Learning in the Live Free or Die State

In 2012, New Hampshire launched a bold initiative to advance educational freedom: scholarship tax credits.

The New Hampshire Opportunity Scholarship Act grants business tax credits worth 85 percent of those businesses' contributions to nonprofit scholarship organizations that fund low- and middle-income students to attend private or home schools. More than 100 students received scholarships in the first year and the results were remarkable.

In a survey of scholarship recipients, nearly 97 percent of families reported being satisfied with their chosen school, including 89.5 percent who were very satisfied. Just a few months into the school year, more than two-thirds reported seeing measurable improvement in their child's academic achievement. This is especially impressive because the scholarship recipients were among the most disadvantaged in the state. More than nine out of ten scholarship recipients were from families that had a household income low enough to qualify for the federal "free and reduced-price lunch" program, about $43,568 for a family of four.

Yet despite all that, the scholarship tax credit law faced both a repeal effort in the legislature and a bitter lawsuit that went to the state’s highest court. The law survived both—much to the relief of the scholarship recipients—but not without doing great harm. During the period of uncertainty that the repeal effort and lawsuit created, donations to the Network for Educational Opportunity, the state's sole scholarship organization, fell from about $130,000 to just over $50,000. The reduction in funds meant a significant reduction in the number of scholarship recipients, a drop from 103 to just 40.

In the second year's scholarship recipient survey, 80 percent reported seeing measurable academic improvement in their child since participating in the scholarship program. It's a shame that so few students had access to those scholarships. Opponents of the scholarships have vowed to bring another lawsuit and eight legislators are once again sponsoring legislation to repeal the law. The struggle for greater educational freedom continues.

Tonight at 8 p.m. EST, in celebration of National School Choice Week, the Cato Institute will present Live Free and Learn: Scholarship Tax Credits in New Hampshire, a short film detailing the struggle over New Hampshire’s scholarship law and some of the families it has touched. After the film, please join us live online and on Twitter at #CatoConnects for a discussion the politics, policy, and constitutionality of scholarship tax credit laws with former NH state senator Jim Forsythe, Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Dick Komer, and yours truly.

Families participating in New Hampshire’s pioneering scholarship tax credit program report near-universal levels of satisfaction because it enables them to choose the best educational fit for their children. Whatever parents are seeking for their children—improved academic performance, more engaged teachers, social acceptance, freedom from bullying, special needs programming, and so on—they are more likely to find it when they have more than one choice. Policymakers across the country who are seeking to expand the educational choices available in their state should look to New Hampshire as a model—then perhaps students from all states will have the opportunity to live free and learn.