KEENE, N.H. (AP) — A judge has ruled that New Hampshire’s current method for funding public schools is unconstitutional, two decades after a series of court decisions that said the state has a duty to provide and pay for an adequate education.
The decision Wednesday by Superior Court Judge David Ruoff in Cheshire County follows a lawsuit by the ConVal, Mascenic, Winchester, and Monadnock school districts, saying that goal hasn’t been accomplished.
New Hampshire Public Radio reports Ruoff wrote the amount the state is sending to districts for each student – $3,636 – is inaccurate, based on calculations by lawmakers that don’t take into account the real costs of transportation, teachers, or facilities.
The attorney general’s office is reviewing the ruling.
The lawsuit references a series of state supreme court decisions from the 1990s called the Claremont cases.
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