We have a lot to be proud of when it comes to New Hampshire’s public schools. Overall student performance is among the best in the country. However, a different picture emerges when you look at student performance in each school district. Although the statewide average is very strong, it’s just not the case for every school district.
In 2020, the state legislature formed a commission to study school funding. Over the course of the year, the commission examined how we fund our schools, how other states do it, and engaged with experts from many fields including education, economics, tax policy, law and state and local governments.
The commission analyzed ten years of data collected by the New Hampshire department of education, specifically student performance on statewide assessments, attendance and graduation rates, and access to state and local funding. These data show a strong correlation between the financial resources available to a school district and student performance.
The commission concluded that the way we fund our schools in New Hampshire is inequitable with respect both to student academic achievement and the burden placed on taxpayers to fill the gap caused by the state’s school funding formula and the lowest level of state funding in the nation.
These key findings have led a bipartisan group of former commission members to develop a plan to close the opportunity gap for students and improve fairness for property taxpayers. The plan makes sure that every school district has access to the financial resources they need so that students in every school district will have the opportunity for strong and successful outcomes.
This means students who live in districts with lower property wealth would have the same opportunities for success as students who live in districts with higher property wealth. And property taxpayers in many towns across the state would see meaningful tax relief. It’s like the plan being used now in Massachusetts and it could start now in New Hampshire using the same amount and sources of funding already in the state budget.
Unfortunately, some lawmakers dismiss the commission’s work and instead promote flawed policies that have nothing to do with improving student outcomes in underperforming districts. For example, a new law mandates all high school students memorize the answers to a 128-question civics test developed by federal officials instead of building critical thinking skills.
Another is the “private school voucher bill” which received unprecedented public opposition during its hearing, only later to be jammed into the budget during a closed-door partisan deal. In another example, the commissioner of education paid $6 million in taxpayer money to an Arizona company currently under investigation for fraud for a program to replace credentialed teachers with “guides” who are not trained in any subject matter or instruction skills. And who can forget the $15.2 million rebate to towns with the lowest property taxes in the state?
In Manchester, the state’s largest school district with nearly 13,000 students, the average student performs at the fifth percentile. This means 95% of students in the state perform better. Don’t they deserve a better chance than that?
Our workforce is stronger, our economy is better, and we all benefit when these students do better. Flawed policies like memorizing answers, replacing teachers with guides, using tax dollars to pay for private school tuition and a mega-millions windfall for property-rich towns are not going to close the opportunity gap. In fact, policies like this make it worse.
The future of healthy schools and healthy communities requires a serious approach. Every lawmaker should read the final report prepared by the Commission to Study School Funding and take the opportunity to ask questions to fully understand what led to the disparities in student outcomes and how we can close these opportunity gaps.
The plan coming forward during the upcoming legislative session will apply our precious state resources where they are needed the most, to support school districts with underfunded budgets and to help reduce sky-high property taxes in many communities.
For Manchester, it means an infusion of more than $50 million. And for so many school districts like Berlin, Claremont, Pittsfield, Newport, Merrimack Valley, Haverhill, Derry, Charlestown, Concord and Hopkinton too, it means millions more in state support to improve student outcomes and deliver meaningful property tax relief, all using funds already in the state budget.
Or is it going to be more of the same, a chip here, a chip there, and a lot of nonsense? Ask your state representatives where they stand.
(Rep. David Luneau served as chair of the Commission to Study School Funding. See the report at carsey.unh.edu/school-funding.)