As the scope of New Hampshire's educational freedom accounting program expands, some lawmakers are pushing for scrutiny of it. In 2022, the Legislature passed a bill, signed by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, requiring an audit of how the program is run by the Department of Education.
But two years after that bill; House Bill 1135audits face major hurdles.
State officials at the Legislative Budget Assistant Office have requested information needed to complete an audit of students and families receiving Educational Freedom Accounts, citing a disagreement with the Department of Education over access to the data. He said that he had not been able to obtain it.
The Education Department counters that the data cannot be handed over for audit because it is held by private contractors, not the state. Without access to data, the LBA will not be able to complete most of the audits required by the 2022 law, he said.
“We can complete an audit of this chapter law based on the auditable information and issue a report to ensure compliance with the chapter law,” LBA Director of Audit Christine Young told lawmakers on Monday. Told. “Much of the information held by scholarship organizations cannot be verified, so their reports will be very limited.”
The disagreement caught the attention of lawmakers this week. Democratic lawmakers on the Joint Legislative Performance Audit and Oversight Committee are calling on the department to obtain the data and share it with auditors to comply with the law. Some Republicans, meanwhile, argue that the data belongs to the contractors and that it is inappropriate for the Legislature's auditor general to request it.
The debate continues between Democrats and Republicans over the Education Freedom Accounts program, which allows low-income families to use state funds to help homeschool their children or enroll them in public schools. It's the latest skirmish in the conflict. The state is expected to spend $22.1 million on the program in the 2023-2024 school year, according to department statistics from October.
Democrats have opposed the program since its creation in 2021, saying it inappropriately diverts tax dollars from public schools. Republicans have supported the program as a way to give alternative education opportunities to families dissatisfied with public schools.
Although the program is overseen by the Department of Education, it is administered by a third party, the Children's Scholarship Fund, a New York-based nonprofit organization. Under a contract with the state, the department transfers funds from the state's Education Trust Fund to scholarship organizations, which keep the funds and manage spending on schools and services on behalf of families.
Since the program's passage, Democrats have sought to introduce a number of bills to eliminate it, reduce eligibility, or introduce more oversight. Most bills have not survived a vote in the Republican-led Congress. However, HB 1135 was passed by popular vote in the House and Senate in 2022.
This bill would require the LBA to conduct a performance audit of the Education Freedom Account program under the Department of Education. The audit should examine whether participants are eligible. Whether there is sufficient control over how participating families spend their money. Whether the department identifies and recovers ineligible expenditures. How the Department transfers funds to the Children's Scholarship Fund. How the department administers “phase-out” grants to public schools to help repay students who drop out. Information about student outcomes within the program. Demographic details of the participating student, including state of residence, grade level, type, and place of education during her first two years of the program.
The conflict erupted almost immediately, according to testimony from multiple departments Monday, including Education Secretary Frank Edelblut.
The Legislative Budget Assistant, a nonpartisan office in the Legislature that regularly conducts state government audits, began reaching out to the Education Department in January for initial discussions about the audit, Young said. . But the department quickly told auditors that it did not have much of the data sought to answer the necessary questions, Young added.
Mr Edelblut told MPs that after facing the ministry's initial refusal, the LBA approached the Children's Scholarship Fund itself without consulting the ministry. The group said it could only hand over the data with direct permission from the department. The group said in a follow-up letter that it was unable to provide the data.
Officials say the audit is still in its early stages. The agency is still finalizing a “scope statement” to submit to a legislative committee. But without data, Young said, the LBA would not be able to complete many of its stated missions.
A bipartisan effort to introduce oversight into the growing national program is currently embroiled in a fight over the details.
Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, a Nashua Democrat and the committee's chair, said the department's contract with the scholarship organization means the state owns all the data and can audit it. insisted. But lawyers for the Education Department and the Justice Department disagreed Monday, arguing that the contract only gives the state control over data that contractors purchase or obtain from the state.
Edelblut pointed out that HB 1135 never mentions the Children's Scholarship Fund in its directive to audit the department. He and the faculty argue that this means the LBA will be limited to auditing faculty practices regarding their programs, rather than auditing scholarship organizations. And he argued that it was appropriate to separate the department and its contractors.
“Imagine that ridiculous application,” he said. “[The Department of Education]has a contract with Tutor.com. You can go to Tutor.com and say, “I want all the personally identifiable information of every student and teacher that I've ever tutored.'' Can you say that? Of course you can't, right? I didn't provide that data. ”
Democratic lawmakers have expressed outrage at the outcome.
“I take a little breather that our taxpayers are spending millions and millions of dollars on programs that go to private organizations,” said Sen. Becky Whitley, D-Hopkinton. It’s a box.” “And you're telling us that we have virtually no chance of fulfilling our obligation to make sure taxpayer money is spent properly.”
Rep. Lucy Weber, D-Walpole, said she disagrees with the department's interpretation of whether it controls the data and raised the possibility of legal action.
“It sounds to me like there's every opportunity here for the third branch of government to have the power to decide who can do what, and I really hope that doesn't have to be the case,” Weber said Monday. told.
Meanwhile, Mr. Edelblut expressed his dissatisfaction with LBA, claiming that LBA improperly circumvented the ministry by contacting the Children's Scholarship Fund directly.
“What I'm concerned about is that we're almost there. It feels like a bit of a fishing expedition,” he said. He added that the department has independent oversight of the EFA program and has answered many of the questions already raised in the audit.
On behalf of the Department of Justice, Senior Assistant Attorney General Christopher Bond argued that LBA should not have sought to obtain EFA data directly from organizations, even if it felt it was wrong. But Bond said the LBA was free to criticize the department for blocking data from the final audit report.
Monday's meeting ended without a clear resolution. Legislative Budget Assistant Michael Kaine said his office would move forward with the process even with the restrictions.
Some Republicans agreed with the results.
“I've read every audit of your company over the past 20 years, and I don't remember one that went into depth about your contractors,” Representative Ken Weiler, a Kingston Republican and chairman of the Joint Legislative Finance Committee, told Young. Ta. “And a lot of our work, especially[at the Department of Health and Human Services]is done in collaboration with contractors. And we rely on agencies to monitor contractors. So this is something that I It would be an expansion that would not be supported by