By CHARLOTTE MATHERLY
Granite State News Collaborative
Public schools are a favorite topic for politicians who often debate LGBTQ issues, parental rights, religion and the power of the First Amendment.
At its core, public education is funded by the government and local communities — and in campaign events across the state this election season, candidates and voters are questioning the current system.
The Monitor asked five candidates for governor to get down to brass tacks on whether the state contributes enough, how New Hampshire should fund its schools, and how they’d shift money around if elected. Here’s what they said:
Do NH public schools receive enough funding?
The two leading Democrats, Craig and Warmington, said no. Morse, Kiper and Ayotte said yes — with a caveat that some money needs to be shuffled around.
New Hampshire schools spend an average of $20,323 per student, which is higher than the national average, but the state is also outpaced by most of its neighbors, like Vermont and Massachusetts. The state government contributes $4,800 per student per year, which leaves the rest to be raised by local property taxes.
Several candidates referenced a lawsuit filed in 2019 by the Contoocook Valley School District that accuses New Hampshire of spending too little state money on public schools. A Rockingham County judge sided with ConVal last year and ordered the state to double its current funding. The state Supreme Court issued a stay over that order in March, effectively pausing it, which gives the state time to appeal.
Craig and Warmington said they agree with the ruling: $4,800 isn’t enough. Whether they agreed with the ruling or not, though, all candidates said New Hampshire needs to find a way to ease local property taxes that shoulder the funding of public schools.
Kiper said the average spending is high, but some communities on the lower end aren’t getting enough help. The state has enough money to go around, but it needs to be spent more equitably, he said.
Morse, while content with per-student spending, said New Hampshire needs to find a way to pay teachers more. The average starting salary for teachers in the Granite State is $42,560 last school year, according to the state Department of Education. New Hampshire’s living wage for a single adult with no children is more than $49,000.
Ayotte, whose husband is a middle-school math teacher, said she’s noticed the learning gaps that resulted from pandemic-era schooling. She’s mostly satisfied with per-pupil funding and pushed for more allocation toward teacher recruitment and retention and other areas.
“We need to certainly use it more effectively and really focus on the fundamentals, especially like the gaps we’re seeing in math and English,” Ayotte said.
What do you think of the current funding system?
New Hampshire ranks last in the U.S. for the portion of public school funding that comes from the state. Local property taxes carry the brunt of it, accounting for 60% of school districts’ revenue in 2021-22.
Democrats say it’s worth examining other funding sources — whether that’s increasing the state’s share, like Craig proposed, or nixing the controversial Education Freedom Account vouchers, an option favored by all the Democrats.
What about a tax shakeup? Kiper is the only candidate who hasn’t taken the storied “pledge,” in which governors promise not to enact any sweeping income or sales tax. He argues for progressive taxation, where tax rates are proportionate to income — he proposed an income tax on people who make over $200,000 annually or a sales tax that would apply only to items made outside the state as a way to encourage the local economy.
Ayotte and Morse both said it’s more a question of how the state can support communities laden with high taxes and rural areas that struggle to create a strong tax base. They want to target aid to help those localities.
Morse also wants to target high administrative spending. Public school enrollment in the state shrank by about 40,000 in the past 20 years while administrator pay and positions increased.
Do you support Education Freedom Accounts?
The vouchers championed by Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut are a point of contention in New Hampshire’s state legislature. Efforts to expand access to the program, which allows families to receive a stipend of thousands of dollars to send their child to non-public schools, failed earlier this year. Currently, families whose incomes fall under 350% of the federal poverty level — anything under $109,200 for a family of four, for example — are eligible for the program.
Ayotte and Morse favor the Education Freedom Accounts, saying they allow families to choose what kind of education is best for their children — whether that’s a charter school, private school or homeschooling. Both said these vouchers should be available to everyone, regardless of income level.
“The money’s following the child,” Morse said. He also said he believes the vouchers will help strengthen public schools but did not specify how.
Like her energy policy, Ayotte supports an “all of the above” approach to education because every child learns differently, she said. She stressed that Education Freedom Accounts are funded by the state, not local taxes, so it doesn’t present any extra burden on homeowners in certain localities. As governor, Ayotte said she’d work to expand eligibility for the program and would support making education freedom universal in the state.
Democrats, on the other hand, believe these vouchers are siphoning taxpayers’ money away from public schools. Kiper said he’s philosophically opposed to them for this reason and called them an “insane waste of money.” The government provides services, he said, and if someone chooses not to opt into those services, why should they be able to take that money for their own private use?
“It’s a libertarian plot, basically, to create this alternative reality in which all services are privatized,” Kiper said. He’d look to eliminate them altogether if elected. “They’re just bad.”
Craig and Warmington both said Education Freedom Accounts take government money and put it toward not just private, but religious services, which would theoretically go against the separation of church and state. Warmington said the state needs to “bring those dollars back,” and Craig counted homeschooling as a religious education.
“I support that parents should have the opportunity to choose where they send their kids to school, but I believe strongly that our public tax dollars should be going toward our public schools,” Craig said.
Warmington and Craig both said they’d look to replace Edelblut, the current commissioner, on day one in the corner office for someone who shows more support toward public education.
Would you support a universal free school meals program?
Eight U.S. states have universal free school meals programs, in which all families can opt in to free meals for their kids during school hours. This includes New Hampshire neighbors Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts. Connecticut and Rhode Island are trying to do the same. An effort to provide the same option in Granite State died in the State House last session.
Democrats said they support a universal approach to providing free meals to children in public schools. Warmington said she’s not opposed to expanding New Hampshire’s current assistance program, which currently helps families that make less than 130% of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that’s an income of $40,560. She estimates the cost of implementing a universal strategy would even out considering the administrative costs required to maintain the current program.
“We all know that kids learn better when they’re not hungry,” Warmington said, “so feed the kids.”
Republicans said they support the current program and instead of universal school meals assistance, they want to help families financially in other ways. Morse said he doesn’t want to push that service on families — he’d rather make it so they don’t need that assistance.
Ayotte wants to keep the program limited to those who actually need it.
“If families can afford the lunch piece, we should really be focusing the resources on those students who are most in need,” Ayotte said.
These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.
