After a nearly two-month hiatus occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, New Hampshire’s Commission to Study School Funding resumed its work in earnest this week, holding one meeting of the entire Commission on Monday, May 4, and a trio of workgroup meetings on Thursday, May 7.
Full Commission
The full Commission meeting on Monday largely served as an opportunity for members to regroup and to review the information they have gathered to date. Members did agree to create three workgroups (see below), through which much of the Commission’s work will be accomplished going forward. Members expressed an understanding that the workgroups will be interdependent to some degree; for that reason, the Chairman of the Commission, State Representative David Luneau, encouraged members to participate in any workgroup session in which they might be interested, even if they were not formally a member of that particular workgroup.
Carsey School staff updated the Commission on the search for the consulting team that will conduct the Commission’s in-depth research in the months ahead. They and Chairman Luneau hope to have a recommendation for which firm to engage for the full Commission to consider at its meeting on May 11. The Commission has also invited NHSFFP’s Doug Hall and Jeff McLynch to appear at that meeting and to discuss the possible data sources available to the Commission.
Following its meeting on May 11, the full Commission intends to begin meeting every other week, with its various workgroups each convening at least once between those meetings.
Below is a brief summary of each of the three workgroup’s meetings on Thursday, along with a listing of their members and assigned tasks.
Adequacy & Distribution Workgroup
Members
State Senator Jay Kahn (D-Keene), Chair
William Ardinger – Attorney, Rath Young Pignatelli
Val Zanchuk – Past President, New Hampshire Business and Industry Association
Barbara Tremblay – Retired superintendent, SAU 29
Iris Estabrook – Former State Senator
Jane Bergeron-Beaulieu – NH Association of Special Education Administrators
Tasks
The charges set before the Adequacy & Distribution Workgroup are to:
- Develop a definition of an adequate education
- Identify disparities in opportunities and outcomes among New Hampshire’s students
- Suggest a framework for the distribution of effort/funding that remedies those disparities
- Ensure a uniform and equitable design for the cost of an adequate education
- Establish a means for on-going review and accountability
Discussion
The members of the Adequacy & Distribution Workgroup devoted much of their initial meeting to an extensive discussion of the possibility of more extensively targeting education aid to low-income and property-poor districts; while members expressed differing views about the balance between universal and needs-based distribution of such funds, they achieved a broad consensus that establishing the cost of an adequate education was paramount among their tasks.
Accordingly, the members of the workgroup considered some of the items that are now included in the definition of an adequate education and explored the possibility of expanding that definition to encompass previously excluded costs as well as services that local districts are mandated to provide or practices they are required to follow. They agreed that representatives from the New Hampshire Association of School Business Officials (NHASBO) could offer valuable insights into the various items that are not now counted toward an adequate education and plan to invite them to take part in an upcoming meeting.
In addition, the members reviewed several prior studies and education funding proposals that could inform their efforts, including the report of the 2008 Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Costing an Adequate Education. Carsey School staff indicated that the New Hampshire Department of Education will soon provide the workgroup with an updated version of that report.
Next Meeting Date(s)
The Adequacy & Distribution Workgroup will meet again on May 18 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. On its agenda that day will be presentations from Reaching Higher New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Department of Education. The workgroup also tentatively plans to meet on May 21 and may hear from both NHASBO and the New Hampshire Association of Special Education Administrators on that date.
Fiscal Policy Workgroup
Members
State Representative David Luneau (D-Hopkinton), Chair
State Representative Dick Ames (D-Jaffrey)
State Representative Mary Heath (D-Manchester)
State Representative Rick Ladd (R-Haverhill)
John Beardmore – Former Commissioner, Department of Revenue Administration
M. Christine Dwyer – Vice President, RMC Research
Tasks
The responsibilities of the Fiscal Policy Workgroup are to:
- Identify all current revenue sources for PK-12 education
- Identify changes in the level and mix of those revenue sources (over the period from 1999 through 2020)
- Identify the variable impacts on local districts of current funding sources and levels
- Examine the meaning of “equitable” in the context of fiscal policy
- Model fiscal policy options for a variety of funding levels, equitable factors, and the distribution of education funding costs across class A, B, and C properties
- Propose alternative revenue sources and a mix of revenue sources to achieve for every child an equal opportunity for an adequate education and assess the pros and cons of each
Discussion
The members of the Fiscal Policy Workgroup discussed at length the various tasks they have been assigned, exploring the complications that tax caps, cooperative school districts, and other practices might create for its work, and weighing how different types of property (e.g. residential, commercial, or industrial) might be classed for property tax purposes. They examined as well the concept of “fiscal neutrality,” that is, the principle that there should be little to no relationship between local property wealth and the resources available to local school districts. Finally, they touched upon the shortcomings of the existing statewide property tax (SWEPT) and how they might be ameliorated.
Next Meeting Date(s)
The Fiscal Policy Workgroup will meet next from 1:00 to 3:00 pm on Monday, May 18; the latter half of that meeting will be held jointly with the Adequacy Workgroup so that the members of both workgroups can hear from Reaching Higher New Hampshire about its Whole Picture of Public Education research project. It has also tentatively scheduled another meeting on Thursday, May 21 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm.
Engagement Workgroup
Members
State Representative Mel Myler (D-Contoocook), Chair
State Senator Jon Morgan (D-Brentwood)
Corinne Cascadden – Interim Superintendent, SAU 84
Susan Huard – Interim Chancellor, Community College System of New Hampshire
David Ryan – Superintendent, SAU16
Tasks
The Engagement Workgroup has been charged with completing four key tasks. Specifically, its purpose is to:
- Review specific plans for stakeholder, student, and public engagement (including design, key questions, and locations)
- Identify key groups to recruit to engagement events
- Review input from engagement activities and review summaries of that input
- Identify key findings from all engagement activities
Discussion
At its meeting on Thursday, the Commission’s Engagement Workgroup reviewed the activities that it will conduct over the next several months to solicit both the public’s views on education funding and its feedback on possible reform options. In particular, the workgroup plans to hold 18 “virtual” focus groups (2 in each of the 9 regions defined by New Hampshire’s Regional Planning Commissions) in early to mid-June. Each focus group will consist of 8 to 12 members of the public, with an aim of having various key constituencies (e.g. parents, educators, community leaders, or business owners) represented in each focus group. The Engagement Workgroup also intends to meet with current high school students and recent graduates to hear their perspectives and to gauge public opinion more broadly via the UNH Survey Center’s Granite State Poll. However, the members of the workgroup agreed to postpone both of those activities until September, due to the obstacles the COVID-19 pandemic poses to each at present.
Next Meeting Date(s)
The Engagement Workgroup is next scheduled to meet on Monday, May 18 at a time to be determined; at that meeting, they expect to develop a more specific schedule for its public focus groups and to determine the questions that will be discussed in those groups. It is also tentatively set to meet on Thursday, May 21.
Please note that all of the documents distributed at each of the workgroup meetings can be found on the Carsey School’s Commission website. Video of each of the workgroup meetings should soon be available at the same location. The formal schedule of future Commission and workgroup meetings, along with the details necessary to listen to those meetings via teleconference, can be found here.