Exploring New Hampshire’s Private Education Sector
By Drew Catt, Michael Shaw
Exploring New Hampshire’s Private Education Sector is the 10th entry in the School Survey Series. This brief synthesizes information about New Hampshire’s private schools from a survey conducted by EdChoice. These survey data—which include New Hampshire’s private schools’ open seats, tuition and fees, regulatory concerns and interest in educational choice programs—paint a clearer picture of the state’s private school landscape.
ADDITIONAL REPORT INFORMATION
In this report, you will learn:
-
1
New Hampshire private schools have room for more students.
Private schools in New Hampshire have at least 2,063 open seats with a projected estimate closer to 10,500 open seats for K–12 students. And estimates show, on average, 16 percent of private school students have special needs. This is comparable to the proportion of New Hampshire’s public school students—16 percent in 2013–14. It is important to note that one of the respondent schools' entire student body is made up of students with special needs, so the median proportion of students (8 percent) may be more useful. A median of that data point could not be found for New Hampshire public school students. -
2
New Hampshire private schools are more affordable than one might think.
The range of New Hampshire private school tuition and fees rates is very broad. Of the private schools that responded to our survey, the cheapest costs only $1,800 per student, and the priciest costs $43,000. The median cost of attending a New Hampshire private school is $7,500 per student. For comparison’s sake, New Hampshire public schools spend $14,969 per student. -
3
Most New Hampshire private schools will help families make up the difference.
Eighty-two percent of New Hampshire private schools provide financial aid. Half of private schools are already providing aid to nearly a quarter of their student populations (24 percent). The average amount of financial aid per student in private schools is $14,188, and the median is $2,200. The wide variance in tuition prices may explain the variance in financial aid awards. -
4
Not enough New Hampshire private schools know about educational choice programs.
About half of New Hampshire private schools are unaware of or not too familiar with the state’s tax-credit scholarship program as well as potential programs like education savings accounts (ESAs). Once they’ve learned about educational choice programs, most say they would or probably would participate in them.