Gubernatorial candidates sharply divided over school funding lawsuits

New Hampshire gubernatorial candidates (seated from left) Chuck Morse, a Republican, Cinde Warmington, a Democrat, and Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, at a gubernatorial forum hosted by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), on June 20, 2024. Democrat Joyce Craig did not attend the debate. (Ethan DeWitt | New Hampshire Bulletin)

Last year, a superior court judge delivered a jolt to the state’s education system: He ruled that New Hampshire should be paying nearly twice what it currently does per student. This year, the question is dividing the race to succeed Gov. Chris Sununu.

Republican candidates have denounced the ruling and urged the Supreme Court to overturn it; Democrats have hailed it as an acknowledgement that the state is underfunding its schools.

Speaking at a candidate forum hosted by the National Federation of Independent Business of New Hampshire (NFIB), Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington appeared supportive of the November ruling. And she criticized Sununu for allowing Attorney General John Formella to appeal it.

“We need to have a bipartisan discussion around what we are going to do about school funding in our state. And unfortunately, this administration opted to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court, and so we’re not having that discussion right now,” Warmington said.

“That problem is only going to be solved when we all sit down and talk to each other.”

In his ruling in Contoocook Valley School District et al v. State of New Hampshire , Judge David Ruoff held that the state’s annual, per-pupil funding given to school districts is too low and that the state was not meeting its constitutional requirement to provide an adequate education. Currently, the state distributes at least $4,100 per year per student to public school districts, with more given to students from lower incomes, students who need special education services, English language learners, and others. But school districts argued that that amount is too low for them to cover the basic expenses needed to provide an “adequate” education.

In his November ruling, Ruoff agreed with plaintiffs, holding that the state must pay school districts no less than $7,356.01 per student, a number he ruled reflected the actual cost of teacher pay, building and program costs, and other expenses for those districts to provide an adequate education. That increase would require New Hampshire to spend about $537.6 million more per year than it does, a more than 50 percent increase of current spending.

The state has challenged the decision, which has been stayed as it is appealed to the state Supreme Court, and Republican lawmakers have spoken against it. After the ruling came out last year, Sununu called it “deeply concerning and an overreach into a decades-long precedent appropriately placed in the hands of our elected representatives in Concord.”

Warmington disagrees, as does another Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig. Craig was not at the debate Thursday. But in an interview with the Bulletin in July 2023, Craig said she supported the lawsuits.

“Manchester is part of that lawsuit,” Craig said, referring to the fact that Manchester School District is a co-plaintiff in the school funding lawsuit. “I feel strongly that we – all of us, the state – need to make sure that students within our state have an education no matter where they live. It’s a basic need.”

But Republicans running for governor opposed the ruling, arguing it was an inappropriate move by the judge to dictate to the Legislature a direct funding decision.

“I certainly think it would be wrong for us in the Legislature to react to a non-elected official, a judge, that said a number that he didn’t even know if it would work for the state of New Hampshire,” said former state Senate President Chuck Morse, speaking at the forum. “He just threw it out. That’s not the way to govern.”

Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte said she disagreed with Ruoff that the state needs to increase education spending by so much.

“I don’t believe that that model of what’s going up to the Supreme Court right now is the correct model,” she said. “And I hope that the Supreme Court will see it that way.”

The comments illustrate deep divides between Republican and Democratic candidates around school funding. Ayotte and Morse have praised school choice initiatives that provide alternatives to public schools, such as the education freedom account program and charter schools, and argue that public schools already receive enough funding. Warmington and Craig have opposed the education freedom account program and argued that public school districts are struggling to operate under current funding levels.

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