NH School Funding Fairness Project

For decades now, two fundamental injustices have been allowed to persist in New Hampshire. Despite a clear constitutional mandate, far too many of our children continue to face deep and enduring inequities in the educational opportunities available to them, diminishing not only their futures, but that of the Granite State as a whole. At the same time, enormous disparities in the property taxes paid by residents and businesses in different communities pose oftentimes insuperable barriers to economic security and development.

Established in 2019, the NH School Funding Fairness Project (NHSFFP) strives to raise awareness and to promote understanding of these twin problems and to transform public concern into lasting policy change. To that end, NHSFFP has delivered presentations on school funding and property taxes to nearly 70 different audiences across the state; the energy it generated through those appearances, in turn, helped to shape deliberations over the state’s FY 2020-21 budget, a budget that ultimately provided an additional $130 million in aid for local school districts, much of which is directed to low-income and property-poor communities.