Disputed school funding plan upheld by Superior Court judge

"Support public engagement and legislation to maintain the constitutional right of all students to an adequate education" is the Foundation Priority of the 2004 Children's Agenda of the New Hampshire Child Advocacy Network.

August, 2004

Could public education actually cost less to provide than it did in 1999?

Apparently so, if one believes the bottom line of the current NH education funding law.

The state cost of providing an "adequate" education to New Hampshire's students in fiscal year 2005 is projected to be $802,360,116 -- or $23 million less than when the original formula was first adopted in 1999.

The law passed in spring of 2004 returns to a per-pupil formula, with the adequacy figure set at $3,390 and the statewide education property tax rate at $3.33. It also returns to the concept of "donor towns," with about 50 communities to pay $22.4 million more in state property tax than they receive in education aid.

The formula also does not include extra funding for high school, special education or English-as-second-language pupils, nor transportation costs. Increases are tied to the northeast consumer price index.

The cities of Manchester and Rochester went to court to attempt to block the new formula, but Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Kathleen McGuire ruled that legislative leaders were within their rules and the law when they made changes to Senate Bill 302 after the House and Senate had passed the bill. (See Union Leader coverage of the decision).

The NH Dept. of Education has issued its final adequacy aid calculations for the 2004-2005 school year.

The Claremont Coalition responds: Fund the gap.

Read coverage in the Concord Monitor, Foster's Daily Democrat, Keene Sentinel, Laconia Citizen, Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Nashua Telegraph, Portsmouth Herald, and The Union Leader

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More on public school funding:

Former NH Attorney General Peter Heed called the current school funding plan unconstitutional.

Read the Nashua Telegraph's coverage, "AG warns of school funding problems."

The Portsmouth Herald called for a permanent solution to public school funding in an editorial, "NH public education needs funding solution now."

Read the NH Supreme Court's "Claremont" school funding decisions on the Claremont Coalition's Web site.