Cara Candal, Ed.D., is the Vice President of Policy for ExcelinEd.
Parents have always needed educational options for their children, but the experience of the past year has exacerbated this need. States are stepping up: In 2021, Idaho implemented its first parent-centered program, providing students with supplemental funds to pay for needed educational services. Other states, like Indiana, are poised to improve existing private school choice programs.
One state in particular, New Hampshire, has been quietly plugging away to expand educational opportunity through multiple avenues since long before the pandemic; and it has been making progress in doing so even amidst the chaos of COVID-19.
Over the past two years, New Hampshire has expanded educational options through two meaningful pathways: a robust course choice program and support of its tax-credit scholarship. This year, a third parent-centered initiative is in the works.
New Hampshire’s Learn Everywhere initiative is one-of-a kind. The premise is that learning doesn’t need to be bound by school facilities. Community providers, whether public or private, can offer students academic and supplemental educational options that are vetted to meet a high-standard and align with state curricula, where appropriate. Imagine taking a physics course at an air and science museum, a French language course through a French cultural center, or theater course at your community playhouse. Through Learn Everywhere, students can earn up to 30% of their required course credits with out-of-school providers credentialed by the State Board of Education. Some states think about expanding course options by allowing students to enroll part-time in another district or virtual school, take early college courses, or receive credit for an internship. Learn Everywhere is different, because it opens a world of new educational options within a student’s local community and beyond.
Of course, sometimes students need a wider range of educational options – options beyond course content. In 2021, New Hampshire’s legislators are poised to address this issue: this session some are looking to enact state’s first education scholarship account, aptly named Education Freedom Accounts. These accounts would give parents an amount equal to what the state would have spent on their child in their assigned school. Parents could spend those monies on a range of educational services: everything from supplemental tutoring to private school tuition.
Students with special educational needs—who have, on average, struggled more than their peers with remote learning—could pay for educational therapies and supplemental services. Rural students would have the option to draw from a range of online and in-person providers outside of their communities that might have been previously out of reach. Students with limited access to remote learning devices or hotspots could use the funds to make remote learning work for them. In short, Education Freedom Accounts are about giving parents the educational options they need regardless of resources they have. Should New Hampshire enact the program, it would join only five other states with this type of educational opportunity, solidifying its place as a leader in parent-centered reform.
In a year that has been dark and difficult for so many of us, New Hampshire provides families with hope when it comes to education. The Granite State’s educational philosophy seems to be that education isn’t about buildings or boundaries or the adults that debate them. It’s about students and their opportunities to learn. When families can access the opportunities they need, children flourish.
