Story Archives of 'Education Funding'

Governor John Lynch has allowed the state’s latest education plan to become law without his signature.

He let it pass so the state could meet a court-imposed deadline to determine the cost an adequate education.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports.

Amendment has the backing of Governor Lynch and legislative leaders in both parties, but it also has many opponents, including the teachers union, many house conservatives, and the Democratic chairs of a half-dozen House committees.

When it comes to ed funding, the legislature has arrived at where poet Robert Frost did - with “two roads diverging in the woods.” One path involves a Supreme Court deadline and reworking the current funding system; the other, a constitutional change backed by the Governor. We’ll talk about which path lawmakers may choose and why we still haven't found a way to fund education in the state.

Guests

• Josh Rogers, NHPR's Statehouse reporter
• Steve Norton, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies

We'll also hear from

• David Hess, Republican State Representative from Hooksett
• Joe Foster, New Hampshire Senate Majority Leader
• Randy Foose, Democratic State Representative from New London

State Senate Democrats want to add more money to the 914 million dollar school funding plan they unveiled last week. Their revised proposal, which earmarks millions more for poorer towns, mostly drew praise at its first public hearing.

But as New Hampshire Public Radio's Josh Rogers reports, some questions persist. Prime among them is: where will the money come from?

A joint legislative committee charged with costing out an adequate education has finally arrived at a set of principles for funding education in New Hampshire. The group agrees money be sent to the school level instead of the district and that all schools should receive a universal amount of funding - $3,500 per pupil. Where they don’t agree is on how much money beyond the base amount should go towards those students on free and reduced lunch. We’ll take a look at how we got here, what the specifics of the legislative plan are and what happens next.

Guests

• Iris Estabrook, Democratic Senator from Durham, Vice-President for Policy, Chair of the Education Committee and member of the Joint Legislative Committee on Adequacy
• David Hess, Republican Representative from Hooksett, member of the Education Committee and and member of the Joint Legislative Committee on Adequacy