Performance Audit Of Education Freedom Account Program Continues

By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH

CONCORD, NH — The long-awaited audit on the Education Freedom Account program will not be finalized until mid-spring or next summer, members of the Joint Legislative Performance Audit Oversight Committee were told Friday.

The audit is required by law, but the Legislative Budget Assistant’s Office was blocked from obtaining key data because it is held by the Children’s Scholarship Fund NH, which administers the voucher program for the state, and the organization refused to release the information to auditors.

Former Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut previously said the group’s contract gives it control over the information, which he and a member of the Attorney General’s Office said is common with many state contracts.

However, some lawmakers believe the contract acknowledges the data belongs to the state.

Rather than an audit of the program, which this past legislative session was expanded to include any child eligible for public education in grades 1 to 12, without any limit on earnings, the LBA said its audit focuses on the department's oversight.

The program nearly doubled this year to its statutory limit of 10,000 students and will draw more than $100 million from the Education Trust Fund, which also covers the state’s adequacy grants to public schools and per-pupil grants to charter schools.

The fund, which once had a more than $200 million surplus will be in deficit during the current biennium and will need general fund dollars to cover its obligations.

Speaking to the committee, Christine Young, the director of the LBA Audit division, said the field work is almost done and the auditors have found 40 observations so far, but noted the number can change as they work through the information.

An observation is a deviation from requirements or an area that needs improvement.

Young said her office has 10 observations written and reviewed, dealing with eligibility for the program and continued eligibility once a student is in the program.

The Department of Education did a compliance report several years ago by randomly picking 100 applications from the first two years of the program and found that 25 percent of the applications contained errors of eligibility or used noncompliant data to approve eligibility or for additional differentiated aid.

Last school year, the program had 5,321 students and cost $28 million.

The program was sold as an opportunity for low-income parents to find alternative education for their children if they did not do well in the public school environment.

However, about 80 percent of the students in the program were in religious or private schools or homeschooled when they joined the program and did not attend public schools.

That figure is similar to other voucher programs around the country.

Committee member Sen. Howard Pearl, R-Loudon, asked if the audit would take into account the changes made in the program in the last session removing any earnings cap and Young said the audit acknowledges those changes.

Young also told the committee another long-awaited performance audit on the Department of Education’s handling of special education disputes between school districts and parents would be ready soon.

Young said the field work is complete and the initial audit report is being written with 20 observations sent to the department, which responded to the issues raised.

The report is expected to be finalized and sent to the Fiscal Committee during the first quarter of 2026.

Young also said its performance audit of the Doorway Program to provide intake and service referrals for those with substance abuse disorder has been very challenging, noting funding for the program comes from the federal government and the Governor’s Commission on Addiction, Treatment and Prevention.

She said the separate money sources are difficult to track and there is not a sufficient way to run a report that produces what it costs to run the program.

Young said the financial activity is scattered in many accounts and not organized into one program.

“It is time intensive and a real manual effort,” Young said, noting her office is working with the Department of Health and Human Services to try to work on the issues.

She said a draft report should be completed by January or February and the final report done by March or April.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.