Here is a conundrum: Policymakers and pundits insist that public school students and teachers must be held accountable or they won’t make any progress. Students must regularly tested to make sure they are learning prescribed curriculum.

So-called “education reformers” are all in favor of standards, tests, and accountability. Such a strategy, they insist, drives higher test scores.

But when it comes to voucher students, the “reformers” fall silent. Voucher students don’t need accountability, don’t need testing, don’t need state standards.

Why the double standards? Why should voucher students get public money and be exempt from state testing?

New Hampshire just concluded that debate. Democrats proposed that voucher students take the same tests as public school students. Republicans opposed the bill.

It was defeated.

Garry Rayno of IndepthNH.org described the face-off:

CONCORD — The House defeated a proposal to require Education Freedom Account students evaluation results be reported to the Department of Education.

House Bill 1716 would require the results of national standardized and state assessment testing for EFA students to be reported to the department, along with an assessment of a student’s portfolio by a certified teacher.

The bill would also require the department to develop guidelines for assessing the portfolios and what information is needed in order to progress to the next grade level.

The department would review all the data to determine academic proficiency rates for EFA students based on graduation rate, grade level, gender, race, and differentiated aid categories.

The prime sponsor of the bill Rep. Tracy Bricchi, D-Concord, told the House as a former educator for 35 years she does not agree with those who say public education is bad for the country and communities.

“You hear public education is failing and throwing money at it will not improve the outcome,” she said, while the state has spent millions of dollars on the EFA program with no consistent data to support claims it is widely successful.

This bill would provide the data needed to support those claims, Bricchi said, using the three assessment paths in the statute.

It would also tighten the portfolio requirements to ensure clear documentation of student progress, she said.

“If you spend taxpayer funds,” Bricchi said, “you owe it to taxpayers and people to produce clear data to ensure the money is spent (effectively).”

But Rep. Margaret Drye, R-Plainfield, argued state assessment testing is done for students in grades three through eight and one year of high school, while the bill would require testing of every grade level, every year for EFA students.

And she said in public schools parents may opt their child out of assessment testing, but there is no such provision in the HB 1716 for EFA students.

She said a very successful evaluation process has been in place for 40 years for homeschooled students, but is not available in the bill.

The legislation places a burden on 10,000 EFA students that is not on 160,000 public school students, Drye maintained.

But Peggy Balboni, D-Rye, said the success of public schools is determined by the statewide assessment scores, but EFA students do not have to provide that information or other assessments to the Department of Education.

This bill would allow the same public reporting of the results for EFA students, she said.

“All students who are taxpayer funded should be held to the same evaluation reporting standards,” Balboni said. “This will allow the reporting of EFA students’ academic data to determine if indeed the EFA program is widely successful.”
The bill was killed on a 194-166 vote.