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Education Funding and Constitutional Amendment

CACR 12: House Speaker O'Brien's proposed amendment received a favorable vote (255-113), surpassing the needed legislative majority of 3/5, and now goes to the Senate for consideration.  The proposed amendment gives the general court "full discretion to define reasonable standards for elementary and secondary public education, to establish reasonable standards of accountability therefore, and to mitigate local disparities in educational opportunity and fiscal capacity. Further, in the exercise thereof, the general court shall have full discretion to determine the amount of, and methods of raising and distributing, state funding for education."

ACTION ITEM

Contact your senator and voice your opposition to this proposal.  Specifically share NHSBA's resolution that opposes any effort to amend the constitution in such a way that is contrary to the current interpretation of, and court rulings in, both the Claremont and Londonderry decisions.  Local implementation of education programs comes within parameters established both by law and rulemaking.  The state is a partner in this venture, and adequate education funding plays an integral role in the support and delivery of education to our children.

Targeting aid is already legal and has been included in our recent formulas.  The only need for an amendment is to provide 'Targeting' in place of the current base commitment to ALL children, thereby implying that some children in NH are not entitled to a state basic commitment of an adequate education.  The proposal seeks to allow providing aid to certain communities at the expense of other, less "needy", communities.  While a few outliers of towns in our state may be given as examples of high income and/or low property taxes, the simple fact is that the bulk of our communities are not wealthy towns.  Different measures of wealth (property wealth, income wealth, percent of students at-risk, etc.) simply result in different rankings: it is only a relative position on a continuum.  Average wealth districts will experience uncertainty resulting from not knowing one year to the next whether they "fall off" the funding continuum or remain as a receiver of needed state aid.  The reality is that the majority of districts in our state rely on state funding to help implement the educational programs offered within their schools.  Significantly reducing the amount of aid directed to these communities will place significant strain on the local property tax, if those lost revenues are indeed replaced.  If not replaced but followed by budget cuts, losses and reductions in educational programs will lead to fewer educational opportunities for our youth.

CACR 14, in the Senate, has a public hearing on Tuesday, March 22 at 1:30 before the Senate Internal Affairs Committee.  This proposal also allows for "reasonable standards", to mitigate disparities, and full discretion to determine the amount and distribution of state funding for education.

Adequate Education Funding Formula

HB 337 was adopted on a 247-86 vote in the House.  The bill: 1) level funds Adequacy Grants at current funding levels with a hold harmless provision, but allows for possible future increases in aid based on changes in student population, 2) replaces the Free/Reduced Meal targeted aid provision to a flat $1,725 grant per eligible student IF attending a school with at least 12% of the student population eligible for Free/Reduced meals, 3) modifies several provisions of how the base cost of adequacy is determined biennially, such as using beginning salaries for teachers, staff and administrators with no experience, and 4) eliminates donor town provisions.  Compared to current law, with total Adequacy scheduled to increase to $1 billion with $665 million in grants to districts after allowance for $363 million in statewide property tax revenue, HB 337 has a total cost of $746 million with $418 million in grants to districts.

SB 183 was already adopted by the Senate and is now in the House Special Committee on Education Funding Reform.  No date has yet been set for a hearing. This bill sets the amount of differentiated aid at $1,725 for each pupil eligible for the free or reduced-price meal program, maintains the $675/pupil for English language learners and $1,856 for special education pupils, provides an additional $675 for each third grade pupil who has not tested at the proficient level or above in the reading component of the state assessment and who is not eligible to receive the current special education, English as a second language, or free or reduced-price meal program funds.  A "hold harmless" provision is contained in a stabilization grant to certain municipalities in fiscal year 2012 equal to the decrease from the municipality's fiscal year 2011 total education grant, and provides that a municipality shall continue to receive this stabilization grant in fiscal year 2013 and each fiscal year thereafter.  Beginning July 1, 2013, provision is allowed for grants to increase by up to 5.5% percent over the previous fiscal year.  The bill also repeals the statutory provisions requiring that excess education tax payments be remitted to the department of revenue administration thereby permitting municipalities to retain any excess education tax revenues.  Compared to current law, with total Adequacy scheduled to increase to $1 billion with $665 million in grants to districts after allowance for $363 million in statewide property tax revenue, SB 183 has a total cost of $787 million with $446 million in grants to districts.

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Pension Reform

ACTION ITEM

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Status of Bills Update

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State Budget

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