Children are a treasure. They’re our future. We need to invest in their growth and success. HB 1393 has passed the NH House. It would allow any school district or town to arbitrarily cap education funding at any level, with no consistency across the state and without cherishing public education as the NH Constitution requires. Education funding across the state could become more inequitable than ever. HB 1393 requires a 2/3 supermajority of voters to overturn a budget cap. Out-of-state money will be flowing in NH to prevent that from happening. So maintaining local control will be difficult to impossible.
Voters can already exercise control of their education budgets at school district/town meetings. The process there is democratic: presentation of views, discussion, a vote. This democratic process will be undermined if HB 1393 becomes law. And that’s exactly what the sponsors of HB 1393 want. Furthermore, arbitrary budget caps mean less flexibility to absorb unexpected and impossible-to-anticipate expenses, jeopardizing our children and their education. We’ve recently seen fast-rising fuel prices, for example. To keep schools warm and pay the fuel bills, a budget cap could force districts to cut staff, increase class size, even shut down school buildings if fuel prices rose too much too fast. None of this is good for our children. Like so many other bills in the legislature this session, HB 1393 undermines public education, which is a cornerstone of our democracy. Let’s keep it. Please ask your senator to oppose HB 1393.
Claudia Damon
Concord