HB1815 disregards ConVal ruling
This month, the New Hampshire Senate will hear HB 1815. If approved it could soon be sent to the governor to sign. HB 1815 and its sister bill SB 659 show exactly how the state is responding to the education funding crisis and the recent ConVal ruling.
The response appears to be simple: Ignore it.
Over the past 30 years the New Hampshire Supreme Court has ruled four times that the state has the responsibility to fund an adequate education. Some legislators clearly disagree. Apparently they believe they understand the Constitution better than the people who wear the black robes.
But even if legislators disagree with those rulings, why are they not listening to their own constituents?
Eighteen school districts brought the ConVal case. Communities like Claremont, Newport, Charlestown, and Lebanon represent places where property taxpayers are struggling under higher than average local school tax rates and in some cases the highest in the state. These districts educate roughly sixty percent of New Hampshire’s public school students.
The message from those communities is clear. The current system of funding education is structurally flawed.
Today the state pays roughly 30 percent of the cost of education while local property taxpayers cover the remaining 70 percent. The state and federal governments still dictate many of the spending requirements, but the bill is sent to local communities.
If HB 1815 becomes law it tells those taxpayers the system will stay exactly as it is today as more costs, as we have already seen, are shifted from the state to local property taxpayers.
For families and seniors struggling to afford their homes and for students in these districts, the message from Concord is clear. The system may be broken, but the legislature intends to leave it that way.