New Hampshire’s education funding failure must stop

April 11 − To the Editor:

I’m writing in response to your article discussing the Statewide Education Property Tax (SWEPT) in New Hampshire and its implications for education funding across different towns. While I appreciate the attention brought to this issue, I think it’s critical to provide additional information and address key nuances that were overlooked.

I recently attended an informational session in Hampton hosted by the NH School Funding Fairness Project. I was shocked to learn that NH, as a state, is and has been falling far short of its (state) constitutionally mandated obligation to fund an adequate education for our children. Last year, a NH court ruled that the state needed to provide at least $7, 356.01, per child, to fund that education.

SWEPT was originally developed after the Claremont rulings of the 1990s as a vehicle for raising the funds that the state is obligated to supply. However, it was never the intent of SWEPT to allow individual towns to retain that money or carry an excess balance forward. However, the wealthier towns in NH eventually lobbied to change SWEPT fund management and were granted that ability in 2011, widening the townby-town gap between not only property tax rates, but quality of education.

This history is important, because it gives context to the term “donor town,” which is used frequently in your article. Branding wealthy towns who raise excess funds as “donors” paints a disingenuous picture of reality, implying a voluntary act of giving, which is simply not the case.

The SWEPT tax was designed to ensure that the whole state contributed to funding education. Changing the way these funds are managed to allow them to be retained and withheld completely undercut SWEPT’s purpose and intent and was ruled to violate the NH constitution last year.

And as a result of this change, towns with average home values- around $400k- are sometimes taxed at a rate more than double that of towns where home values average $800k and above. Its incredibly frustrating to know that two children, who live just miles apart, can have vastly different access to quality schooling. It doesn’t seem right that in NH, if you want to buy an affordable house, you’ve got to stomach the cripplingly high tax-rate that comes with it. And all for an underfunded, underwhelming education for your children.

We can do better. We must do better. We can’t continue to overtax our neighbors who are already struggling, and we can’t keep turning a blind eye to the glaring disparities in school funding.

I learned a lot by attending the NH School Funding Fairness Project informational session in my town. I’d encourage anyone who wants a more thorough understanding of education funding in our state to visit their website or reach out to them to learn more, and to get involved in this conversation. And I hope we can retire the phrase “donor town” and begin solving this together.

Sarah Elliott

Hampton