Sometimes the internet lords hand you low-hanging fruit, and this is one such occasion. Just days apart, these two headlines land in my inbox.
New Hampshire Schools Rank Top Five in the Nation
New Hampshire schools are top five in the nation according to new rankings from WalletHub released today. Governor Kelly Ayotte released the following statement highlighting the new ranking:
Report: New Hampshire ranks last in percentage of education revenue provided by state
According to a nonpartisan research group, overall state revenue to New Hampshire schools over the past 15 years has been declining when adjusted for inflation, beginning with a shift of teacher retirement costs onto local taxpayers.
The left’s obsession with a statewide property tax by any means (in this case, more ed funding), and the lie that more money equals better achievement, has to decide how to proceed. Both of these things can’t be true, but the truth was never an obstacle for Democrats.
They like to say Republicans are underfunding schools, but they’ve put more state money into Ed funding than any Democrat legislature, like ever. More every year they have the majority. Not because they should or must, but because some judges said so. Per student state money was almost exactly where Claremont said it ought to be, but regular readers know.
- There is no constitutional condition for state funding.
- The Claremont Decision violates the state constitution.
- Almost all education funding in NH is local, not from the state.
- There is no Constitutional requirement for local funding (taxation to pay for schools).
If we ignore all of that, New Hampshire’s funding as a percentage or its status as top five for school is meaningless. Compared to what? States that are spending more at the state level and getting worse results?
The WMUR article’s purpose is to peddle the lie that property taxes are high and that the state should shoulder more of the burden. It is shilling for the not-so-non-partisan NH Fiscal Policy Institute, which is the research group it claims has no partisan interest. It does. It is one of several deep state “interests” that use public policy to push government intervention.
The peddled lie is not difficult to expose.
- They want more money, not just for education.
- Local spending will not go down for education and will go up for everything else.
- Total tax burden will increase even more.
- State-level mechanism to collect education taxes will evolve to collect other taxes.
- Publicly funded education costs will skyrocket, and results will continue to stagnate or decline.
Public education is not about learning; it is a jobs program.
If you want lower taxes, you need to reimagine education in a way that eliminates the current tax monopoly model. Recent Republican legislatures have been working on that problem with the goal of what’s best for students, outcomes, and the investment that is the cost of tuition. If they are successful, New Hampshire will improve its achievement ranking while reducing the state cost of education and the local cost of education.
Smarter Graduates. Lower Property Taxes. More money for the rest of the community.
