Since their adoption in 2021, Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs) have offered new educational opportunities for Granite State families. An EFA is a government-approved savings account that can be used to access a wide range of educational opportunities outside a family’s designated public school district. If eligible, parents can direct their state funded per-pupil adequate education […]

In 2021, we published a landmark study that showed how local land use regulations drove New Hampshire’s housing shortage. That study changed the conversation on affordable housing in New Hampshire, from one focused on government subsidies to one focused on regulations. This week, the Center for Ethics in Society at Saint Anselm College set the […]

Teachers unions and school officials regularly advocate for higher public school spending on the argument that teacher pay is too low. In fact, teacher pay in New Hampshire is relatively low compared to other states. But that’s not a product of low funding levels. Average public school district spending in the Granite State is is […]

From 2001-2019, New Hampshire public school districts lost 29,946 students, but increased spending by an inflation-adjusted $937 million, a new Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy study has found. In percentage terms, inflation-adjusted spending rose by 40% while enrollment fell by 14%. The increase in spending is even more dramatic when capital and debt spending […]

The New Hampshire Legislature, in its wisdom, has decreed how much an adequate education costs. It’s right there in statute, RSA 198:40-a.  Legislators wrote in three concise paragraphs that the cost of an adequate education totals precisely $3,561.27 in 2015 dollars, plus an additional $1,780.63 for students eligible for a free or reduced price meal, […]

When the Josiah Bartlett Center released our landmark study of the nexus between New Hampshire’s housing shortage and local land use regulations, in October of 2021, the connection between the two was not widely reported in the popular press. Academics, developers and planners knew that local regulations were responsible for reducing the supply of housing, […]

Granite Staters entering the job market often face government-imposed barriers to entry. State-required licenses can come with onerous fees, arduous training requirements and a lack of reciprocity for individuals already licensed by another state in their field of practice. Gov. Chris Sununu has proposed a major overhaul of New Hampshire’s occupational licensing bureaucracy. The governor’s […]

The big story of the 2024-25 state budget has lurked just below the surface of most media coverage. It’s not the $99.6 million in employee pay raises, the increase in adequate education aid or the shifting of some Education Trust Fund line items to the General Fund.  The big story is that lawmakers and the […]

“Very heavy taxes, are hurtful, because they lessen the increase of population by making the means of subsistence, more difficult.” — John Adams, 1780 Last November, Massachusetts voters approved a so-called “millionaire’s tax.” It raises the state income tax from 5% to 9% for incomes of $1 million or more, an 80% tax increase.  Four […]

As Gov. Chris Sununu moves to undo the state’s overly burdensome occupational licensing regime, legislators are trying to add more licenses.  On Wednesday, March 22, the House voted 210-166 to require a state license for the practice of music therapy.  Why? Health insurance. Supporters said New Hampshire needs to license music therapists to ensure that […]