When people talk about the “Claremont decision,” they’re talking about us. Nearly 30 years ago, the Claremont school funding lawsuit made it all the way to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, where it was ruled that every child in our state is entitled to an adequate education — and that the state, not local property taxpayers, is responsible for funding it.
That decision should have been a turning point. Instead, decades later, Claremont is once again in crisis, this time because the state has failed to live up to that promise.
Today, our school district is facing a serious budget shortfall. Programs, staff, and basic
services are on the chopping block. The conversation around town has turned to cuts and
layoffs, not opportunity and growth. And once again, property taxpayers are being told they need to shoulder more of the burden because the state isn’t doing its job.
This crisis didn’t appear out of nowhere. It’s the direct result of years of state policy choices that shifted the cost of public education onto local communities. The state’s per-pupil funding has barely moved in a generation, even as costs for everything from transportation to special education have increased. Meanwhile, property values vary dramatically from one town to the next, meaning students in wealthier towns get more opportunities, while students in places like Claremont are told to make do with less.
Recently, some of our own elected state leaders, State Reps. Wayne Hemingway
and Michael Aron, and State Sen. Ruth Ward, have made choices in Concord that deepened this crisis rather than aid it.
Hemingway and Aron both voted to raise our property taxes by shifting more of the state’s obligations back onto local taxpayers. They supported corporate tax cuts and expanded private school vouchers that allow public money to pay for private schools. Every dollar diverted this way is a dollar that doesn’t reach Claremont’s classrooms, forcing our community to make up the difference through higher local taxes.
They’ve also funneled state support toward large corporations while our schools struggle, by supporting handouts for huge multi-national corporations and the top 1%, policies that have drained more than $1 billion from our community funding over the past 10 years. That’s money that could have funded new housing, school infrastructure and teachers, child care staff and mental health services.
Ward, as chair of the Senate Education Committee, had an opportunity to help
districts like Claremont. Instead, she sponsored the universal school voucher bill, expanding a program that pulls critical resources out of public schools and sends them to private and religious institutions. She also voted against additional state funding for Claremont, despite clear evidence that our district was already stretched thin.
Together, these decisions have pushed more of the cost of education onto towns like ours,
making property taxes higher, schools weaker and the future of public education in New
Hampshire more uncertain than ever.
Every time the state passes the buck, our local property taxes go up and our students pay the price. Families are already struggling with high housing costs, and seniors on fixed incomes are being squeezed out of their homes. It shouldn’t be this way, plain and simple.
New Hampshire likes to talk about “local control,” but there’s nothing empowering about a
system that forces communities to choose between keeping taxes affordable and giving our kids the education they deserve. True local control would mean giving towns like Claremont schools the resources they need to succeed — not leaving them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Claremont has already led the state once before in the fight demanding fair funding. Even
though we didn’t sign up for it, it looks like it’s time we do it again. Because this isn’t just about numbers on a spreadsheet, it’s about what kind of future we’re building for our students, our community and our state.
Matt Mooshian is a resident of Claremont and former At-Large City Councilor.