By GLYNIS HART
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LEBANON — State Sen. Martha Hennessey (D- District 5) and state Rep. Linda Tanner (D- Sullivan County Dist. 9) joined other school funding reformers campaigning across the state Monday to support three bills to change education funding. Hennessey and Tanner spoke in front of city hall at a midday event and the Eagle Times reached both legislators by phone after the event.
The three bills — numbered 177, 184 and 511— passed the House in the last week of February, and supporters believe they will be approved in the Senate, arriving on the governor’s desk in June. Gov. Chris Sununu is not a supporter of any of the legislation and may veto all of them.
According to Gov. Sununu’s website, his budget includes an increase of 20 percent for special education, $63 million to municipalities for targeted building aid, $250,000 to pay students’ AP exam fees, and increases in tuition and transportation aid for career and tech education. His budget does not include changes to regular per-pupil spending.
However, Tanner said, “The governor’s budget failed to give any meaningful increases to education funding.”
Hennessey said the governor’s special education funding still doesn’t cover the bills.
“He has some money for special education,” said Hennessey. “The problem is it doesn’t fully fund it. I believe it’s the responsibility of our state to take care of those most in need.
“The public schools only have two places to go,” she continued. “They either have to find the money somewhere else, or decrease services.”
Critics of the governor’s budget say it flat-lines regular education aid. House Bill (HB) 177 would restore stabilization aid to 2016 levels, reducing what has been a clawback of state funds to property-poor school districts. Stabilization aid has been reduced by 4 percent every year since 2016.
HB 511 would establish an independent commission to study education funding in the state, which is based on property taxes. According to advocates of reform, the current formula starves districts like those in Sullivan County of funding because they have a limited property tax base. The third bill, HB 184, increases funding for kindergarten and removes the state’s reliance on Keno to pay for it. Keno, an electronic version of Bingo, contributed about $1.5 million to kindergarten funding last year.
“When Keno was first introduced, I voted against it, even though I’ve been an advocate of full-day kindergarten.” said Hennessey. “Recent studies show that full-day kindergarten makes a huge difference to children, but attaching kindergarten to gambling is gambling with our children’s future. This bill will in fact fully fund kindergarten for all; the governor has only partially funded it by going for Keno-garten.”
Although none of the bills passed with a veto-proof majority, it’s unclear whether the governor will veto them.
“These bills were bipartisan,” said Tanner. “Those are our big three priorities. We think we can at least put a stop-gap measure on school funding right now.
“We just want to make sure Sununu knows the ball’s in his court and the pressure is on him to support education,” she said.
Tanner said the schools have been working with reduced budgets for over a decade, with one factor the rising cost of benefits to teachers and staff. “The state has gone from funding 35 percent of teachers’, police’ and firefighters’ retirement down to zero. They’ve cut building aid for the last four or five years.
“It’s all been downshifted by the state to local communities,” said Tanner. She added that college students in New Hampshire’s state schools pay the highest tuition in the country and graduate with the highest debt.
Sununu’s budget includes a loan assistance program for graduates, but gives the state colleges the same amount of money as last year.
Tanner said that the independent commission to study the state’s education funding would include an appointee of the governor’s, but its independence is critical. “He doesn’t want to pay for an independent commission,” she said.
The bill includes an estimated cost for such a commission of $500,000. The commission would include six members of the public, four members of the House and two members of the Senate. It would empower them to hire staff with “an understanding of school finance options” and require an interim report after nine months, with a final report due Sept. 1, 2020.
“If the commission starts right away it could be two years before we see results,” said Tanner. “These interim steps should carry them through.”
None of the bills has a veto-proof majority. “They don’t agree on the money,” said Tanner, “that’s a hard issue. School funding is more difficult to sell than the [repeal of the] death penalty.
“There’s a certain faction,” she continued, “that feel public education is government schools and they want to get as many kids as possible out of public schools. They really don’t want a broad-based tax to support public education.”
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