Every morning, I walk into Epsom Central School eager to share my passion for art with my students. As a K-8 art teacher, I watch children discover their creativity, build confidence, solve problems and see the world in new ways. As a product of public education myself, I know firsthand that the arts expand thinking and build self-worth in ways traditional subjects cannot match. Every child deserves that opportunity.
Those moments remind me why public education matters — and why I am deeply concerned about Ballot Question 2, which would impose an arbitrary cap on public school funding across New Hampshire.
As taxpayers, educators share the frustration over rising property taxes. We feel that burden at home, too. An arbitrary spending cap will not solve the underlying tax crisis. It will simply force school districts to make impossible choices about which children’s needs they can afford to meet.
In Epsom, we have already tested this idea. In March 2025, local voters faced a petition warrant article proposing a $25,000-per-student spending cap tied to inflation. It was an understandable reaction after residents heard about a significant tax increase; our budget had risen by nearly $800,000, driven primarily by cost increases for employee benefits and mandated special education services. These are not frivolous expenses — they represent our fundamental moral and legal obligation to educate every child.
Ultimately, Epsom voters rejected the cap. Opposition was so widespread that voters at the deliberative session raised the proposed ceiling to $100,000 per student before overwhelmingly defeating it at the ballot box. The message was unequivocal: our community refuses to compromise our children’s future with rigid, arbitrary limits.
Yet instead of listening to voters in Epsom and across New Hampshire who rejected local caps, state lawmakers put Question 2 on the statewide ballot. Why should Concord overrule local communities on what our students need? Epsom knows its school, its children and its priorities.
Local voters — not a state-mandated, one-size-fits-all formula — should retain the authority to govern local school budgets.
Question 2 distracts from the true source of property tax pressure: New Hampshire’s failure to fund public education fairly. While New Hampshire ranks among the top 10 states nationally in overall education funding, it ranks dead last — 50th in the nation — in the share of funding supplied by the state government. Local taxpayers shoulder an outsized burden precisely because Concord fails to pay its fair share.
State leaders cannot keep underfunding local districts and then penalize them for spending what it takes to educate their students. While student populations may shift, educational and support needs have grown increasingly complex. Public schools are required to ensure every child — not just those who fit a narrow definition of a typical student — has a meaningful opportunity to succeed.
In my art room, I see every day how differently children learn and process the world. One student shines in a written assignment; another finds their voice through clay, canvas or a collaborative project. Meeting students where they are requires skilled professionals, adequate resources and the flexibility to adapt.
Epsom voters already recognized that arbitrary spending caps are the wrong path. I urge my neighbors and voters across New Hampshire to reject Ballot Question 2. Our children deserve a funding system that expands their potential, not a formula that caps their future.
Rachel Thurrott is the president of the Epsom Teachers’ Association.