Among 152 bills scheduled for public hearings, House GOP legislators advanced two proposals to expand Education Freedom Accounts for more families, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported. The week’s agenda also touched on the timing of the state primary and free school meals.
House GOP legislators are proposing two ways to expand Education Freedom Accounts that cost taxpayers $15 million a year in tuition benefits for income-eligible parents to send their children to private, religious or alternative public schools.
the New Hampshire Union Leader
House Majority Leader Jason Osborne was co-authoring one of the measures, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.
House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, is co-authoring one bill ( HB 464 ) to make many families eligible regardless of their income, including students of veterans and youths who have been “persistently bullied” or attend a “dangerous” or under-performing school.
the New Hampshire Union Leader
A companion bill from Rep. Alicia Lekas took a different approach, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported, proposing to raise the income limit to 500% of the federal poverty level, or $138,750 annually for a family of four. At the time, EFAs were limited to families making up to 300% of the federal poverty level, which was $83,250 for a family of four.
The same week’s agenda also included proposals to move up New Hampshire’s September state primary, one of the latest in the nation, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported. One bill would shift it to the second Tuesday in June and another to the second Tuesday in March, with a possible May runoff if no candidate cleared 50%. The House Election Law Committee was also set to weigh legalizing ranked choice voting for federal and state elections, a system used in Maine and Alaska.
On the education side, the House panel was scheduled to consider whether the state should require all local school boards to offer subsidized breakfast and lunch for lower-income families, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. At the time, 456 public schools offered both meals while 153 served neither and 27 served lunch but not breakfast. The Senate, meanwhile, was set to act on its first 2023 bills, including a measure to honor the late Rep. Rogers Johnson with a State House portrait.
The lopsided vote marked one of the strongest showings yet for legalization in the House, where the issue had repeatedly passed before stalling in the Senate. Supporters framed the bipartisan sponsorship and broad coalition as evidence that momentum had shifted, even as the bill’s fate in the upper chamber remained uncertain. The amended measure paired a 12.5% tax on cultivators and manufacturers with a multimillion-dollar appropriation for the State Liquor Commission to stand up oversight of legal sales. With surrounding states already permitting adult use, backers argued New Hampshire was paying enforcement costs for a policy its neighbors had abandoned, while opponents in the Senate and law enforcement remained unconvinced.
Read the full story at the New Hampshire Union Leader.
