Governor Ayotte Wants to Keep Schools Substandard and Property Taxes High
Just calling out the facts.
Governor Kelly Ayotte defended the state of NH against the school districts who brought the Londonderry school funding suit in the early 2000s. Londonderry was a follow-on to the 1997 Claremont II case that resulted in another condemnation of NH’s school funding system. The Claremont school district plaintiffs were the poorest in the state. The Londonderry school districts had average wealth. They realized the failure of political leadership would soon affect them.
Of course, the Londonderry middle-wealth districts were right to worry. In a system so heavily based on property taxes, property wealth is everything. If a community lacks property wealth, you know the tax man is coming and he will be unforgiving.
Here’s a table with the ten worst or poorest communities as far as property wealth is concerned. The average wealth of the communities is half the state’s property average and their average tax rates for education top the state’s average by $4.00/1000. On a $300,000 house, that means they pay $1200 more for education taxes than the average owner of a $300,000 house and their children attend some of the poorest performing schools in the state. The comparison to the Portsmouth, Moultonborough and Waterville Valley communities is even worse. The folks in these ten worst communities pay $7.00/1000 more or $2100 more on a $300,000 house while the wealthy communities spend thousands of dollars more per student.
Four of the communities have found their budgets off by millions of dollars. That’s the Merrimack Valley School District which includes Boscawen and Penacook. That’s also Pittsfield and Claremont.
Here’s a photo of school funding in Claremont last week. Thanks Tom C.
The data for Manchester, Derry and Rochester is at the bottom of the table. These three large communities are not among the ten worst, but they’re not much better. They struggle with low property values. Manchester also self-inflicts its wounds with a tax cap that keeps taxes low resulting in Manchester having the lowest per pupil spending in the state, and it shows. The spending per pupil difference between Manchester and Portsmouth is $7,754 per pupil. Portsmouth’s average teacher salary is $89,817. Manchester’s average is $25,000 less. Portsmouth has only 16 percent of its kids living in poverty while Manchester has 55 percent living in poverty. Manchester needs more resources than Portsmouth. Assessment scores place Portsmouth in the top quarter of schools in the state in English, math and science. Manchester’s assessments are in the bottom quarter in all three subjects.
Get your head out of the sand, Manchester. Your kids, taxpayers, employers, and employees deserve better.
When political leaders look for support, they should understand that the majority of school children in the state live in communities with below average property values. Think of it. Derry, Rochester, Manchester, Nashua all have below average property values. There are votes here, if anyone is willing to make the case.
Chart
School District-Standing-# of Students-Equalized Prop Val/Student- Educ Tax Rate
Given her prior work against school funding fairness, it is no wonder that Governor Ayotte has done nothing to address the NH Supreme Court’s decision in the ConVal case and the trial court’s decision in the Rand case. Ayotte rejects the idea of a common good that recognizes school funding as a state responsibility under Part 2, Article 83 of the NH Constitution. Ayotte’s bias in favor of vouchers and private schools is also why she’s informed the insolvent Claremont School District that it is on its own.
Bryan Gould Nominated for Associate Justice
It’s also no wonder that Ayotte nominated her own campaign lawyer to an open seat on the NH Supreme Court with an express mission of taking out the Claremont principles. These simple principles provide that all children deserve a basic quality education and that the state must pay for this education with taxes that are fair and uniform across the state.
Really offensive, huh?
As the NH Journal put it, “This pick is about one case, and one case only: Claremont… Gould is a torpedo pointed right at the Claremont decision.”
Torpedoing education policy won’t be Gould’s only mission. He is avowedly anti-environment. Gould has spent decades representing and lobbying on behalf of Casella Waste. Waste dumps are his thing. Environmentalists, those who don’t want dump sites built near beautiful lakes and Granite Staters who don’t support processing dangerous construction waste from Massachusetts better be wary of this nomination.
Of course, all the good Republicans will rally ‘round Gould. Just think of the benefits of testifying for a good Republican nominee’s confirmation.
The State seeks reconsideration of their loss in the Rand case.
In its motion for reconsideration, the State has nothing to say about the judge’s twenty-three pages of detailed factual findings made after the two-week trial in this case. Not a single finding is contested. This includes the factual finding that school districts cannot fund a constitutionally adequate education on twice the state’s financial contribution to adequacy. It also includes the fact that the state introduced not a “scintilla” of evidence to support the state’s contribution levels.
Instead, the motion returns to the State’s old and baseless argument about legal standing as an escape route for avoiding its constitutional responsibilities to the students and taxpayers of New Hampshire. In the remaining sections of its motion, the State completely distorts the central holdings of Claremont II about the nature of taxes used to meet the State’s constitutional duty to provide an adequate education. They are undoubtedly state taxes and, as such, must be uniform across the state.
In his “Order on the Merits,” Judge Ruoff explained in detail his conclusion that the plaintiff property owners and taxpayers suffer “concrete, personal injuries” because the State’s chronic failure to pay for a constitutionally adequate education forces their local school districts to use nominally “local” education property taxes to fill in the gap between the cost of an adequate education and the level of funds the State actually provides. The judge pointed out the significant difference between the tax rates imposed in the communities where the plaintiffs reside and the rates in nearby property-wealthy towns, which can afford to spend more per pupil than the plaintiffs’ towns, while keeping tax rates lower.
Thanks for the insights, John T.
Money in Politics and Speaking the Truth.
Bernie Sanders challenged the influence of money in politics at Monday’s Labor Day breakfast in Manchester, NH. He called out the Republicans who fear and worship the oligarchs who control our work, our news and our entertainment. He also challenged Democrats who don’t offer solutions and who fear the influence of spending against them. He cited the example of AIPAC, the American-Israel PAC. Jeanne Shaheen called out the candidates who complain about lackluster Democratic leadership and didn’t mention the corrosive influence of money in politics.
Bernie was right.
Thank you for the work on this, Andy. Similar un-wieldy and unsustainable education funding systems exist all over this country, supported or enabled by politicians who not only exacerbate the problem by ignoring court orders and their state constitutions, but also by siphoning off meager resources to fund religious and other private schools. In Ohio, it’s gotten so bad that a radical anti-property tax referendum is potentially on the ballot in the midterms. Terrible response that would devastate communities, but coming from an emotional reaction called “enough is enough!”
Thank you for shining a light!
Lots of money and fancy homes have moved into Brookline.