“Fund the Gap” Report May Spur Advocacy
Efforts in New Hampshire
On November 30th, 2004, the New
Hampshire Citizens’ Voice Project released
a report
entitled “Fund the Gap,” which reports a
large difference between the money needed to provide
an adequate education and the money provided schools
by the State of New Hampshire. Though not a typical
“costing-out study,” the report provides
firm evidence that the costs of education are higher
than the state legislature’s calculations have
acknowledged, and provides a powerful tool around which
to organize the state’s education advocates.
The Project
The New Hampshire Citizens’ Voice Project (NHCVP)
describes itself as a coalition of organizations that
hope to improve public engagement in the state’s
education system. Member organizations include the New
Hampshire School Boards Association, New
Hampshire School Administrators Association, the
New Hampshire
NEA, and the Claremont
Coalition, a group of school districts that have
been involved in a lawsuit to insure adequate funding
for all of New Hampshire’s school children. In
this lawsuit the state supreme court held that the state’s
constitution “imposes a duty on the State to provide
a constitutionally adequate education to every educable
child and to guarantee adequate funding.” The
plaintiffs held that the state’s funding system
was in no way tied to the cost of an adequate education.
With many prominent and influential education organizations
on its roster, the NHCVP is dedicated to educating the
public and drawing them into the discussions around
reforming the state’s education finance system.
The Report
True to the public engagement goals of NHCVP, the Fund
the Gap Report began with a series of community forums
that attempted to catalog public expectations and desires
for public schools. Amongst these goals the report lists
“quality teachers, quality instruction, and facilities
that support learning,” as well as schools that
“forge community partnerships.” NHCVP then
compared these goals with the state’s educational
mandates and found that most of the goals had been codified
by the mandates. As such, they set out to identify resources
necessary to fulfill these mandates, and the money needed
to provide them.
The study itself focuses on the “very basic components”
of reaching the education mandates, namely staff, buildings,
transportation, and system leadership. The study consciously
leaves out numerous essential items, such as books and
curriculum supplies, technology, any extracurricular
activities, any specialized programs, and any auxiliary
staff, amongst others.
The researchers then enumerate the quantities of each
basic component that would be required by prototype
elementary, middle, and high schools, which were assigned
characteristics equal to the state’s averages.
Using average costs of each of those components statewide,
they then calculate the total per-student cost for each
prototype school. In order to verify their findings,
which were designed to provide very conservative estimates
of the basic operating costs of a New Hampshire school,
they compare their per-pupil figures with the per-pupil
spending of 15 representative schools (all were comparable
in size to the prototypes and had made “adequate
yearly progress” under the No Child Left Behind
Act), five at each level. In each case the actual schools
spent substantially more per-pupil than the NHCVP’s
figure, allowing the researchers to conclude that their
calculations had only covered a small portion of the
costs associated with an adequate education.
Ultimately, the researchers’ total cost per pupil
was $6,153, fully $2,125 more than the current state
funding level of $4,028. Their figure was also far lower
than the state’s average expenditure of $10,400
per pupil in 2003-2004. Despite the rough estimation
provided in the study, it seems clear that there is
a substantial gap between the amount of money being
provided by the state and the minimum amount deemed
necessary by the report. This gap exists even if it
is assumed that the schools are all currently spending
enough per pupil, which has certainly not been proven.
Implications for the Project
NHCVP has used their report to kickoff a major, statewide
Fund the Gap Campaign, which hopes to educate citizens
on education finance and mobilize them towards the ultimate
goal of forcing the state to pay its constitutionally
required share of education funding. The report itself
provides many ways for citizens to get involved, including
calculating the funding gap in their own district and
contacting state representatives to voice their demands.
NHCVP also intends to continue their efforts in statewide
forums and other organizing efforts. The study, which
is easy to understand, brief, and definitive, will likely
prove a powerful organizing tool for advocacy efforts
in the state.
Prepared by Nelly Ward, January 13, 2005
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