State lawmakers heard an earful from constituents, advocates and local officials denouncing the state’s current school funding formula and Education Freedom Accounts this week.

At a five-hour public hearing on New Hampshire’s next state budget, a line of people told their representatives that they want the Legislature to put more money toward local schools in hopes of relieving property taxes. Around 240 local elected officials signed a letter asking lawmakers to do something about state education aid, organized by the NH School Funding Fairness Project. The letter is signed by people representing more than 67 school districts and 88 towns.

In Franklin, for example, school board chair Liz Cote said the state provides only 36.4% of the city’s total cost of an adequate education. Despite trying to be creative and “agile,” she said the city’s low property values put it at a disproportionate disadvantage compared to other towns. Because Franklin doesn’t have enough money from the state and can’t raise enough through property taxes, Cote said the school district often relies on inconsistent and uncertain grant funding to supplement its general fund.

“Anything less than enforcement of the state court-prescribed definition of fair and adequate funding is a willful attempt to undermine the public schools, especially in communities like Franklin, until they no longer exist,” Cote said, surrounded by hundreds of others who’d come to testify in Representatives Hall. “Our students deserve better than that.”

Rep. Ken Weyler, who chairs the House Finance Committee, said he’d heard enough around an hour in. He asked members of the public not to be “repetitious.”

“It seems like we’ve heard a lot about school funding – more than we really need to know,” Weyler said. “We know that it’s a problem. We don’t need to hear it 50 times.”

Those waiting to speak, however, weren’t swayed and continued to bring up the issue.

“I support an adequately funded public school system and I’m opposed to the EFA,” said Laura LaValley, who lives in Meredith. “I apologize, I know you’ve heard it. I would ask, are you listening? Have you listened to us? Have you listened to all of these people?”

Her response was met with applause from the crowd.

Though education took the front seat, people from across the state also came to ask lawmakers to fund childcare programs, services for people with disabilities, Medicaid and mental health resources.

Ana Byers, the administrator at Concord’s East Side Learning Center, urged the state to fund a $15 million childcare workforce grant. She said previous allocations have helped subsidize the daycare’s personnel costs, meaning they don’t have to charge families the full operating cost.

“The way childcare is set up in this country, it’s imperfect. The entire burden rests on the families that need it, but everybody … benefits from childcare. Without it, we wouldn’t have a workforce,” Byers said. “Without this grant, childcare becomes more and more inaccessible to families that desperately need it … Without this grant, we are unable to retain and recruit staff.”

Andrew Long and his mom, Tracy Long, from Alton, were part of a large group that showed up wearing pink to advocate for disability services. Some also sported stickers that read, “People can’t wait.”

Andrew, 31, said state services help him live his life by getting him to his job, as well as his volunteer shifts at the fire station and Humane Society.

“I don’t know what I would be doing without it. I would be stuck home alone, and I don’t think that’s what you want for people like me, to be stuck at home and not be able to be out in the community, not be able to live our lives fully,” Andrew said. “It’s essential to our existence that the proposed budget is fully funded.”

 

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.