By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — The superintendent of Newport schools urged lawmakers “to do right” by her students and significantly increase state spending on public education.

Donna Magoon told the House Education Funding Committee Tuesday her district suffers from low salaries that make retaining good teachers impossible, high property taxes, unfilled teaching positions and major challenges.

“Our students are not a number” or a dollar figure, Magoon said. “They are the future of our community and we must do better.”

She urged the committee to support House Bill 550, which would raise the state’s basic adequacy pre-pupil grant from $4,100 to $7,356, which is the minimum rate Superior Court Judge David Ruoff set in his decision in the ConVal School District lawsuit claiming the state had failed to pay the cost of an adequate education as required by the Supreme Court’s Claremont education decision.

Rep. David Luneau, D-Hopkinton, the prime sponsor of HB 550, said the bill also adds the “necessary specific resource elements” needed for an adequate education outlined in Ruoff’s decision siding with the plaintiffs.

They are “the costs for teachers, teacher benefits, student teacher ratios, principals, administrative assistants, school counselors, library-media specialists, technology coordinators, custodians, nurse services, instructional materials, technology, professional development, facilities operation and maintenance, and transportation,” according to the bill. 

While some are already included in statutes, others are not such as transportation, building maintenance and custodians.

The bill also would require lawmakers to use actual costs from all the state’s approved schools to determine an adequate education’s costs and to update that figure every two years.

The general court shall use evidence from actual costs from all approved schools to determine the cost of an adequate education, according to the bill.

Luneau said the formula is a one-size fits all approach that “does not take into consideration the considerable cost differentials we see across the state.”

He said the bill is one of a number of bills the committee will review that respond to the ConVal and Rand suits over the state’s education funding obligation versus the 70 percent local education property taxpayers contribute to the total cost, the state’s administration of the statewide education property tax, and whether additional funding for poverty, special education, and English language learners actually cover the costs to districts.

The package of bills will be comprehensive in nature on ways to fund schools in the state and will determine what sort of solution the committee may want to put forward, he said.

“It boils down to the fact our current school funding formula is not getting the job done for students nor for taxpayers,” Luneau said. “We need to look for a better use of state funds and something better for taxpayers.”

Committee member Rep. Dan McGuire, R-Epsom, said the bill’s fiscal note was the scariest one he had seen, over $450 million, but doesn’t say where the money would come from.

“I’m not saying we need to spend more on public schools, but the funds should be coming from a different pot.” Luneau said, “that now is coming from local property taxpayers.”
The bill suggests the state pick up a larger portion of the money raised for education, not the 24 or 25 percent it pays now.

Magoon told the committee Newport cannot compete with surrounding communities for the best teachers because its salary scale is well below what other districts offer.

She said she has 14 unfilled teaching positions, that 27 of her 83 teachers are on the alternative certification program, while half the students are on individualized education plans.

The lack of staff with the growing complexity of classrooms, increases the demand on educators who are already overworked, she said, noting some of the new teachers qualify for low-income housing.

The turnover rate for teachers is 45 to 50 percent annually in the Newport district, Magoon told the committee. 

When asked what doing right by the students means to her, Magoon said raising the per-pupil state grant to $10,000 per student, and not to add more burden on local property taxpayers.

“If we don’t educate people, where do they end up? They end up in our jails. We need to put more money into students when they are younger, so they are less expensive when they are older,” Magoon said. “Education is not an expense, it is an investment. When you fail to invest in students, you fail students and you fail society.”
The bill was backed by the state’s two largest teachers’ unions, the National Education Association — New Hampshire, and American Federation of Teachers — New Hampshire, who said it would go a long way to meeting the state’s constitutional obligations.

NEA — NH president Megan Tuttle, noted the union’s annual report on state funding ranked New Hampshire 49th in the country.

“In New Hampshire we pride ourselves at being first in the nation, not 49th,” Tuttle said. “While we appreciate the Legislature’s increase in the base adequacy and differentiated funding in the last budget, we have much more work to do to ensure every student has access to a high quality public education.”
Deb Howes, president of the AFT — NH, supported the addition to what should be included in determining the cost of an adequate education like nursing staff and building maintenance.

“On a day like today, heat is not an option,” Howes said.

“The state needs to pay more of its share so every single student in the Granite State can have access to the opportunity for the same kind of public education.”

David Trumble of Weare noted the state has a constitutional obligation to provide and pay for an adequate education for all the children in the state, as found in both the Claremont decisions and the Londonderry decision.

The ConVal school superintendent came up with a number and the state offered no evidence to refute that figure which was $10,000 per student while the judge determined a conservative $7,356, he said.

State aid at that level will have a profound effect on tens of thousands of students in the state, Trumble said, as poorer districts will be able to raise salaries and retain experienced teachers, who are needed to mentor new teachers.

Without experienced teachers, students will be impacted into the future economically and socially, and in their ability to run a democracy, Trumble said.

“It is painful to come up with the money, but it is good for the state,” he said. “It is time for the state to step up and do the right thing.”
No one spoke in opposition to the bill.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.