Public education is a constitutional duty
In New Hampshire, public education is not a suggestion. It is a constitutional obligation. Yet year after year, local school boards are forced to stand before voters and ask, sometimes plead, for funding to meet legal requirements the state itself has failed to adequately support.
Recent news out of Concord has exposed how fractured this conversation has become. Leaked Signal messages involving House education leadership included references to “segregated schools,” later described as political, not student-based. Regardless of intent, the language reflects a broader and troubling shift: Public education is increasingly treated not as a shared responsibility, but as a system some families should be able to exit, while others are left behind.
At the same time, the Legislature continues to expand Education Freedom Accounts, promote open enrollment and impose new mandates, without fixing the underlying funding structure. Courts have repeatedly made clear that New Hampshire’s reliance on local property taxes to fund education is constitutionally inadequate. Yet the state response has been delay, deflection and decentralization of blame.
“School choice” sounds appealing, but choice without access is not a choice. Most families lack the time, transportation or flexibility to navigate alternatives. Public schools, however, must educate every child, students with disabilities, behavioral needs, language barriers and trauma histories, without exception.
Those costs do not disappear when students move. Buildings still operate. Staff are still required. Services are still mandated by law.
Public schools remain one of the last truly democratic institutions we have. Weakening them through underfunding and fragmentation does not increase freedom, it increases division.
If lawmakers in Concord truly want to honor the Constitution, they must stop shifting responsibility to local communities and start fully funding public education.