This past week the Fiscal Committee met to discuss the issues before us, first and foremost the grant to double the number of charter schools in New Hampshire. We had met a month prior to discuss the grant but at the time felt strongly that we needed more information from the Department of Education before making a decision.

After our last meeting we were hopeful that getting answers to the questions we asked the Department of Education would help us understand why this grant was necessary and how it would better public education here in New Hampshire. However, the answers the department gave us led us to have more questions, not fewer, and cemented our doubts about the impacts of the grant on currently operating charter schools and traditional public schools.

In the commissioner of education’s answers, he states that student enrollment in schools, of all kinds, will drop an estimated 28% over the next decade. It seems that it would be misguided to double the number of charter schools we currently operate knowing that is the landscape. It raises real questions about the sustainability of not only the schools that will open under this grant but the schools that are already open – both traditional public schools and public charter schools.

A study by the independent nonprofit Reaching Higher N.H. shows that over 25% of seats in our existing charter schools are currently open. This grant is exclusively for planning and start up. Once one of these new charters opens, it is on its own. If we double the number of seats and lose a third of our students, how are currently operating charters expected to survive?

In 2007, a charter school review commissioned by the Department of Education talked extensively about how funding is a constant struggle and that public charter schools are under constant financial stress. This past June, an article was written about the struggles of a charter school on the Seacoast to stay open due to financial struggles that were directly related to enrollment. With so much at stake, we would have liked to hear from charter schools already in operation if they were supportive of the grant, or worried about the potential decreased enrollment or funding losses due to the rapid expansion of charter schools.

Unfortunately, the Department of Education admits they did not consult with any charter schools before applying for this grant and so they were unable to obtain this information.

As the Fiscal Committee, it is our job to consider the financial impact of any grants not just on this Legislature but on future legislatures. An independent fiscal analysis by Reaching Higher estimated the potential cost to the state for this grant at an additional $104 million over the next 10 years.

We know our schools in New Hampshire, public charter and traditional, struggle to raise the funds needed to operate. Had this grant been aimed at shoring up our existing public charters and our traditional public schools perhaps the conversation would have been different – but that is not what was presented to us.

We need to support our existing traditional public schools and charter schools and protect New Hampshire taxpayers. This grant did none of that. There is no such thing as a free lunch. State law requires the Department of Education to seek every federal charter school grant possible, but that doesn’t equate to need or prudence. This federal grant would have cost the state of New Hampshire millions of dollars and jeopardized the future health and vitality of our current schools – both traditional and charter schools.

We will continue to fight for all of New Hampshire students during the next legislative session, but it is clear to us that this was not the right time for this grant.

(Rep. Mary Jane Wallner of Concord is the chair of the House Finance Committee. Sen. Lou D’Allesandro of Manchester is the chair of the Senate Finance Committee.)