“The current state funding system allows for children in school districts with more valuable real estate to benefit from higher per-pupil spending, while their parents pay property taxes at much lower rates.” - Attorney John Tobin

Students and taxpayers in property poor towns do not get their fair share of limited education funding in New Hampshire. The Claremont lawsuits that challenged the state’s school funding mechanism were intended to remedy that but, as we know, the inequities remain. In fact, after an initial improvement, the tax burden on property poor towns has returned to about what it was before the lawsuit.

Executive Councilor Andy Volinsky and retired head of New Hampshire Legal Assistance John Tobin, , two of the Claremont attorneys, are traveling the State holding forums in which they educate citizens and local leadership about how the combination of, primarily, local property taxes, with a little additional state and federal funding school funding finances our schools. They make the funding system as it exists today understandable and show how it is not fair to New Hampshire’s property poor towns and taxpayers. Here’s a news report on the their highly successful June forum in Pittsfield.

Here is an overview of the state of school funding in New Hampshire and questions for candidates for office. Click here for the full ANHPE coverage of the school funding issue.

Andy and John’s “School Funding 101” forums are a great opportunity to understand New Hampshire school funding and discuss with with fellow citizens and two of the most knowledgeable and clear education funding experts in the State.

Highly successful forums in Pittsfield, Derry, Newton, Berlin, Keene, Haverhill (for SAU 23 and northern Grafton County), Canaan (for Mascoma and southern Grafton County), Concord (also hosted by Allenstown and Pembroke), Rochester, Nashua, Peterborough, Penacook, Somersworth, Belmont and Manchester have been completed with hundreds in attendance and many questions answered. Here are the upcoming events:

This post was written by Doug Hall and edited by Bill Duncan. If you would like to hold a forum to discuss school funding in your community, click here.

New Hampshire school districts first brought the Claremont lawsuit, as it is called, against the State of New Hampshire in 1991. The New Hampshire Supreme Court first ruled on it in the Claremont I decision of 1993 and, then, it ruled again in the Claremont II decision of 1997.

The plaintiffs had two goals:

• Reduce the disparity in spending per pupil among the school districts; and,
• Reduce the disparity in property tax rates for schools paid by local property tax payers.

The court concluded that the provision of an “adequate education” was a state responsibility and under the Constitution must therefore be funded by taxes that are uniform in their rates.

The first reform measure enacted by the New Hampshire legislature to comply with the Supreme Court decisions went into effect in 1999. It included a uniform statewide property tax to be distributed to the school districts and increases in other taxes.

So what have been the results? (more…)

Here is a Concord Monitor story on the “School Funding 101” forum held in Pittsfield in June. Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky and retired New Hampshire Legal Assistance head John Tobin, two attorneys who helped litigate the Claremont cases, are educating parents, citizens, school boards and legislators across the state to the reality that our current school funding mechanism is not constitutional and they are discussing what we can do about it.

If you would like to hold a School Funding 101 forum in your community, give us your contact info, below. (more…)

School funding will be a central issue in the next legislature so we’re catching up on some posts that tee the issue up for readers. The Concord Monitor has been on top of this issue for quite awhile and in June published this editorial highlighting the plight of Franklin as representative of the broader issue. (more…)