All three of the Commission to Study School Funding’s subsidiary workgroups – Engagement, Fiscal Policy, and Adequacy – met on Monday, June 15.  A summary of their discussions and deliberations follows.

Engagement

The Engagement Workgroup – in conjunction with the Carsey School and NH Listens – is in the midst of hosting its set of 12 focus groups with school finance officials and other district leaders.  To date, approximately 50 participants from communities across the state have taken part.  Michele Holt-Shannon, the Director of NH Listens, shared a sampling of the feedback that they had gathered in one focus group, in which participants discussed teacher turnover (with younger staff departing for higher-salaried districts), the impact of property tax rates on local homeowners, and the need to give greater weight in future funding formulas to special education.

The members of the workgroup also considered the timing and substance of a survey of New Hampshire educators that it intends to conduct.  It appears that the workgroup will target the end of June for distribution of that survey.  So, if you teach or work at a public school here in New Hampshire, keep an eye on your email in-box over the next few weeks – your perspective and experiences are critical to informing the Commission’s work.

Fiscal Policy

The members of the Fiscal Policy workgroup devoted the entirety of their meeting this week to an examination of the fiscal policy principles that will guide its future work.  In particular, they discussed what the notion of “equity” may mean in the context of school funding.  Representative Dick Ames noted that, while the Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that the State of New Hampshire has an obligation to fund an adequate education, it is not required to finance all education expenditures; as a result, given the disparity of resources throughout the state and the desire and ability of some districts to deliver more than an adequate education, there will always be some inequities in education.  In addition, Representative Dave Luneau, the Chairman of the Commission, observed that, even if there were an equal education property tax rate in Rye and Berlin (as examples), the resulting tax bill may mean very different things in those communities given the different income levels of residents of those communities and the resulting ability to pay.  He and other members of the workgroup subsequently discussed the existing Low- and Moderate-Income Property Tax Relief Program, its shortcomings, and how future policy might include provisions to mitigate impacts on elderly or low-income taxpayers. 

Members of the workgroup also returned to the principle of “fiscal neutrality,” namely, the concept that the amount of funding available for a child’s school district should not be  contingent upon or correlated with the wealth or income of the district in which a child resides.  As part of this discussion, Rep. Luneau suggested that, for the workgroup’s purposes, it might be appropriate to substitute “the opportunity for an adequate education” for “the amount of funding.” Representative Rick Ladd offered that New Hampshire was responsible for providing an adequate education for every student and that that goal had been accomplished in 2008 by providing base adequacy aid plus differentiated aid for certain students, but that that approach had been undermined by the provision of stabilization aid.  Chris Dwyer, Vice-President of RMC Research, emphasized that some communities will require relatively more resources per pupil to deliver an adequate education and urged the Commission to come to an agreement on that point.

Finally, the workgroup examined the basic tax policy principles, such as stability, neutrality, exportability, and simplicity, found in the 2000 report of the New Hampshire Commission on Education Funding (also known as the Shaheen Commission).

Adequacy

The Adequacy Workgroup, consistent with the Commission’s charge to “to ensure a uniform and equitable design for financing the cost of an adequate education for all public school students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 in the state,“ spoke with Kim Firth, Program Director at the Endowment for Health, and Deborah Nelson, Bureau Chief at DHHS’ Division of Economic and Housing Stability, about New Hampshire’s current approach to early education and care.  A full copy of their presentation can be found here, but among its key points, their presentation emphasized the insufficiency of current funding to reach all eligible children, the absence of affordable child care throughout the state, and the importance of access to early education and care to New Hampshire’s economy.

Future Meetings and Interim Report

The full Commission to Study School Funding will next meet on Monday, June 22, at which time it will hear from a panel of speakers on the topic of the Statewide Property Tax (SWEPT).  The panel will consist of James Gerry of the NH Department of Revenue Administration, Michael Kane, head of the Office of the Legislative Budget Assistant, and Jane Ferrini, Portsmouth’s Assistant City Attorney. The Commission Workgroups will meet again on Monday, June 29, while the full Commission will return on July 7; Daphne Kenyon, currently with Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Michael Kane, and Anne Edwards, Associate Attorney General, have been invited to speak on the history of school funding mechanisms.

Finally, Chairman Luneau indicated in several of Monday’s workgroup meetings that the Commission will issue an interim report, compiled by Carsey School staff, in the coming weeks.  That report is not expected to offer any initial recommendations, but rather provide a synopsis of the Commission’s activities to date.