Concord School District officials have tentatively agreed to sign on to a New Hampshire Supreme Court brief expressing support for a lawsuit against the state that says the way the government funds education is unfair and unconstitutional.
Attorneys John Tobin, who litigated the landmark Claremont school funding suits more than 20 years ago, and Natalie Laflamme of Laflamme Law, attended the last school board meeting on Monday asking the body to consider endorsing an amicus brief, or a document signed by an individual or organization not directly involved with a case, but with a strong interest in the subject matter.
The Concord School District will not be party to the lawsuit, which was filed by ConVal, Mascenic, Monadnock and Winchester school districts, and received a favorable ruling from a Cheshire County Superior Court judge. The state appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court in September.
However, Concord would be sending a message to the Supreme Court – and to the state – that there is agreement across the state that the funding system needs to change, Tobin said.
“The current system is not rational, no one can defend it, but we need to send a message to the court that it’s not just the Berlins and the Pittsfields. It’s the Concords and the Hopinktons and the other places that are also suffering,” Tobin said.
“I think that it will be good for the court to know that the school district here in the state’s capital, that has a very strong reputation in terms of education quality and has had for a very long time, sees this problem,” he added.
School Board Member Tom Croteau moved that the board sign on to the brief.
“We want to let the state of New Hampshire know, and let the Legislature know, that we care about kids and we care a lot about education and we would very much enjoy their help,” he said.
The board agreed to sign onto the brief, conditional of their approval of the document, which they will be able to preview at the end of the month before it is submitted to the Supreme Court in mid-April. The vote was unanimous, with the exception of board member Jim Richards, who abstained, saying his employer was party to the lawsuit.
At least 10 other school districts have signed on to the amicus brief, including Merrimack Valley, Hopkinton and Pittsfield. No district they’ve approached to sign has said no, Tobin said.
“I think it’s well known that the state has failed. I think you’re in very good company with all the other districts that have signed on,” he said to the Concord School Board.
He mentioned that Concord, although a city known for having quality educational opportunities, is hurt by the system of funding education by property taxes because of the amount of state and federal land in the state’s capital that do not contribute funds to education.
“Concord is considerably well below the average in terms of property wealth per student,” Tobin said. “The average is about $1.1 million per student and Concord is somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million – 10 percent below the average.”
“People in Concord are having to run faster and sweat more to pay for education,” he added.
The lawsuit filed by several districts in northern New Hampshire in March 2019 contends that the current funding the state provides per pupil – around $3,636 per student in 2019 – is not adequate and does not take into account costs for “transportation, maintaining an appropriate student-teacher ratio, teachers’ benefits, state-mandated nursing, superintendent, and food services, or facilities operation,” among other costs.