FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                           Thursday, May 8, 2008

Contact: Senator Iris Estabrook

(603) 271-3042

SENATE CONCURS WITH HOUSE ON EDUCATION FUNDING

CONCORD – The Senate voted 18-6 today to concur with the House on changes to an education funding plan that provides for a two-year transition to a new constitutional funding plan and protects towns from losing funding during that time.

“The work of the House honors the work of the Joint Legislative Committee on Costing an Adequate Education. I don’t agree with all of the changes but I believe the House has been a great partner in this journey to meet the court’s mandate,” said Senator Iris Estabrook (D-Durham), chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee.

The legislation passed this week by both the House and Senate provides per pupil aid based on “universal costs” such as classroom teachers, supplies and technology. It includes additional funds for special education students and those learning to speak English. The adequacy formula also provides “differentiated aid” to schools with higher concentrations of economically disadvantaged pupils. It sets a new policy direction by moving away from allocating aid by district to allocating aid based on the needs of individual schools.

The House Education Committee made minor changes to the Senate plan and the House Finance Committee developed the transition plan that means no town would receive a reduction in aid over the next two years and those communities slated to receive increases would get no more than a 15 percent increase over their current grant.

“As a matter of education policy, other courts have found this is permissible,” said Senator Joseph Foster (D-Nashua) who said transition plans have been approved by courts in other states to avoid wide swings in education funding.

Paying for an adequate education under Senate Bill 539 as approved by the House and Senate is estimated to cost about $940 million.

This legislation also calls for two commissions – one to study and determine school accountability and one to study fiscal capacity aid, transition aid and the impact of fixed costs on small school districts. These committees are slated to report back to the Legislature on Dec. 1 of this year.