Robert Frost, a poet spending his entire life in New England and the majority of his career in Derry, New Hampshire, put out the poem “Mending Wall” in 1914. The narrator of the poem, a quaint farmer in rural New England, notes that the wall, repeatedly rebuilt, is unnecessary, only dividing what does not need to be divided. “There where it is we do not need the wall,” he repeats twice. The narrator’s friend has no answer but that fences make good friends.
112 years later, such a scene is striking in the context of N.H. education, where we have built our own mending wall between school districts. In N.H., every district independently raises the majority of its funding through local taxes, most commonly property taxes. This model is unconstitutional, and the state legislature has never properly addressed it.
Claremont School District v. Governor of New Hampshire, often referred to as the Claremont decision, arose from a funding dispute between the Claremont School District, four other affiliated school districts and the state of New Hampshire. The five districts sued, claiming that by relying on local property taxes, the state government was neglecting its duty.
To anyone familiar with N.H. education, the result is well known. The New Hampshire Supreme Court, in 1993, affirmed that education funding is a fundamental right. In 1997, in a case commonly referred to as Claremont II, the Court ruled that the model of education funding the state employs to this day is unconstitutional.
Governor Kelly Ayotte has set her sights on a new construction project. Not a new road or a new state building, but to solidify the mending wall and rebuild it with a stronger foundation and more resilient brickwork. In a recent education funding case, Rand v. State of New Hampshire, the Court has once again affirmed that N.H. has a constitutional requirement to fund schools. In response, Ayotte’s Attorney General’s office has asked that the court overturn Rand, and in a drastic escalation, asked that the court overturn Claremont entirely.
Overturning the case would end any immediate effort to upend the current education funding system, and continue laying the burden on local towns. It has been demonstrated that funding equity is closely linked to student success, and the more property-rich school districts are the major beneficiaries of the current system. It seems Ayotte has no interest in balancing this inequity.
Do not mistake that Ayotte has shouldered this responsibility entirely. Chris Sununu, Maggie Hassan, John Lynch, Steve Benson, Craig Benson, Jeanne Shaheen and Steve Merill have presided over the governorship and taken no action on Claremont. Seven governorships have come and gone before Ayotte, and none of them have succeeded in solving the unconstitutionality of New Hampshire school funding; the mending wall is rebuilt with every new governorship.
It is not simply enough for Claremont to be recognized, and for the governor’s attempts to overturn the decision to fail. Claremont must be enshrined in the constitution, and the wall must fall for the good of all students in New Hampshire.
Frank LeBlanc can be contacted at
fleblanc@kscequinox.com
