Timothy Swaan

Chair and Members of the Committee, I respectfully urge you to oppose HB 1521. While presented as a technical clarification, this bill makes a significant structural change to New Hampshire’s education system by removing students receiving Education Freedom Account funds from the definition of home education. The result is the creation of a new category of publicly funded education that is neither public school nor home education, and that operates with substantially reduced oversight. This committee has long been responsible for balancing flexibility with accountability. HB 1521 shifts that balance decisively away from accountability by severing EFA-funded programs from an existing statutory framework without establishing a clear replacement. Public dollars would continue to flow, but the expectations, transparency, and guardrails that normally accompany public funding would not. It is also important to view this bill in context. Other legislation before this committee increases restrictions, legal exposure, and administrative burden on public schools and educators. HB 1521 moves in the opposite direction, insulating EFA-funded programs from comparable requirements. The combined effect is not neutral. It incentivizes exit from public schools by making them more constrained while making publicly funded alternatives less regulated. This committee should be cautious about policies that fragment the education system into parallel tracks with unequal rules. Over time, that fragmentation undermines statewide coherence, complicates oversight, and weakens public confidence in the system as a whole. HB 1521 does not address student outcomes, accountability measures, or fiscal transparency. It simply removes an existing definition without resolving the regulatory gap that follows. That is not a clarification; it is a deregulatory shift with long-term consequences. For these reasons, I respectfully ask the committee to recommend HB 1521 as Inexpedient to Legislate. Thank you for your consideration.