The Results of the New Hampshire Education Funding Reform.

This report highlights research that examined education finance data for the 1998-99 school year, the year prior to the introduction of finance reforms in New Hampshire, and the 1999-00 to 2001-02 school years, the 3 years following the introduction of reform. Following are some of the conclusions about New Hampshire's education finance reform. Reform has done little to alter the overall per-public expenditure patterns of New Hampshire communities. Because expenditure changes are not very responsive to the size of education grants, even with very large increases in state aid, the current education-funding system will not narrow per-pupil spending differences. Decreases in local property taxes since reform were greater in communities with higher median incomes than in communities with lower median household incomes. Reform has dramatically changed the price that communities pay for local education services. Neither increasing the level of state support nor making minor adjustments to the formula used to determine how state aid is distributed to each community will alter these results. These findings suggest that current reforms will not achieve key policy objectives and that education finance reform will continue to dominate the public policy agenda in New Hampshire. (Author/WFA)