Advancing New Hampshire Public Education

NH School Funding Fairness Project – Newsletter 21, 5/19/19

The Senate Finance Committee’s public deliberations on the budget will begin this week. All of the budget work sessions listed below will be held in the State House, Room 103. Public input is not taken at these sessions, but feel free to sit in and listen.

• Monday 5/20   9:30-11:00 a.m.; 2:00 p.m.
• Tuesday 5/21   3:00 p.m.
• Friday 5/24      9:30 a.m.

In addition, on Tuesday, May 21, at 1:00 p.m., the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on a new revenue proposal (offered as amendment 2019-2031s), that would impose payroll deductions on wages in excess of the Social Security tax cap, with revenues to be dedicated primarily for education purposes.   (more…)

NH School Funding Fairness Project, Newsletter 20

First, some inspiration!  

People showed up in force to testify at the three Senate Finance Committee budget hearings this past week, and many were there to talk about education. Students, administrators, teachers, mayors, school board members and taxpayers made the case, over and over, for why we need to overhaul the way we fund our schools. (more…)

Seventy-four people testified at this afternoon’s Senate Finance Committee’s budget hearing. Fourteen of these speakers were there to ask senators to keep the school funding provisions in the House budget bills, at the levels provided there.  The hearing will reconvene this evening at 6:00.

Compelling testimony on school funding was heard from: (more…)

Budget Hearings Coming Right Up

As we reported last week, the NH Senate Finance Committee will hold public hearings this week about the House budget bills.  One additional hearing has been added.  The hearings are:

1) Tuesday afternoon, May 7, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. in Representatives’ Hall, second floor of the New Hampshire State House, 107 N Main Street, Concord, NH,

2) Tuesday evening, May 7, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. in Representatives’ Hall, second floor of the New Hampshire State House, 107 N Main Street, Concord, NH, and

3) Wednesday evening, May 8, at 7:00 p.m. at Manchester City Hall, Aldermanic Chambers (3rd floor), 1 City Hall Plaza, Manchester, NH (more…)

From the School Funding Fairness Project Newsletter, 4/28/19:

The NH Senate Finance Committee has scheduled two hearings on the budget bills recently passed by the House  (HBs 1 and 2). These bills contain, among other things, the education funding measures that were developed through the thoughtful, bipartisan efforts of the House Education Committee and that we’ve been supporting during this legislative session. The measures include:  restoring stabilization grants to 2016 levels, adding significant targeted aid for struggling districts, and creating an independent, funded commission to develop a sustainable and constitutional longterm school funding plan.

Now it’s time to convince the Senate to support these education funding provisions.  The work begins in the Senate Finance Committee, which has scheduled two public hearings on the budget bills: (more…)

The Herald weighed in editorially on the school funding issue after an editorial board visit by Executive Councilor and lead Claremont case attorney Andy Volinsky:

The fight over education funding in New Hampshire has, at least for now, moved from courts of law to the court of public opinion.

The lead lawyers in the landmark 1997 Claremont II education funding lawsuit, which affirmed New Hampshire’s constitutional duty to provide every K-12 student an “adequate” public education, acknowledge that despite favorable rulings from the state Supreme Court, disparities in educational opportunities have not gotten better over the past 20 years. In fact, they have gotten worse.

(more…)

The NHPR series “Adequate: How A State Decides The Value of Public Education” has provided important insights into education funding in New Hampshire and the impact inadequate state support for its schools has had on our communities.  The series will culminate next Tuesday with a forum to be held at NHPR headquarters in Concord.   Here are the details.  You can register here to attend the forum live in NHPR’s Studio D.

Laura Knoy is host a great panel:

• John J. Freeman—Superintendent of Schools, Pittsfield School District
• Our own John Tobin —One of the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the landmark Claremont education case against the state, and a leader in the current NH School Funding Fairness Project
• Rick Ladd—Republican state representative from Haverhill; former chair of the Education Committee, N.H. House of Representatives
• Jessica Huizenga—Superintendent of Schools, Milford School District

Don’t miss it!

(more…)

NH School Funding Fairness Project newsletter, 4/21/19:

There are no public hearings this week related to the school funding issue, but there’s plenty of work to do.  The focus of our efforts now shifts to the Senate, which will consider education funding issues in the context of the budget passed by the House last week.  (more…)