Maybe the problem isn’t the courts
More than 30 years ago, the City of Claremont went to court because New Hampshire’s school funding system wasn’t working for communities like theirs and ours. The resulting constitutional principles were profound: the State is responsible for providing and funding the opportunity for every child to receive an adequate education. And when property taxation is used to meet that State responsibility, it must be proportional across New Hampshire.
More than two decades later, communities had to go back to court. The ConVal lawsuit ultimately included 18 plaintiff school districts, including Claremont, Newport, Fall Mountain (which includes Charlestown) and Lebanon. In 2025, the New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed the ConVal ruling, stating that the state’s base adequacy funding was constitutionally insufficient.
Yet here we are again.
Legislation introduced at the State level to substantially increase adequacy funding has been defeated. Legislation introduced to address special education funding has been defeated. Even legislation introduced to simply study alternatives to our dependence on local property tax (to fund public schools) has been defeated. Meanwhile, some current representatives in Concord have supported efforts challenging the very Claremont constitutional requirements our communities fought to establish.
Maybe the problem isn’t the State Constitution. Maybe fixing this system requires making difficult choices about who pays. Why wouldn’t we want every New Hampshire child to receive an adequate education regardless of ZIP code? Why wouldn’t we want a funding system that doesn’t force property-poor communities to impose dramatically higher tax rates?
New Hampshire legislators make our laws. They determine our tax structure. They can devise a constitutionally valid funding system. All they need is the will to do so, not the will to dismantle New Hampshire’s long-standing public education system. After 30 years, maybe we should stop blaming the courts and start examining the records of the people we send to Concord. We need someone to advocate for us, the local taxpayer.
That’s why I am voting for Dave Trumble for the New Hampshire Senate, Dr. Larry Schissel, Jeff Kessler, Lisa Dahill Debartolomao and Tim Fitzpatrick, for the New Hampshire House Representatives.