This story is part of an ongoing series by the Concord Monitor about New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Account program. Read the other stories here . NHPR is republishing this story in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative .

Just after lunch on a recent Wednesday, a cacophony of noise emanated from Laconia Christian Academy teacher Rebecca Mitchell’s second-floor classroom. Some twenty-odd students, packed tightly at gray desks in groups of twos, threes, and fours, playfully ribbed Mitchell about the levies for pens and pencils she had imposed to illustrate how King George III taxed the colonists.

As the controlled chaos played out around him, fourth-grader Matty Wiebe sat quietly in the middle of the room, breaking into a braces-filled smile.

“In terms of t

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