While many Granite Staters were celebrating Independence Day with fireworks, the Concord Monitor began the holiday weekend with a headline and editorial framing that could mislead readers about the accountability of Children’s Scholarship Fund New Hampshire (CSFNH) and New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Account (EFA) program, while the article’s own reporting documents and demonstrates that CSFNH’s established protocols are working as intended.
Because this matter was heard by the New Hampshire State Board of Education in nonpublic session, CSFNH cannot comment on the investigation of a parent, student, or provider. However, according to the Monitor’s own reporting, CSFNH identified a potential policy violation through its normal internal order oversight processes, initiated an investigation of a provider, made a determination of suspected intentional and substantial misuse on one count, required and received repayment of the questioned funds, terminated the education service provider’s participation in the program, reported the incident to authorities as required by law, and had its determination upheld by the New Hampshire State Board of Education.
That is why the article’s headline and framing are so difficult to reconcile. Taken together, they favor innuendo and veiled attacks aimed at CSFNH over the very facts documented in the article itself, oddly inviting readers both to question CSFNH’s accountability while simultaneously documenting its accountability in action. The newspaper cannot have it both ways.
In fact, far from demonstrating a lack of oversight, this event illustrates an accountability process functioning as designed. This is consistent with the organization’s longstanding commitment to responsible program administration, reflected in New Hampshire being recognized by EdChoice for three consecutive years for the nation’s most effective implementation of a universal Education Freedom Account program, CSFNH’s annual independent audits receiving clean, unqualified opinions, and the organization’s Four-Star rating from Charity Navigator.
Predictably, Friday’s Concord Monitor story has already been used by critics to question the accountability of New Hampshire’s EFA program. That is the consequence of a headline and editorial framing that leaves readers with one impression, while the reporting itself documents something very different: that CSFNH’s established protocols are working as intended.