In New Hampshire, An Attempt To Overturn A Landmark School Funding Decision
From Forbes.com
Last year, Pennsylvania joined the roster of states under a court ordered by the court to get their school funding house in order. In 2021, a North Carolina judge ordered the state to fix funding inequity with $1,75 billion of additional monies. In 2012, the court ruled that Washington was not adequately funding its schools. Other states have faced similar court challenges to their school funding, some successful and some not.
But even when these lawsuits succeed, legislatures can have a long and difficult time meeting the court demands. Finding the political will to meet the requirements over decades can be challenging.
An early landmark case of this sort was Claremont School District v. Governor of News Hampshire. The case bounced around the courts for most of the 90s until the court finally declared that the state’s funding system was unconstitutional, leaving poorer districts struggling with inadequate funding. Ruled the court:
While the State may delegate its obligation to provide a constitutionally adequate public education to local school districts, it may not do so in a form underscored by unreasonable and inequitable tax burdens.
Thirty years after the case was launched, the state failed to fix the system, with the results so unsatisfactory that New Hampshire’s school funding was declared unconstitutional again last year.
That second ruling came from Contoocook Valley School District v. The State of New Hampshire, and the State Supreme Court has issued a stay based on the argument that the $537,6 million price tag would cause the state to “suffer irreparable harm.”
Contoocook has been appealed, and in an amicus brief filed with the State Supreme Court, Republican legislators have proposed a simple solution—throw out the original Claremont decision.