Senate Republicans Reject Findings of the Commission to Study School Funding
Contact Name: Marina Altschiller
Phone: (603) 271-3207
CONCORD – Today, Senate Republicans led the charge to ITL SB 158, an act relative to the formula for funding an adequate education, rather than allow the committee recommendation to be overturned in order to rerefer the bill for further study. SB 158 was derived from the work of the Commission to Study School Funding – a bipartisan commission established by the legislature in 2019 to study New Hampshire’s education funding formula and present policy recommendations during the 2021 legislative session.
After the vote, prime sponsor Senator Jay Kahn (D-Keene) issued the following statement:
“For decades, New Hampshire has been debating our education funding formula in order to ensure that every student has the opportunity for an adequate education, no matter their zip code. The Commission to Study School Funding developed a series of recommendations that deserved further work in committee and I am disappointed to see those efforts to provide property tax relief to needy households and communities, better student outcomes, and equitable education access rejected today. These issues don’t go away and neither does the value of the work by the School Funding Commission. The legislature needs to develop a better education funding model. I for one look forward to working with my colleagues to that end.”
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