Carisa Corrow of Penacook is co-author of “126 Falsehoods We Believe About Education” and founder of Educating for Good.

It’s been established by the state constitution and reiterated by the courts that the state bears the responsibility of adequately funding public education. I’m hoping this is the year that our legislators uphold their oaths to the constitution and at the very least provide a significant increase to the state’s contribution to public education, especially for our poorest districts which, not incidentally, have the highest rates of students with 504s and IEPs.

Public schools affect each and every one of us, and I’m not just talking about property taxes. Even if you don’t send your kids to public school or even have kids, I guarantee you, a public school graduate affected your life today.

Our lineman who makes sure electricity is flowing and their colleagues behind the scenes, mostly public school graduates. The DOT workers who treated the roads overnight, mostly public school graduates. The small business owners that will feed us food, culture, and the local economy, mostly public school graduates. The healthcare workers taking care of our loved ones and those who are ready to help any of us who might need them today, most are public school graduates.

You get the point, and to that end, we all deserve and need a public education system that ensures we have a community that has the skills, knowledge and empathy to take care of each other. It’s not a tax burden, it’s an investment in ourselves and each other.

Well over eighty percent of our community went to public school. Even if the legislature chooses to continue to divest resources away from public schools through private education vouchers and that number falls to fifty percent, that’s a significant portion of the population that needs and deserves a quality education.

I’ve personally never liked that we use the word adequate to describe education. It’s too subjective, uninspired, and because we’ve failed to define it in a way that accounts for our changing economy and technological advancements, it’s been quite easy for leaders to low-ball the actual cost and contribution.

In my wildest dreams, I hope one day we’ll consider funding a “quality education” where each child, regardless of zip code and the socioeconomic status of their parents and community, has the same access to dynamic and rigorous learning experiences as their peers the next town over. Universal quality might be too much to ask for, so I guess I’ll have to settle for adequate.

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In the words of Coach Belichick, I say to our elected representatives: “Do. Your. Job.” Ensure our public schools have the money to provide the best education for each student, education that affects the quality of life for us all, without shifting the burden down to local taxpayers.