Opinion: Funding public education

Rep. Dianne Schuett, Merr. 12, Pembroke.

To the families of Pembroke, I recently received a resolution from the Pembroke School Board. It was addressed to all of their elected representatives in the state legislature, of which I am one. It calls upon us to support a more equitable funding solution for public schools to alleviate the heavy burden Pembroke property taxpayers are facing. These board members are faced with the tremendous task of cutting $3 million out of the school budget as adopted by our taxpayers at the school district meeting. And even with that huge cut, many of us will still find it difficult if not impossible to afford this year’s tax bill.

While there were a few bills introduced in this session that aimed to assist communities such as ours, only two have survived to this point in time: HB 1583 which would increase state funding of public schools by $65 million, with Pembroke set to receive an increase of nearly $700,000 beginning July 1, 2024; and HB 1656, that would increase annual state appropriations for special education by $17 million.

HB 1583 passed in the House and is currently awaiting a decision by the Senate Finance committee, but HB 1656, which also passed in the House has been recommended for interim study in the Senate, which if adopted means no action would happen on the subject for another year, and the full Senate is due to act on it soon. While these two bills would ease the burden on property taxes, they would still be a far cry from meeting the criteria demanded by the many court decisions directing the state to cover a fairer share of these costs.

I did support these two bills and voted against several that I believed would have mandated evermore curricula, on public schools in particular, without any additional funding as well as those that would have further depleted the education trust funds. I appreciate the difficult and painful decisions that the members of the Pembroke School Board have had to make and hope that we can convince the next session of the legislature to fund public education more adequately and equitably for my town and many others.