New Hampshire School Boards Association

Legislative Bulletin

February 3, 2012 

A Brief Summary of Education Issues at the State House  

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 Constitutional Amendment

CACR 12, a constitutional amendment on education funding, was amended in the Senate Internal Affairs Committee and is recommended OTP/A (Ought to Pass as Amended) for next Wednesday's Senate session. The bill proposes that the legislature shall have the full power and authority and the responsibility to define standards for public education, establish standards of accountability, mitigate local disparities in educational opportunity and fiscal capacity, and have full power and authority to determine the amount of state funding for public education.

ACTION ITEM

Contact your senator and urge their 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. School board members struggle daily with the oversight of implementing education programs for our children in public schools. This oversight comes within parameters established both by law and rulemaking, with minimum standards in such areas as curriculum and length of school year. 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.

Most constitutional amendment supporters claim there is a need to "target" state aid. However, "Targeting" is already legal and has been included in our recent Adequacy formulas. The only need for a Constitutional 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.

Many of our middle tier communities have been here before, and have experienced the uncertainty that can result 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.

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State Board of Education: Rulemaking

HB 1360, exempting the state board of education from current rulemaking procedures and requiring instead submission of proposed rules to the House and Senate education committees for approval, was adopted by the House this week. The bill requires that proposals submitted to the legislative committees shall include the specific statutory reference authorizing the proposed rule as well as an explanation of the purpose and how it will comply with the statute authorizing it. Proposed rules shall only be approved by a majority vote of each committee, and upon approval, may be implemented by the state board of education. The bill also requires the House and Senate Education Committees to review all state board of education rules and submit a report with recommendations. The bill has been referred to the Executive Depts and Administration Committee for further review.

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Authorizing the Retention of Funds by a School District - NHSBA Priority Bill

SB 373 authorizes a school district to retain funds for emergency expenditures. The bill enables districts to adopt an article authorizing, indefinitely until specific rescission, the retention of any year-end unassigned fund balance up to a maximum of 2.5 percent of the net assessment. These funds may be used as a revenue source for emergency expenditures and overexpenditures under RSA 32:11, or to be used as a revenue source to reduce the tax rate. This bill reflects a specific resolution adopted by the NHSBA Delegate Assembly last January. Following this week's public hearing, the Senate Education Committee continues to review and consider the bill.

ACTION ITEM

Please contact  your senator as well as members of the  Senate Education Committee (Chairman, Senator Nancy Stiles; Vice Chair, Senator James Forsythe; also Senators Sharon Carson, Molly Kelly, and Russell Prescott), expressing your support for this bill. Such a provision, once approved by the local legislative body, will allow a revenue source for emergency expenditures, as well as the ability to smooth out variations in local property taxes when responding to reductions in state and/or federal revenue.

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Withdrawal from SAUs and AREA agreements

HB 1566 makes various changes to the procedure for school district withdrawal from a school administrative unit or authorized regional enrollment area school. The bill is the exact same proposal as submitted last year in HB 369, which passed the House but was not favorably received by the Senate Education Committee, and ultimately died on the Senate table. The bill changes the requirement for a fiscal impact analysis to only apply to the withdrawing district, ignoring the impact on remaining districts, and provision of superintendent services would no longer be required. The House Education Committee has recommended passage of the bill.

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Building Aid Update

The issue of Building Aid is addressed by several bills currently under consideration:

HB 533 was introduced last year and retained by the House Special Committee on Education Funding Reform. An amended version was adopted in January and the bill was referred to Finance for further review. The bill caps annual building aid grants at $50 million and proposes up-front funding at 30% of the cost, also requiring detailed maintenance plans for any facility constructed with state money. In addition, a process for the Dept. of Education to prioritize building project proposals is established.

HB 604 was introduced last year and retained by the House Education Committee. A proposed committee amendment creating a process for developing a ranking system for building project proposals has yet to be acted on by the House.

SB 383 has been introduced in Senate Education, also amending the procedure for the approval of school building aid projects and the distribution of school building aid grants. It excludes SAU office facilities from eligibility and bases all future building aid grants on the "alternative" formula (using median family income and equalized valuation per pupil) providing 20-80% of the principal. The state would make an initial grant equal to 50% of the eligible amount upon approval of the application, and a final grant for the balance upon completion of construction. A public hearing has not yet been scheduled.

HB 1199 had a public hearing Thursday in the House Education Committee. The bill stipulates that school districts may vote on and approve building projects but shall not receive building aid until such aid becomes available. The commissioner of education will develop a list of all projects approved by school districts and disburse grants in the order of priority established once such grants become available.

HB 1564 has a public hearing scheduled Friday in the House Special Committee on Education Funding Reform. The bill proposes a committee to study and recommend solutions for simplifying the calculation of the cost of public education through the combination of adequate education, school building aid, and catastrophic aid funding.

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Budget Committees

HB 1175 makes the school board member of a cooperative school district budget committee a non-voting member. During testimony, it was clear that many legislators do not understand the "separate and independent" local political subdivision that a cooperative school district creates and represents. Having a member represent the school district, and likely have more knowledge of school district operations, is of value to the budget committee deliberations. The bill remains in the House Education Committee.

HB 1279 goes a step further, and applies to all governing bodies, requiring members of budget committees who are members of the governing bodies, school boards, or village districts to serve as non-voting members of such budget committees. The bill remains in the House Municipal and County Government Committee.

HB 1376 stipulates that for SB 2 (official ballot) communities with a budget committee, the recommendation of the budget committee made for the first (deliberative) session of the meeting shall be the amount appropriated. The bill remains in the House Municipal and County Government Committee.

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House to Vote next Wednesday on Proposals to Withdraw from Federal Programs/NCLB

HB 1413, directing New Hampshire to withdraw from the No Child Left Behind Act, was recommended Ought to Pass by the House Education Committee on a 12-4 vote. This bill provides that effective July 1, 2012, the state of New Hampshire shall cease its compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

HB 1517, prohibiting the state and any political subdivision from entering any agreement implementing any provision of the No Child Left Behind Act without prior approval of the general court, was recommended Ought to Pass by the House Education Committee on a 14-3 vote. The bill declares that all agreements, contracts, and memoranda of understanding involving the state board of education and the federal government regarding ESEA and its successor, NCLB, are terminated. It also requires any future agreements, contracts, or memoranda of understanding entered into by NH and the US government regarding any aspect of early childhood, elementary, or secondary education to be approved by an act of the general court.