Schools are levees holding back the flood
Somersworth Mayor Matt Gerding recently voiced what local leaders across New Hampshire know: our public schools are struggling, but they did not create the crises landing in their classrooms.
Student test scores have dropped nationally and across New Hampshire. For generations, public education relied on an unspoken “parental subsidy” from homes that naturally provided baseline self-discipline, work ethic, basic skills, respect for authority and emotional readiness.
The pandemic, opioid epidemic, economic stress and screen saturation systematically undermined that subsidy. Teachers aren’t just teaching reading and math; they are managing deep societal trauma, eroded attention spans and functional learning gaps. Educators are the levees holding back the flood.
Meanwhile, local city councils and select boards face an impossible trap. Towns must fund schools, maintain municipal and public safety services and repair roads. Yet the state hands municipalities only one blunt lever: the local property tax.
Concord possesses a diverse toolkit including business taxes, meals and rooms taxes and interest and dividends taxes designed to draw revenue from the broader economy. Instead of using those tools, state leaders systematically outsource the cost of society’s biggest problems onto local property owners.
Nevertheless, refusing to fund our local school budget won’t fix state failure; it just breaks the levee.