FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 21, 2020

CONTACT:  Jeff McLynch    617-835-1421

On behalf of hundreds of Granite State residents, the NH School Funding Fairness Project (NHSFFP) today presented a petition of support to the Commission to Study School Funding, conveying both widespread concern about the problems plaguing the state’s existing system for funding public schools and strong backing for efforts to address them.

The petition, signed by more than 400 parents, educators, taxpayers, and community leaders, notes the “deep and enduring inequities” in educational opportunity many New Hampshire students face, as well as the “enormous disparities in … property taxes” paid by homeowners in different parts of the state, and calls upon the Commission to “find a permanent and lasting solution to this pair of urgent and profound problems.”

In delivering the petition to the Commission at its regularly scheduled meeting earlier today, Jeff McLynch, NHSFFP’s Project Director, noted, “The people who signed this petition are looking to the Commission to lead, to act, and to find a solution to the kinds of problems that keep them up at night – their kids’ education and the bills they have to pay.”  He added, “People understand that New Hampshire faces real challenges right now, but they want the Commission to be bold and to take a long-term approach to creating a school funding system that works for everyone.”

Judy Reed, one of the signers of the petition, shared her motivations for doing so with the Commission.  “Collectively, we are one of the wealthiest states in the nation, but our state government provides a smaller share of local education funding than anywhere else,” she said.  “That can not continue.  That can not continue if New Hampshire is to break the vicious cycle that forces poorer cities and towns to continue to raise property tax rates even as their schoolchildren have fewer opportunities to thrive.”  Reed lives in Keene and is professor emerita in the Education Department at Keene State College.

The Commission to Study School Funding is an independent, 16-member body established as part of last fall’s state budget agreement.  Among its responsibilities, it is charged with making “recommendations to ensure a uniform and equitable design for financing the cost of an adequate education for all public school students” and ensuring that New Hampshire’s school funding formula relies upon “a revenue source that is uniform across the state.” It is slated to issue its full recommendations by December 1, 2020.

Norm Turcotte, who joined Reed in signing the petition and in speaking before the Commission, offered his perspective as a longstanding member of New Hampshire’s business community.  Turcotte, a Bedford resident and former President and CEO of Associated Grocers of New England, stated, “A highly-skilled, well-educated workforce is essential to the success of New Hampshire’s businesses and the state’s future economic prosperity.  Without comprehensive and fair school funding reform, many communities will continue to struggle to develop the kind of workforce that brings a business to an area and keeps it there over the long run.”

Peter Powell, the head of Powell Real Estate in Lancaster, described for the Commission the consequences of New Hampshire’s current school funding system for the families and businesses he serves.  “I live where most communities are property poor with low tax bases and high tax rates.  Our communities benefit from the work of dedicated educational professionals and want to support them,” he said.  “Yet, we are one of those areas which struggles to attract and retain quality staff who love what they are doing but can be paid more elsewhere and cannot stay in the face of greater opportunity.”

The New Hampshire School Funding Fairness Project (NHSFFP) is an nonprofit advocacy organization that seeks to educate the public and elected officials about the system by which New Hampshire’s public schools are financed and to raise awareness about the flaws of that system and how they might be remedied.  Over the past two years, NHSFFP has delivered presentations on school funding and property taxes to nearly 80 different audiences across the Granite State and was a driving force in persuading the legislature to bolster school funding as part of the FY 2020-21 budget.

The full text of the Petition of Support, along with a complete list of signers, can be found here.