Latest school funding challenge in NH headed to trial

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an attempt by the state to dismiss the latest challenge in a decades-long debate over how to fund public schools, setting the case up for a trial to give school districts a chance to show how they need more financial resources.

In several landmark rulings in the 1990s, the court ruled that the state is required to provide and pay for an “adequate” education.

In response, the Legislature began sending each school district a set amount of aid per pupil — currently $3,636 — but four districts in southwestern New Hampshire sued the state and the education commissioner in 2019, arguing the formula used to set that amount is unconstitutional because it doesn’t account for the real costs of transportation, teachers or facilities.

A judge agreed but declined to order the amount be nearly tripled as the plaintiffs requested, prompting both sides to appeal to the high court.

In addition to rejecting the state’s call for dismissal, the court also reversed the judge’s order saying the current funding method is unconstitutional as applied to the schools. The court said the judge was wrong to use information that came from legislative history and analysis in arriving at that decision.

The court also took note of the state’s argument that the source of information the school districts used in the case didn’t distinguish between costs necessary to deliver an adequate education and costs that fall outside of that.

“Although determining the components of an adequate education and their costs presents a mixed question of law and fact, as the parties’ briefs make clear, the underlying facts are vigorously disputed,” the court wrote.

The superintendents of the ConVal, Monadnock, Mascenic and Winchester school districts, in a joint statement, said they are “heartened” by the ruling.

“Education costs $18,000 per student on average. No one could reasonably argue that $3,636 per student will provide an adequate education,” they said.

“The Legislature, though under court order to repair its funding formula, has not done so,” they added. “This has shifted responsibility for education funding to the communities, whose residents have had to decide between education funding and rising property taxes. Inequities in taxation and funding now stretch across the state.”

Last year, a commission created by the Legislature concluded that the state should replace its current formula with one based on student outcomes such as assessment scores and graduation rates.

“Legislative efforts to improve public education should be measured by meaningful improvements in student equity and the taxpayer equity that follows it,” state Rep. Dave Luneau, D-Hopkinton, said in a statement. “The clock has started for the state to replace the antiquated one-size-fits-all funding model and make sure every school district has access to the financial resources they need.”

Gov. Chris Sununu said the ruling “affirms that this is an issue that belongs in the Legislature and not in legal limbo.”