Gov. Ayotte Delivers for New Hampshire Parents

With a few strokes of her pen on Tuesday, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte delivered on her promise to empower parents by signing a Parental Bill of Rights and expanding eligibility for education choice to all families.

“Giving parents the freedom to choose the education setting that best fits their child’s needs will help every student in our state reach their full potential,” Ayotte said. “I’m proud to sign this into law today along with the Parental Bill of Rights, which ensures parents are the central voice in their children’s education.”

The Live Free or Die State has long been at the forefront in safeguarding education freedom and choice. New Hampshire’s trailblazing Education Freedom Accounts was among the first education savings account proposals in the nation to empower families with the freedom and flexibility to customize their child’s education.

With the accounts, parents can pay for tuition at private schools or out-of-district public schools, tutoring, textbooks, online courses, homeschool expenses, special-needs therapy, and more. Previously, fewer than half of K–12 students in the Granite State were eligible. Now, with the signing of SB 295, all of them are eligible, making New Hampshire the 17^th state to adopt publicly funded universal-eligibility education choice.

The Josiah Bartlett Center, New Hampshire’s free-market think tank, estimated that the expansion would increase costs to the state by only “0.1% of total state expenditures on all public services,” while reducing costs on local taxpayers by more than $20 million by year two, since local taxpayer revenue pays for most of elementary and secondary education. According to the New Hampshire Department of Education, the average cost per pupil at public schools statewide is $26,320, more than five times the average Education Freedom Account award of about $5,200.

School choice policies like Education Freedom Accounts respect the role of parents as

the primary educators of their children. Such policies recognize that parents love their children most and know their children’s strengths, challenges, and aspirations better than any bureaucrat or politician.

The same goes for Parental Bill of Rights proposals, such as HB 10, which “affirms that parents have a fundamental liberty interest to raise and care for their minor children.”

The bill enumerates and protects a series of parental rights, including parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and moral and religious training of their children, to “promptly receive accurate, truthful, and complete disclosure” from their child’s school “regarding any and all matters related to their minor child,” to “be informed of the school’s policy regarding discipline policies and procedures,” to “inspect any instructional material used as part of the educational curriculum” within a reasonable time frame, and the right to opt out of “health or sex education” as well as any other lessons containing “any other objectionable material,” among other rights.

In signing these proposals, Gov. Ayotte has cemented her reputation as a champion for parental rights and education choice. These reforms will improve outcomes for students, strengthen families, and reinforce New Hampshire’s reputation as a state where freedom and opportunity flourish.

The Live Free or Die State has once again positioned itself as a beacon of freedom. These accomplishments should serve as an inspiration for policymakers in other states seeking to expand education freedom and restore the primary role of parents in their children’s education.

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