Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a bill into law Friday that limits the state’s obligation to pay for public education.
The new law limits the state’s costs to basic academic instruction, as well as subsidies for students who have disabilities, receive free or reduced-price lunch or are learning English. Local taxpayers will cover the rest, including the cost of buses, administrators, nurses and other expenses.
While the courts have said those are necessary to an adequate education, the bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Windham, said they were “collateral costs” to be borne by local communities.
Republicans hope the law will resolve a 30-year legal fight over school funding. The state is constitutionally required to provide students an “adequate” education. In July, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that the state is underfunding public education but left the solution to the Legislature.
The new law, which passed along party lines, appears to be the Legislature’s response.
But a lawyer who sued the state over school funding, told lawmakers earlier this month that the new law will lead to more litigation, not resolve decades of legal disputes.
During a debate in the Senate Thursday, Sen. Keith Murphy, R-Manchester, said, “This bill is best construed as a polite invitation to the judicial branch to correct three decades of faulty school funding orders.”
Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, said she and her party would “be standing on the side of students (and) property taxpayers” who’ve accused the state of shirking its responsibility by shifting public education costs to local communities.
“This bill is really a shameful dereliction of duty,” Rosenwald said.
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