Months after two New Hampshire courts said the Legislature must spend more on public education, lawmakers rejected efforts to do so Wednesday during their first meeting of the new session.
One bill would have increased the amount the state spends per student to nearly $7,400 and also increased the additional aid for students who receive special education services, free or reduced price lunch, and English language instruction. That failed 190 to 155 along party lines.
Another bill would have created a committee to rethink how the state funds public education in time to write the next state budget. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Walter Spillsbury, a Charlestown Republican, urged colleagues to vote against it to give the House’s Educating Funding Committee time to consider pending school funding bills.
“If we make no progress, then I think something like this would, at that time, be the right way to go,” Spillsbury said.
Other bills that lawmakers will take up this year include a renewed effort by Democrats to increase per pupil spending to about $7,400, up from the $4,100 districts receive now. A Republican bill seeks a much smaller increase of about $300.
Lawmakers are also looking at the additional aid school districts receive for special education students. Democrats have proposed giving school districts an additional $16,000 for each special education student, a significant increase over the current $2,100 districts currently receive. A Republican backed bill would send districts an additional $1,100 for each student.
Senate President Sharon Carson said during a press conference Wednesday that Senate Republicans will respond to the courts’ orders with their bill in mid-January. She declined to give specifics.
The state Supreme Court ruled in July that the state must spend more on public education to meet its constitutional obligation to provide New Hampshire students an "adequate" education. A lower court ruled in August that the state must also increase spending on special education.
Neither court gave the Legislature a deadline to increase spending or say what it must spend.