fund this year.
The program grew at a slower rate last year than in past years, such as 2023 to 2024, when the number of students participating increased 39 percent. The change then was partly structural: In 2023, Republican lawmakers raised the income cap from 300 percent of the federal poverty level to 350 percent.
But while the program takes up 2.2 percent of the trust fund now, that portion will likely grow if lawmakers vote to remove all income caps and make the program universal. Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte said she would support that move in her campaign for governor, and top House lawmakers have also indicated interest.
Republicans and other supporters of the program say it provides helpful state support for families who are not interested in the public education system, or who have tried the public school system and had trouble such as bullying or difficulty acquiring special education services. And they argue making the program universal eliminates the “cliff effect” faced by families who make slightly too much money to qualify for a given cap.
But Democrats argue the state should not be sending public funds to assist with private school expenses and that the money would be better spent on increased state aid to public schools. Making the program universal would allow wealthy families who already pay to put their children in private school the ability to use state funds that could go to public education, they argue.
And the parties have quarreled over how to oversee the program. On Tuesday, members of the Education Freedom Savings Account Oversight Committee met to finalize their annual report looking into how many students are using the accounts and how much the program is spending.
Altschiller argued the committee’s final report presents a rosy picture of success for the families that are taking the EFAs without the necessary data to confirm academic improvement. “We have individual anecdotal reports from a minority of parents who took their children out of the public school system and then put them into a religious school environment, and we have no data on that.”
Republicans on the committee countered that while the state does require standardized testing for students in grades three through eight and 11, the committee could not see how those scores follow EFA students without violating privacy.
Rep. Rick Ladd, a Haverhill Republican and the chairman of the House Education Committee, said the survey responses from parents who have received EFAs are sufficient feedback to know that the program is working for them.
“We’re making decisions based upon social conditions,” he said. “We’re making [decisions] based upon parent information. We’re making decisions that are based upon what is seen in terms of progress, subjectively.”
Sen. Ruth Ward, a Republican of Stoddard and the chair of the oversight committee, agreed.
“I think that what you are proposing is for each individual child that uses EFA, we have to set up a special program finding out how they are taught and what they are learning,” she said to Altschiller. “And I think based on anecdotal evidence, I think what we have heard is that parents are making the choice, and most of the parents who have gone to a different school are happy about the change.”
Altschiller disagreed: “They have the freedom to educate the way they want to,” she said of private schools. “The difference is that now we’re paying for it and we can’t. We have no say. We have no oversight. We don’t even have a look at it.”
Altschiller also wanted the final report to clearly note the number of students who attended public school before receiving EFAs. According to Thursday’s department data, 36 percent of all EFA students left their public school; 64 percent came from families who already were home schooling or sending their children to private school before getting an EFA.
Democrats argue that ratio undermines how the program was presented by Republicans when it passed: as a way for students to have an alternative option if the public school they attended was not right for them.
Republicans say families should still receive the funding even if their children never attended a public school because the EFA will help them to continue to afford that choice.
The hours-long meeting ended with heated words; Altschiller eventually said she would write her objections and clarifications in a minority report attached to the official document.
Meanwhile, after claiming larger majorities in the Nov. 5 election, Republican state lawmakers are gearing up for a budget season next year in which they attempt to make universal education freedom accounts a reality.
House Deputy Majority Leader Jim Kofalt said he expected most House Republicans to be behind that measure – even amid some concerns about ongoing costs to the state.
“I certainly think we could expand it,” he said in an interview shortly after the election.
In May, the Republican-led Senate rejected an effort by the House to raise the cap from 350 percent to 500 percent, arguing that was too high an increase and proposing a jump to 400 percent instead. The House rejected the counter-offer and the bill failed.
Kofalt said next year, House Republicans would start out with an attempt to remove all income limits, and failing that, revert to 500 percent.
“I wouldn’t say we’ll get every Republican, but I think we will get a pretty solid majority of the caucus. So can we pass universal? I don’t know. Possibly.”
In a statement accompanying this year’s numbers, Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut expressed his support for the program.
“It is clear that there is a growing demand for more schooling options in the Granite State,” Edelblut said.
A bill that would add elements to judicial performance evaluations for all state judges and make those evaluation reports public, cleared the New Hampshire House along party lines Thursday.
The bill’s backers, including Rep. Bob Lynn of Windham, former Chief Justice of New Hampshire Supreme Court, promoted the new requirements as a way to “invigorate” judicial performance, and said fully disclosing the reports is crucial.
“I have to emphasize this provision in the bill as well as the other provisions of the bill were adopted in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,” Lynn said
Under the bill, which was written with input from Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, all judges – including part-time judges and retired judges who sometimes hear cases – would undergo evaluation at least every three years. Evaluations would include courtroom observations and analyses of how efficiently they process cases. Right now, judicial performance reviews remain confidential unless a judge receives two consecutive subpar evaluations.
The proposal comes at a time of tension between the judicial branch and lawmakers, spurred by recent court rulings finding the state isn’t meeting school funding obligations, and by judicial branch spending and management practices.
Democrats who criticized the new judicial evaluation bill say it goes too far and that the legislature should resist the urge to meddle in court operations.
“Many of us have been frustrated by recent activities coming out of the judicial branch – this is probably a bipartisan sentiment,” said Rep. Mark Paige of Exeter. “But to the extent that this bill appeals as a means to scratch your judicial frustration itch, consider other available remedies.”
Democrats also argued that making judicial reviews public could pose safety risks in an era of increased political violence including against judges.
“Publication would do real harm, inviting harassment of judges as violent threats against U.S judges have surged 327 percent since last year,” said Rep. Catherine Rombeau of Bedford, citing research from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.
But Republicans disputed such arguments, and said public reviews are also one of the few tools lawmakers have to make sure judges are performing their duties effectively.
“Judges are appointed once and serve until the age of 70,” said Rep. Ken Weyler of Kingston.
“All employees, including judges, benefit from constructive evaluation.”
The New Hampshire State House, where tradition often reigns supreme, is scarcely more technologically savvy than a couple of still cameras streaming hearings to YouTube.
But like a lot of places these days, political power — and attention — there is increasingly shaped by what’s happening online.
And while plenty of New Hampshire lawmakers maintain busy Facebook feeds and X accounts, perhaps no public official better exemplifies the high speed, high volume, digital-ready approach to politics than Republican Rep. Joe Sweeney.
As the House’s deputy majority leader, Sweeney’s job is to make sure fellow Republicans show up in Concord and support caucus priorities. In many ways, it’s about as old-fashioned as political work gets in 2026. And to see Sweeney in action is to observe a politician who still embraces plenty of his party’s traditional priorities.
“Let the voters see that we oppose income taxes now and forever,” Sweeney proclaimed from the House floor earlier this month.
But Sweeney didn’t stop at merely pledging to oppose income taxes inside the walls of the State House. Soon after, he also posted the video of himself doing so to social media. Sweeney isn’t the first — or only — state politician bent on cultivating an online presence. But his position of power in the Republican Party means he is well-positioned to amplify what he chooses. It could be AI-generated graphics promoting nuclear power, photoshopped images supporting ICE, or Sweeney himself talking straight into a camera.
According to Sweeney, to succeed on social media in politics, it’s best to keep messages short, sharp — and sometimes trollish.
“It’s kind of this perverse incentive to present that sort of profile online, because that’s what’s going to get people engaged,” Sweeney said in an interview last week.
Politics as personal
At 32, Sweeney came of age in politics and on the internet. He started earning paychecks for political work in 2012, on the campaign of former Congressman Charlie Bass. Sweeney was a University of New Hampshire student at the time, and won election to the New Hampshire House that same year. Back then, he courted voters on social media with an earnestness that seems far removed from the politics of 2026, welcoming voters of all stripes to reach out and support his candidacy.
“I am running as a Republican, but I promise to represent all of my Salem constituents when elected,” a baby-faced Sweeney said in a YouTube video from that race.
A lot has changed for Sweeney since then. He’s now a top Republican lawmaker in Concord, vice chair of Salem’s town council, and also operates Granite Solutions, a political advocacy and fundraising group.
According to filings with the state, Granite Solutions’ purpose is “Electing Fiscal Conservatives in New Hampshire.” It essentially operates as Sweeney’s personal PAC, raising money, running ads, pushing policies, and urging lawmakers to sign pledges.
As New Hampshire PACs go, Granite Solutions is not exactly flush with cash: It’s reported raising about $60,000 over the past few years. Notable receipts include a $10,000 donation from a trust connected to Joe Faro, the developer of Salem’s Tuscan Village; a contribution from Churchill Downs, which owns the casino at the Rockingham Park Mall; and a smattering of Concord lobbyists.
A state lawmaker running what amounts to a one-man political advocacy organization is unusual, to say the least. But Granite Solutions also serves to boost Sweeney’s personal brand.
Last week, after Sweeney debated tax policy on WMUR’s political talk show, he sent an email to the Granite Solutions’ mailing list, urging people to stream the debate and donate to Granite Solutions.
Sweeney says he sees the work of his personal political committee as an extension of his public service: “I view Granite Solutions as supporting the economic agenda of Republicans in the state.”
‘Until the voters don’t want me’
The GOP fiscal agenda — from tax cuts to eliminating red tape for development projects — is a steady focus for Sweeney.
On other political issues, his social media-forward approach can serve to capture attention, more than enact measurable change. When lawmakers debated higher education funding last year, Sweeney strenuously alleged that undocumented students were depriving eligible Granite Staters from admission to UNH. After university officials released data that undercut his claims, Sweeney moved on.
Last fall, Sweeney told reporters to expect him and other Republicans to target specific state judges for misconduct. But such plans never materialized.
There was also Sweeney’s push to impeach Democratic Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill over her use of a state email account to assist a legal challenge to a voter registration law — even though the New Hampshire Attorney General had cleared Liot Hill of any wrongdoing. Just hours before a public hearing on Sweeney’s impeachment effort, he scuttled the bill without bothering to show up for the hearing.
To hear Sweeney tell it, when his political ideas lose traction, he’s willing to let them slide.
“Some things can start off with a lot of fire and passion and then as it goes through the system it just sort of dies out,” he said.
But as Sweeney’s shown in Concord, and as a town councilor, he can also push policies that others see as provocative or radical — or even theatrical. When Salem’s town council and budget committees were at odds over the town budget, Sweeney proposed eliminating the budget committee altogether.
“I thought it was the most ridiculous proposal I’ve ever heard. It was a bad idea, said Steve Goddu, a Republican who sits on Salem’s budget committee, and generally considers Sweeney a political ally. “It was a bad idea, and sometimes we make bad ideas and suggestions, and I think this was just his folly on this one.”
But not everybody who’s been on the receiving end of Sweeney’s politics, folly or otherwise, is as forgiving. Liot Hill says she had to waste time and money to prepare for potential impeachment proceedings that she always saw as frivolous, and believes Sweeney’s style of politics is destructive.
“There is a price to our politics when politics becomes more focused on spectacle than on substance and really it’s really the public that pays,” Liot Hill said.
Sweeney, for his part, says he sees himself pursuing his approach to politics — in real life and online — for the foreseeable future.
“I have an ability to create solutions for folks. I have an ability to sort of understand things and kind of communicate with people on it, Sweeney said. “I feel this responsibility to continue to be involved until the voters don’t want me to be involved anymore.”
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