Did you know that New Hampshire taxpayers spend $3.55 BILLION to educate the roughly 165,000 public school students? Students who are CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED a right to an “adequate” public education. The state provides about one billion of those dollars through state taxes. The remaining amount comes from property taxes. This translates to what an individual district is able to offer can oftentimes vary from district to district. It also means the tax burden can vary for property owners in the same regional school district where students from different towns attend the same schools.
Our elected officials in Concord are still trying to figure out a formula for what they want to spend. Unfortunately, that formula only covers about a third of the state’s CONSTITUTIONAL requirement to public school students. The rest of the required funding goes to the property taxpayers.
For more than thirty years, the state has repeatedly lost lawsuits for failing to live up to its CONSTITUTIONAL requirement to adequately fund public education.
This past week the Senate Finance Committee acted on an amendment to the budget, changing the formula once again. This new Senate formula increases the pupil adequacy aid just a little, increases aid based on students receiving free and reduced fee lunch and to towns with low property tax bases for each student who receives the free or reduced fee lunch. While this is seen as an improvement, it still falls short of the funding formula the House passed earlier. It also comes nowhere near what is needed to fund what students need and deserve in the public schools.
Again, this budget fails to ADEQUATELY fund education but at the same time looks to expand school vouchers (also known as the “education freedom account”)! A large majority of students in the voucher program are either already homeschooled or attend private schools. This proposed expansion could cost $48 million each year in new state spending. Will that come from property owners again? NH families and students deserve a fair funding formula for the roughly 165,000 public school students. They deserve to have schools that are safe, fully stocked and fully staffed.
On Wednesday, June 7, the full Senate will vote on HB 367 and this is where you come in. Please click the following link, CONTACT YOUR STATE SENATOR, and ask them to vote NO on HB 367!
New Hampshire can do so much better for public school students and property owners!