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School Choice Bill Gets a Veto from Gov. Lynch

Flikr Creative Commons / Mike Willis

Governor John Lynch has vetoed a bill that would create a tax credit for businesses donating to not-for-profit scholarship organizations.

In his veto messageGovernor Lynch said the proposed bill would siphon public money away from public schools and give it to private ones. He said the budget gaps the plan would create would have to be covered by increases in local property taxes.

The bill’s supporters - including its prime sponsor, Republican Senator Jim Forsythe of Strafford - dispute the Governor’s claims. They say the bill would provide low-income students with more choice of where to go to school. He points out the bill passed both the House and Senate with enough votesto override the governor’s veto.

Forsythe: I haven’t seen anybody changing their minds, if anything support has been firming up.

The republican dominated legislature made the tax credit scholarship plan a priority for during this last session.

Critics – mainly democrats – call the plan a roundabout attempt to create voucher system.

 

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
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