Children's Alliance asks NH Board of Education to oppose cap on education spending (CACR 2)

December 16, 2003

NH Board of Education, December 2003 meeting

Comments of Steve Varnum, Public Policy Director, Children’s Alliance of NH

Good morning. I am here on behalf of the Children’s Alliance of New Hampshire, a multi-issue, non-partisan child advocacy organization. Our mission is to make children a priority for a better New Hampshire.

We believe there is no issue more important to New Hampshire’s children today, or more important to our state’s future, than protecting the constitutional right to an adequate education.

That belief brings me here to ask for your help in stopping a proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate this right.

Next month, the New Hampshire House will vote on Constitutional Amendment Concurrent Resolution 2. If this measure becomes law, it will remove judicial review in all matters related to public education.

W hile phrased in the benign language of voter control, or “let the people speak,” this proposal threatens the public education system that this board is charged with protecting.

For the following reasons, the Children’s Alliance is asking that the Board of Education bring forward and pass a Resolution opposing CACR 2.

If passed, CACR 2 would give the legislature exclusive authority over education policy and education funding. This exclusive authority would have a negative impact on individual children and families, as well as upon the broader interests of the state as a whole.

With respect to individuals, Students and parents whose rights might be violated by these decisions would have no recourse whatsoever. Without judicial review, individual rights would not be protected.

With respect to the state, eliminating judicial review would remove education from the list of essential or protected services the state must provide. It would devalue education. It would allow education to become last in line for state funding. It would render caring legislators powerless to insist on quality education—leaving education policy and funding to the whims and pressures of partisan interests.

In a representative democracy, the people speak through the officials they elect. Those officials in turn have a responsibility to make hard decisions and to be held accountable for those decisions.

Those who endorse a constitutional amendment are putting politicians ahead of kids—they are seeking to let represented officials “off the hook” from making hard decisions at the cost of the children those same representatives are supposed to serve.

New Hampshire’s founders held public education to be such a fundamental right that they protected it in the constitution. We believe the founders were right, that quality public education is critical to a functioning democracy. Taking the amendment at its word, New Hampshire could simply fail to provide any public education. How then could our democracy function??

This amendment would make New Hampshire unique in its rejection of education. Simply placing this question on the ballot – and opening the possibility that New Hampshire might reject education as a fundamental right – singles out NH as the only state to turn its back on its children.

The effect of this amendment will be to shift responsibility for public education to the level of government least able to afford it. Passage of this amendment will remove any pressure on the Legislature to fund education and will allow the legislature to pass full responsibility for paying for education onto individual communities. This would result in sky-high property rates in many towns. It would widen the gap between New Hampshire’s haves and have-nots. Without any state obligation, poorer communities will never be able to provide the same quality education as do wealthy communities.

The state Board of Education has a bully pulpit. And it has the benefit of experience and knowledge.

You all know that children in poorer communities need more educational support and opportunities, not fewer.

You know that removing the check and balance system here exposes issues of education policy and funding to all the pressures of partisan politics.

You know that this amendment would place politicians over kids.

Your know that this amendment flies in the face of the kind of accountability you have been striving for in your work.

That’s why we ask you, as champions of education, to oppose this amendment in the most public manner possible.

Note: The NH House defeated CACR 2.