Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders and the ConVal Regional School District, together with 17 co-plaintiff school districts, report that a judge has upheld a previous ruling and once again directed the State to adequately fund education for all New Hampshire public school students.
On Tuesday, Feb. 20, Superior Court Judge David Ruoff rejected the State’s request for reconsideration of his November ruling that the state’s current education funding formula is unconstitutional, and that “base adequacy” requires that the state pay districts at least $7,356 per pupil.
Judge Ruoff wrote that the State did not supply new evidence to warrant reconsideration of his ruling and added that he saw no reason to delay fully funded payments.
“In reaching this conclusion, the Court observes that although the issues implicated here may seem like a simple matter of dollars and cents to some, the reality is that with each passing school year, another class of public school children is permanently deprived of a constitutionally adequate education,” he wrote.
“Judge Ruoff called the state’s inadequate funding levels ‘egregious’ and ‘woefully inadequate,’ and we could not agree more,” Superintendent Rizzo Saunders said. “The State was unable to provide any new evidence that would have warranted another hearing or a delay. The State and Legislature need to stop creating roadblocks and meet their obligations to New Hampshire’s children and their education.”
The State is constitutionally required to fund the actual cost of an adequate education as ordered by the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s Claremont rulings in 1993 and 1997. The State’s current formula excludes significant operational costs such as transportation, school nursing and food services, and all but a small fraction of facilities operations and maintenance costs. In 2022, the average per-pupil cost of education K-12 was $19,399. The State funded “base adequacy” at $3,786. For the 2024-2025 school year, “base adequacy” was set at $4,100.
ConVal filed suit against the State and Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut in 2019, arguing that the state neglected its constitutional obligation. ConVal was joined in the lawsuit by 17 co-plaintiff districts: Claremont, Derry Co-Operative, Fall Mountain, Grantham, Hillsboro-Deering, Hopkinton, Lebanon, Manchester, Mascenic, Mascoma Valley, Monadnock, Nashua, Newport, Oyster River, Winchester, and Windham. ConVal and the co-plaintiffs educate almost one-quarter of New Hampshire’s public school students.
Ruoff ruled that, based on extensive evidence presented by ConVal and the 17 co-plaintiff districts, “base adequacy” must be at least $7,356 per pupil.
Judge Ruoff’s full ruling may be found here.
Media questions should be directed to Attorney Michael Tierney, of Wadleigh, Starr & Peters of Manchester, 603-669-4140
