Peter Orlowski
Bristol
To the editor,
On Tuesday, Feb. 5 the New Hampshire House Committee on Ways and Means will reviewing the proposed House Bill 632.
HB632 is intended to remove the Education Tax Credit Program so that businesses which previously donated to scholarship programs will no longer receive tax credits for doing so, and consequently the state will (seemingly) have a higher budget to spend on public education. While I am not opposed to supporting public schools, I am most definitely opposed to this legislation. The main intent is claimed to be the support of public education, however the method of doing so directly revokes the ability of low-and moderate-income students to attend schools where they are able to flourish.
It is also important to contrast the public and private education expenditures. HB632 says itself that last year public schools received an average of $16,000 from the state for each individual student. My family, on the other hand, only received an average of $3,200 per student from various donations through Children’s Scholarship Fund. The Education Tax Credit Program only allows 85 percent of a business’s total donations to be subtracted from its taxes. This means that the state was only losing $2,720 per student. In short, the proposed bill would not save any money whatsoever, but rather cost the state another $13,280 for each student.
In conclusion, passing HB632 will eradicate the futures of myself, my family, and hundreds of other students in New Hampshire. It will cost the state significantly more money than the Education Tax Credit Program, and will infringe parental rights.
Being a linkage institution, it is your job is to convey the wants and needs of the people to their representatives, and to make sure that the public is up-to-date on the activity of their government officials. Please let our governor and representatives know that we wish to keep our school choice legislation!
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Peter Orlowski
Bristol
Orlowski is a 16-year-old sophomore at a New Hampshire private school.
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