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K-12 Funding 2000-2017

The State's 'adequacy funding' for K-12 education has declined over the past 17 years, once you adjust for inflation, even taking into account declining enrollment.  If K-12 funding had kept pace with inflation and the student population, it would have been almost $100 million higher.  What the State does not fund goes onto the property tax.

The State provides base funding of about $3600 per child. The average cost per student in NH schools is a little over $15,000.  The $3600 does not pass the 'straight face' test.  Is it laughably small, and we know this because the State provides over $7,000 per child to the charter schools--because they couldn't survive on what the State provides to the public schools.

The decline in State K-12 funding has left the property-poor towns as bad off as they were before they sued the State.  New Hampshire remains a place where poor towns have poorly-funded schools.  This is not just unfair, this is not just unconstitutional, it is also very short-sighted.  Our success as an economy and as a society depends upon well-educated citizens.  The State should do the right thing and properly fund K-12 education--before it is sued again.