In a little more than a month, the Commission to Study School Funding will issue its recommendations to the New Hampshire Legislature. Those recommendations, if enacted into law, could completely recast New Hampshire’s school funding system and, in so doing, address educational and economic disparities that have been allowed to persist for far too long.

In partnership with a number of educational and civic organizations from across New Hampshire, NHSFFP has developed a set of principles to inform the Commission’s deliberations and to provide a framework for evaluating the recommendations that it offers. The full set of principles – and the organizations that support them – are listed below.

NHSFFP, along with the NH School Boards Association (NHSBA), NEA-NH, the NH Association of School Principals (NHASP), and the NH School Administrators Association (NHSAA), presented the principles to the Commission to Study School Funding at its public comment session on Wednesday, October 28. Audio and video from that session should soon be available by clicking here.

NEW HAMPSHIRE SCHOOL FUNDING STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES

As organizations representing educators, elected officials, parents, and citizens, we are gravely concerned about the unfair system New Hampshire uses to fund its public schools and the consequences of that system for children, families, businesses, and communities across the state.  Fundamental reforms to make that system more equitable for students and taxpayers alike are long past due.  The Commission to Study School Funding, established by the Legislature last year, represents a unique opportunity to consider in depth the shortcomings inherent in the existing school funding system and to develop a comprehensive set of proposals to address them.  Consequently, we believe that the legislative recommendations the Commission is required to produce should:

  • Be comprehensive in scope, addressing not only the costs of an adequate education in New Hampshire, but also the constitutionally-permitted means by which those costs will be met over time.
  • Establish the level of resources necessary for each and every school district in the state to ensure that the children they serve have the opportunity to reach their full potential and, at minimum, receive a constitutionally adequate education.
  • In determining those resources, the Commission should:
    • Include all of the elements essential to a robust and modern education, from teachers, counselors, and administrators; to equipment and technology; and to transportation and facilities
    • Recognize the variety of circumstances New Hampshire’s children face and the diversity of obstacles they must overcome and enable school districts to provide an appropriate range and intensity of services and instruction in response, and
    • Employ the most thorough and current research and the most accurate and reliable data available.
  • Require the State of New Hampshire to bear in full the costs of an adequate education for every child, as mandated by the New Hampshire Constitution.
  • Create a method of funding the costs of an adequate education that is:
    • imposed and collected by the State of New Hampshire,
    • sufficient to meet the state’s responsibility,
    • uniform in rate among all New Hampshire taxpayers, and
    • permanent, sustainable, and stable over time.
  • Establish procedures for:
    • annually updating the cost of an adequate education to account for wage and salary growth, price increases, and other factors,
    • periodically reviewing and, if necessary, modifying the definition of an adequate education so that it remains consistent with current educational practice and demographic trends, and
    • regularly assessing and, if necessary, modifying the method of funding the costs of an adequate education to ensure that it remains uniform and proportional and that it yields a sufficient level of revenue on an annual basis.

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS

Canterbury Citizens for Democracy – Doris Hampton, Coordinating Team Member

Kent Street Coalition – Louise Spencer, Co-Founder

Monadnock United 2020 – Sam Osherson, Coordinator

NEA-NH – Megan Tuttle, President

NH Association of School Principals – Bridey Bellemare, Executive Director

NH School Administrators Association – Dr. Carl Ladd, Executive Director

NH School Boards Association – Barrett Christina, Executive Director

NH School Funding Fairness Project – Jeff McLynch, Project Director

For a pdf of the statement of principles, please click here.