Government subsidies for the rich? Or is this simply the end of public schools?

Photo above - NOT New Hampshire's public school system. But probably similar in diversity and college acceptance rates.

Hey, Bernie Sanders. Stop ranting about the CBS lawsuit, and pay attention to real stuff. In New Hampshire, right next door to your home state of Vermont. New Hampshire just made school vouchers available to every family, whether they earn $10,000 or $10 million. And the state is overwhelmed with applicants. (see link below).

This could bankrupt the state, except that the payout is limited to 10,000 families for the first year. It will rise in future years. Right now there’s a feeding frenzy, as people rush for the free money.

But the voucher is only $5,000 per student, and it costs $20,000 for New Hampshire to educate a kid for a year. So that theoretically leaves the school system with a $15,000 “profit” every time a family bails on the system. Except that there’s an insanely complex formula to decide how much of that $15,000 the school gets to keep. The math is complicated. They involve sunk costs for school buildings, teacher seniority rankings, retiree pension funds, administrative overhead . . . yeah, no one can figure this out, not even the legislators who voted for it. Suffice it to say that some teachers will be getting pink slips, but probably not too many Superintendents, principals, vice principals, guidance counselors, librarians, school resource officers (uniformed police), supply chain administrators, Wi-Fi technicians, etc.. . . I’m guessing those folks won’t be at the top of list for pink slips, even though they’re part of the reason New Hampshire families are eager to take a chance on private schools.

How bad ARE New Hampshire’s public schools? Not as bad as you’d think. Second in the nation for both K-12 performance and school safety (see link below). New Mexico is ranked dead last in both. But then again, 10% of New Mexico’s population is undocumented migrants. California and Arizona are near the bottom pf America's public school rankings too, so there’s that.

I’m pretty sure you CANNOT buy a year in a decent private school for the $5,000 voucher New Hampshire parents will get. So, unless they’re attending some ultra-low cost Christian school or Muslim Madrassa, parents will be kicking in thousands of dollars of their own money.

Let’s be open minded about this and not automatically condemn those Gen X or Millennial parents. Perhaps their kids got assaulted, bullied or sexually harassed in school, despite the state claiming it's at the top for student safety.

How much would it be worth to have your daughter come home safe from school every day?

I’m just askin’ . . .

With income cap gone, New Hampshire families rush to apply for school vouchers

Public School Rankings by State 2025