A series of proposals contemplated by the state legislature last session would have increased the amount of money the Concord School District received from the state this year by between $11 million and $20 million.
The largest increase under consideration would have nearly doubled the amount of state education funding Concord receives to put toward its $111.5 million budget for the school year.
The figures come from an analysis released Thursday by the New Hampshire School Funding Fairness Project, an organization advocating for school funding reform. The analysis quantifies how much each of the 245 municipalities and unincorporated places in the state would have stood to gain under three bills, all of which failed to pass.
“The idea was just wanting to level with people that there were specific bills that were killed – disregarded – and then even the policy ideas were not wrapped into the budget in this past session,” Zack Sheehan, the executive director of the Funding Fairness project, said in an interview.
Currently, the money New Hampshire allocates to education makes up the smallest percentage of total education spending in the country, according to a report by the National Education Association. This means that local property taxes cover the bulk of education funding, with tax rates varying widely between one community and another.
The analysis comes as the legislature faces a Supreme Court order, released in July, to rectify unconstitutionally low base adequacy payments to school districts. A separate superior court ruling this summer found that the amount of additional aid the state provided schools for special education services also violated the New Hampshire Constitution.
The first bill below would have addressed the Supreme Court ruling, while the other two would be more closely responsive to the lower court order.
The towns in the charts below are organized in order of proposed increase in state aid. You can search for your town in the search bar at the top.
Bill 1: Increase base adequacy payments
This proposal would have increased state adequacy spending on education by an estimated $454 million, an increase of 42%.
On a percentage basis, it would have benefited moderate to high-income towns, such as Hanover and Windham, the most. Low-income communities, like Franklin and Claremont, would benefit comparatively less, though they would still receive increased grants.
The most affluent towns would not have seen any increase in state money because the amount they raise through the Statewide Education Property Tax, or SWEPT, would already cover the increased cost. The change might have prompted those communities to set different local tax rates, however.
Bill 2: Increase base adequacy payments and differentiated aid
This proposal would have increased state adequacy spending on education by an estimated $576 million, an increase of 53%.
It would have raised both base adequacy and differentiated aid payments by 72.4%.
Similar to the previous bill, on a percentage basis, it would have benefited moderate to high-income towns most. However, the disparity would not have been as great.
Bill 3: Significant increase to special education aid
This proposal would have increased state spending by an estimated $841 million, an increase of 78%.
On a percentage basis, it would have benefited small, lower-income communities with high percentages of students with disabilities the most, such as Webster and Enfield.
How these proposals would have been paid for
One way to pay for these increases would have been to raise the statewide education property tax. Assuming school district budgets stayed relatively unchanged, this would have likely had the effect of decreasing the overall property tax burden in lower-income communities and raising it in the most wealthy.
There are other ways the state could have raised the additional money, as well, including through the state business tax.