NHSFFP put out the following press release following the NH Supreme Court’s July 1 opinion in ConVal v. State of New Hampshire. You can read the Court’s decision here.

Today, the NH Supreme Court issued a decision in the ConVal school funding lawsuit upholding the 2023 Superior Court ruling that found the State’s base adequate education aid is unconstitutionally low because it does not provide enough funds for school districts to be able to provide their students with an adequate education. In a massive victory for New Hampshire public schools and communities, the Court held that the State needs to increase base adequacy aid to the “conservative minimum threshold” of at least $7,356.01 per pupil to fulfill its constitutional obligation to fund an adequate education.  

“This is an exciting win for students and taxpayers all across New Hampshire, but it’s not surprising,” said Zack Sheehan, NH School Funding Fairness Project Executive Director. “For the past 30 years the NH Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that the State is failing to live up to its constitutional duty to adequately fund education. This strong ruling explicitly calls out the history of legislative inaction as the backdrop for upholding the Superior Court’s ruling.” 

The Court’s ruling that the cost of a constitutionally adequate education must be greater than $7,356.01, much higher than the current base adequacy amount of $4,182 for the 2024-25 school year, is based on the recognition of additional costs associated with operating schools that were not appropriately budgeted for or were explicitly excluded from the definition of an adequate education. The three main components driving the difference between the current adequacy amount and the number set by the courts include student transportation, school nurses, and buildings and facilities maintenance. 

The increase in base adequacy aid will shift these costs from local property tax payers to the State, reducing our heavy reliance on local property taxes to fund our schools and the heavy burdens paid by taxpayers in communities with below average property values.  

The Court did overturn one specific element of the Superior Court’s ruling that base adequacy be increased immediately. Instead, three of the five justices opted to defer to the legislative and executive branch to resolve the issue in a timely manner. Two justices dissented on that piece of the decision, arguing that the past 30 years of legislative inaction require the courts to take a more active role in enforcing its decision to protect the rights of New Hampshire students to a state funded, constitutionally adequate education. 

From the time this case was first filed in 2019, the State presented no evidence or affirmative defense to justify the current base adequacy levels. As in the ruling from the Superior Court, the NH Supreme Court bashed the State for providing absolutely no evidence to support the current funding scheme throughout the five-year span of the case.  

“This ruling reinforces the many decades of precedent that have already come from this court supporting State funding for public education,” Sheehan said. “The legislature has had a responsibility to fix our school funding system ever since the Claremont decisions. This ruling makes it even clearer what that means and leaves no more room for excuses from the legislature.”