New Hampshire taxpayers will not yet have to pay a $537 million education spending bill because the New Hampshire Supreme Court has put its decision in the ConVal case on hold.
In a unanimous decision issued Wednesday, the Supreme Court put on hold Rockingham Superior Court Judge David Ruoff's November order increasing the state's per-pupil spending to at least $7,300. Ruoff earlier this year denied a motion to put the decision on hold pending appeal.
Gov. Chris Sununu called Ruoff's sentence excessive and praised the decision to suspend it.
“Today, the Supreme Court rightly suspended a single judge's attempt to usurp the powers and prerogatives of both the legislative and executive branches,” Sununu said. “We appreciate the Supreme Court's action in suspending a decision that clearly went too far.”
Senate President Jeb Bradley (R-Wolfboro) said Ruoff's order would devastate the state's finances, hurt low-income communities and ultimately reduce income and sales taxes to Granite State residents. It is said that it will be imposed.
“This decision could mean a $500 million increase in spending for New Hampshire taxpayers and limit the Legislature’s ability to target special education assistance to local school districts that need it. “The Claremont School Funding Lawsuit could lead to reductions in school funding for all of the original towns that filed the lawsuit,” Bradley said in a statement. “I'm optimistic that the Supreme Court will recognize that these huge financial decisions are in the hands of New Hampshire's elected representatives and senators.”
Lawmakers are seeking affordable funding solutions, and House Speaker Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry) said the Supreme Court's stay will give both chambers time to continue their work.
“We hope that the Supreme Court will take a different view on this issue than the lower courts, reducing the burden on taxpayers. This stay will give Congress more time to further analyze the situation. It's going to give us more time,” Packard said.
The Peterborough-based Contoocook Valley Regional School District filed a lawsuit in 2019, arguing that the $3,600 per student state education subsidy was far below actual costs and therefore unconstitutional. ConVal and the dozens of school districts that joined the lawsuit sought her nearly $10,000 per student in aid.
Ruoff initially refused to set an amount, leaving it up to lawmakers when he determined the state was violating the constitutional right to an adequate education. But a subsequent appeal to the state Supreme Court resulted in a 2021 order that forced Ruoff to come up with the numbers.
Since the ConVal lawsuit was filed, lawmakers and Sununu have increased the subsidy to $4,100 per student, but Ruoff ruled that the amount remains unconstitutional. Mr. Ruoff's decision acknowledged that it was up to Congress to determine the funding, but it could not be lower than the amount he set.
“239 years after fundamental rights were ratified in the Constitution, what is the basic cost of providing adequate educational opportunities? Simply put, Congress should have the final say. But the cost of basic adequacy could be more than $7,356.01 per student per year, and the actual cost is probably much higher. “This represents an increase of $537,555,970.95 in Basic Adequacy Grants,” Ruoff wrote.
New Hampshire's legal battle over the “adequacy” of state spending on education is unrelated to another hot political issue: TEven as student numbers decline, taxpayers are already paying for increased education costs.
The total cost of education in New Hampshire averages more than $20,000 per student, including what is paid through local property taxes. This is an increase from total spending per student of about $11,000 in 2000. During the same period, the state's student population decreased by more than 20%. According to the Department of Education, the Granite State's student population decreased from 207,684 in 2002 to 165,095 in 2023. This is a decrease of 42,589 students in public schools, a decrease of approximately 20.5% over the past 21 years.