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There is a crisis in our school system. Students that choose to go on to further education often do not have the verbal, math, or science skills necessary to perform in college at an acceptable level. But before we can respond to that, we need to solve the education funding issue once and for all. Our elected legislature has the responsibility for funding schools and defining an adequate education. Unelected judges should not be in control of this process. If it takes a constitutional amendment to make that clear, then I will provide the leadership to put such an amendment into action. The current governor has provided no leadership in this area.
 Once we put the school funding issue to rest we will be able to focus on the quality of education. Our schools should work for our children. The system needs to be more efficient, reducing our top heavy school administration, and putting more of our education dollars in the classroom. There exists a delicate balance between the responsibilities of the state and the municipalities in this area. We will create a dialogue with educators throughout the state, and together develop plans, guidelines and legislation to facilitate this process. I believe that charter schools, school choice and vouchers have a place in these plans.
Providing a great education requires that students graduate with the right knowledge for their chosen career. This requires a plan that includes higher education, both public and private. One shoe doesn’t fit all. We have a pretty good model in the state today, and we need to be cautious not to break what works.
The Coburn Blueprint for Education Funding
Preamble:
New Hampshire has struggled with education funding for more than twenty years. But too often the process has been defined by what the court will or won’t allow. The Coburn Blueprint for Education Funding is an attempt to promote a quality education for every child in New Hampshire. However, a funding plan is about financing education. Quality and education reform are even more important issues. That is why it is so important to settle the education funding issue and focus on education reform.
This plan is a statement of principles and a planning document. It is not a piece of legislation. A lasting solution to the education finance problem will require many things but first among them is a spirit of cooperation and dialogue. The governor must provide leadership to create a partnership with the legislature. But every candidate for office must state firmly the principles he or she will bring to the process.
Building a Solution
Constitutional Amendment
Giving the legislature the authority to craft a plan
To secure a consensus plan and put an end to the uncertainty that constant litigation creates, a constitutional amendment must be a central part of any funding plan. The exact wording of any amendment should be negotiated with legislative leaders to build consensus for the final plan and the partnership required to achieve popular consent. However, the amendment must make it clear that it is the legislature that has the authority and the flexibility to design a funding system in partnership with municipalities.
Separation of Powers
The court may not seize legislative power
Whatever the court’s opinion of legislatively passed education plans, the court may not assume legislative powers and impose its own spending system or tax policy or any other legislative function. No governor should enforce a court-legislated plan nor can he and remain faithful to his oath to uphold the constitution. This is not an attack on the court or its traditional judicial role. It is merely a defense of the separation of judicial and legislative authority.
Live within our means
Use current resources and target them effectively
The current court decision demands a significant increase in state spending and therefore an increase in taxes. That’s bad for our economy and our future. I will insist that any plan take the current level of resources and allocate them according to need. There is a consensus to do more for the poorest towns and a similar consensus that the wealthiest communities neither need nor expect additional help.
No tax increases of any kind
A strong economy is critical to our ability to fund all the priorities of state government. I will not support any additional taxes imposed on New Hampshire citizens. Any plan must efficiently utilize the resources we have and not raise any taxes. Every candidate for office should pledge to oppose any increase in taxes.
Partnership
A successful plan requires a broad base of support
Education funding cannot be solved by a top-down approach from the Governor’s office. The governor must negotiate with both houses of the legislature and bipartisan representatives to agree on a broad set of principles. One of the problems in the past has been the lack of a broad based consensus. The only way to achieve real consensus is for the legislators and the Governor to work together.
Principles, not Politics: No Spread Sheets
Real leadership will put an end to spreadsheet squabbles
As the only statewide elected official, the Governor has a unique ability to provide leadership and move to a consensus that focuses on the best interests of the state and not pit the final balance of one town versus another. He must lead by insisting on principles, not politics. Too often in the past, the principles of a good funding plan have been lost amidst the competing interests of representatives focused on their line on a spread sheet. To achieve a lasting solution, the Governor must lead a discussion based on principles rather than politics. Before any specific factors are brought to bear, a consensus must be achieved on the broad outlines of a plan rather than a specific data point. Otherwise, real consensus will be lost in spreadsheet squabbling.
The Components of a good system
The basic principles of a strong funding system
• Classroom Costs.
This state aid program should be based on classroom and instructional costs not infrastructure and administrative components of spending. Basic state aid should focus on the classroom not the construction site.
• Don’t Penalize good performance
This is a critical difference between the Lynch approach and the Coburn plan. No school should ever lose aid for improving test scores or lowering the dropout rate. If you want more of something, you don’t take money away from schools for doing it.
• Incentives to reduce the dropout rate
As a state, we must make reducing the number of students who drop out of high school a priority. State education aid should include financial incentives for schools that succeed in helping more students graduate and therefore have a better chance for success.
• Cost measures
Measures of educational costs should include a mixture of a per pupil approach and objective measures of educational cost drivers like the number of students with limited English proficiency (LEP) and students with special needs.
• Fiscal capacity
One important reason my plan will include an amendment is that there is already broad consensus that the state should do more for poorer towns while the wealthiest communities neither need nor expect additional help. The court decision expressly ruled out this approach, a consensus component for members of both parties.
• Equitable Funding for Charter Schools
Public Charter Schools are no longer an experiment but a success offering choices to hundreds of children across the state. Direct funding from the state was an important first step but funding should address a situation where charter schools are expected to survive on as little as 30% of the funding of traditional public schools.
The Transition to a New System
Certain funding for FY2008
A new plan can not be negotiated and evaluated carefully with a court-imposed deadline looming over the legislature’s head. Similarly, towns can not plan their budgets with little or no notice of how much state aid they can expect in the next fiscal year. Therefore, to allow for a transition to a new system, each town should be told as soon as the legislature comes back into session that aid for FY2008 will be the same as this year. It is critical that transition legislation be passed at the very beginning of the session. Towns that have begun their budget process can not wait and guess what their aid might be as the legislature debates. In addition, the legislature must debate this critical issue without too-short deadline and looming fiscal catastrophe making them act in haste. A lasting solution is only possible if each issue is considered carefully and worked toward consensus.
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