NH Supreme Court Recognizes State’s Failure to Invest in Our Kids
- Amplify NH
- Jul 6
- 4 min read
Long after New Hampshire educators and activists sounded the alarm about the state’s inadequate support of our state’s public education system, the New Hampshire Supreme Court has spoken out in agreement. Last week, the Court ruled that the state has been severely underfunding its public schools, not meeting its constitutional obligation to provide for an adequate education.
Let’s take a look at what this ruling will mean for New Hampshire public schools, as well as how State House leadership has reacted:
Supreme Court Calls for State to Adequately Fund Education
By a margin of 3-2, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled last week that the state was inadequately funding public education. Specifically, the ruling largely agreed with the finding of a trial court judge, who ruled in late 2023 that state-level spending on K-12 education would need to increase by at least $537 million per year.
Where it differed with the trial court ruling was how the funding would be determined. The high court reversed the trial court’s directive that the state immediately increase public school funding, instead directing Governor Kelly Ayotte and state legislators to determine how to bridge the funding gap.
“We urge the legislative and executive branches to act expeditiously to ensure that all the children in public schools in New Hampshire receive a State funded constitutionally adequate education,” Senior Associate Justice James P. Bassett wrote for the majority.
Advocates and educators applauded the Court’s ruling, including the teacher’s union, NEA of New Hampshire.
“This ruling is a long-overdue validation of what New Hampshire’s educators, parents, and students have known for decades: our public education system has been chronically underfunded, and the legislature has repeatedly failed to uphold its constitutional duty to remedy that,” said the organization’s president Megan Tuttle.
Some advocates questioned whether this ruling would undermine the insistence of Republicans in Concord that school funding is fine as is.
“Today’s ruling really puts forward the question: will New Hampshire’s political leaders keep following the big lie that school funding is sufficient?” said Andru H. Volinsky, a former executive councilor who litigated the Claremont decisions in the 1990s when the New Hampshire Supreme Court found the state is required to provide an adequate education for every student.
Ayotte, Republicans Slam Supreme Court Decision
Unsurprisingly, Governor Kelly Ayotte and State House leadership slammed the court’s ruling.
“The court reached the wrong decision today. The fact is, New Hampshire is in the top 10 in the country when it comes to funding our children’s education,” Ayotte said in a statement.
Despite Ayotte noting New Hampshire’s status in the top 10 states in terms of education spending per pupil, she neglected to mention the proportion of funds contributed by the state is the lowest in the country.
New Hampshire House Speaker Sherman Packard and Senate President Sharon Carson also slammed the ruling, implying the state’s Supreme Court was overreaching into the Legislature’s duties regarding public education funding.
“We are disappointed that the Court continues to insert itself into the Legislature’s role in determining state aid to local school districts,” said Packard and Carson in a joint statement.
Additionally, they said the decision was based on a “flawed premise that New Hampshire has a single, statewide school system, rather than a broad mix of educational options including local school districts, public charter schools, non-public schools, and home schooling, all supported by state aid programs.”
Republicans Longstanding Resistance to Adequately Fund Public Schools
This hostility from State House Republicans isn’t a surprise. They made their lack of public education prioritization clear in the new state budget, which diverts millions away from public education funding in order to fund private school voucher expansion.
“With this budget, the State continues to not adequately fund public education in New Hampshire and downshift costs to local property tax payers,” said Zack Sheehan, NH School Funding Fairness Project Executive Director. “While proponents of this budget will say that this is the most money the State has ever contributed to education, the funding going to public schools will not keep up with inflation, and millions and millions more that we could be spending on our public schools will be funneled to vouchers instead.”
Additionally, the state’s voucher program was expanded to all New Hampshire families, regardless of their income in HB 115, a bill passed last month. Before this expansion, nearly 5,300 children received payments through the Education Freedom Account program. Since the state expanded it, nearly 2,000 additional children applied for an EFA, according to Kate Baker Demers, executive director of the Children’s Scholarship Fund NH, which runs the program.
Despite Republicans’ claims in favor of these voucher programs, Democratic lawmakers, as well as many educators, have argued that the program siphons funds away from public schools, causing the state lawmakers to turn their backs on the constitutional obligation to fund a robust education for public district school students.
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Thank you,
Ryan Mahoney
Executive Director