A provision of the State Budget approved by the State Senate threatens to strip all State funding from any public school if it “knowingly or unknowingly” violates vague language prohibiting anything that “classifies individuals based on a characteristic identified under RSA 354-A:1 for the purpose of achieving demographic outcomes” (Page 111 of the amended bill). This language is so broad that many important programs schools offer could violate it.

For example, what if a school has a program aiming to make playground equipment accessible for students with physical disabilities so that students can be included with their peers during recess. Having a physical disability is a protected characteristic under RSA 354-A:1, and the goal of this program could be characterized as “achieving demographic outcomes” for students with physical disabilities, so by the plain language of the bill, this program could violate the law and the school could lose all of its State education funding.

This overly broad language, which would be enforced at the sole discretion of the commissioner, makes it impossible for schools to know what does and does not constitute a violation of this provision. It also means every school is at risk of losing its State funding, which is not explicitly defined in the amended bill but could include the entirety of the State Adequacy Grant and Statewide Education Property Tax (SWEPT) revenues collected locally, which combine to a total of more than $1 billion across the state. Scroll through the list below that shows the NH Department of Education’s estimated State funding for next school year and see how much every city and town in the state could lose by unknowingly violating this incredibly vague budget provision.