ACROSS NEW HAMPSHIRE, MANY FAMILIES HAVE COME TO RECOGNIZE THAT EDUCATION IS MOST EFFECTIVE WHEN IT FITS THE INDIVIDUAL CHILD.
That understanding deepened over the past several years, when COVID gave parents an unprecedented view into how their children learn day to day. With that clarity came a realization: a single, assigned school does not work for every student.
A Season for Reflection
During the holiday season, families across New Hampshire often reflect on what truly matters for their children. That reflection mirrors a larger transformation reshaping education in our state today.
Since 2020, a growing divide has emerged between what families need and what traditional systems offer. Parents have discovered the power of individualized instruction – learning tailored to each child. Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs) are meeting that need.
COVID Redefined Expectations
The pandemic didn’t just disrupt schooling. It fundamentally changed how families relate to education.
When schools shifted to remote learning, parents gained an unfiltered view into their children’s education. They saw firsthand how differently each child responded to different learning environments. That visibility changed everything.
Parents did not lose faith in educators. Many gained a deeper appreciation for teachers doing heroic work under extraordinary circumstances. But one assumption quietly dissolved: that the school assigned by geography is automatically the right fit for every child.
That realization did not fade when classrooms reopened. It solidified. Today, families are active evaluators and decision-makers who expect meaningful choices.
When Families Lead the Way
At Children’s Scholarship Fund New Hampshire, where more than 10,500 students use Education Freedom Accounts, this transformation is visible every day.
Natalie Kitching-Rajak, a single mother, never imagined private school would be within reach. Her daughter Khloe struggled with anxiety in large group settings. Today, at Laconia Christian Academy, Khloe is reading above her grade level. Natalie’s son Koleton recently burst through the door saying, “Mom, I made a campfire in class and held a frog!”
“It’s an incredible thing to hear your kid say, ‘I love school,’” Natalie reflects.
For Isabella Ciriello and her father John, another single parent, the transformation ran even deeper. Isabella came home discouraged from high school, feeling unsupported. When they qualified for an EFA to attend Tilton School, everything shifted. Isabella recently made National Honor Society.
“She used to dread school,” John recalls. “Now she looks forward to it.”
Rachel LaMontagne’s family illustrates how fluid education has become. With four children, including a neurodivergent son with school-related anxiety, they’ve built an individualized approach using tutors, programs, and at-home learning. This past year, they even used their EFA to build a home library.
Her five-year-old son Theo summed it up best: “More books! More books!”
Families now move fluidly between district schools, charter schools, homeschooling, and hybrid models, building individualized journeys because it works. This is what education looks like when students are truly at the center.
Numbers Tell a Story
For Yanira Peña, private school tuition at Holy Family Academy once seemed out of reach.
“Without it, we simply couldn’t have managed,” she says of the EFA program that supported her daughter Elianny, and now two younger siblings.
Today, the EFA program serves more than 10,500 students at an average grant of under $5,000 per student. These families are not limited to those already in private schools. Many are families for whom educational choice became possible for the first time.
“Programs like EFA gave us access to something we couldn’t have considered otherwise,” Elianny says. She is now thriving as a freshman at Tufts University.
Thanks to EFAs, families are designing tomorrow’s education one child at a time.
A Turning Point
Parents have evolved from passive recipients into active architects of their children’s education. That shift is durable and irreversible.
Public schools remain vital for many families, but the era of one-size-fits-all education is ending.
School choice did not create this shift. The pandemic made schooling transparent. Parents could suddenly evaluate curricula, teaching methods, and overall fit. That transparency reshaped expectations in ways no single policy change could achieve. EFAs simply gave families the ability to act on what they discovered.
This Holiday Season
When Caitlin de Beer’s father was diagnosed with ALS, her world changed. Her mother Suzanne became a widow raising two daughters alone. The family hoped to continue Caitlin’s education at Bishop Guertin High School, but tuition felt impossible.
The EFA made it possible.
Today, Caitlin is studying nursing at Salve Regina University, a career inspired by her father’s illness.
As families gather this holiday season, stories like Caitlin’s remind us what is at stake.
“Without an EFA, I wouldn’t have been able to send Caitlin – and now Kiera – to Bishop Guertin,” Suzanne says. “This support has been life-changing.”
EFAs did not spark this shift. Families did. They discovered that learning is not one-size-fits-all, and they are determined to give their children environments where they can flourish.
The future of education in New Hampshire is being written by parents choosing hope and the right fit for their child. This holiday season, that is the gift families are celebrating – not just for their own children, but for every family seeking education freedom.
You can read the original op-ed, “Educational Freedom Is Something to Be Grateful For,” in the New Hampshire Union Leader.
