Funding, taxes and EFAs are focus of Community Conversation on education in Peterborough

In their roles as “conversation-starters” during “The Schools and the State,” a Community Conversation Wednesday at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture, ConVal School Board member Curtis Hamilton of Greenfield and Republican state Rep. Jim Creighton spoke about the quality of education in ConVal and the state.

“We have great schools. We have great teachers. We have fantastic administrators, and we have great students,” Hamilton said.

Creighton, whose district includes Antrim and Bennington, cited polls showing New Hampshire in the top 10 in the country, and often the top five, due to the great teachers and administrators.

“My hat’s off to the great work they’ve done,” he said.

The hour-long event – co-sponsored by the Monadnock Center and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript – included discussion on the current state of school funding, taxes, and the state’s Education Freedom Account voucher program.

A focus of Hamilton’s was the relationship between people knowing what their taxes pay for and how they feel about them – noting that it’s impossible to know what goes into the state’s General Fund, but ConVal residents know that 62% of their property taxes go toward the schools. As the cost of public schools has risen, taxes have gone up, and “the easiest and quickest solution is simply to cut school funding,” as Jaffrey-Rindge voters did this year.

However, he noted that even though a ConVal budget cap failed at the polls this year and 64% of Antrim and Bennington residents opposed it, Creighton supported one in the Legislature.

Hamilton said New Hampshire’s education-funding system is broken because it relies so heavily on “regressive” property taxes, and ideas such as open enrollment and EFAs just provide families with means a way out.

“They are threatening to put older people on fixed incomes out of their homes and make it harder for young families to form,” he said.

During his remarks, Creighton called education “the foundation of this great country.” He said he has talked with hundreds of parents, teachers and educators, and that while most parents and students are happy and proud of the public schools, there are parents who are frustrated with the system.

Creighton said a quality education should be made available to all students, no matter how it’s done, and that EFAs can help parents who would otherwise have to pay taxes for a school district where they don’t want to send their children and to send their children elsewhere. He also said that when he visits Hawthorne Academy, a private Christian school in Antrim for grades nine to 12, those students and families aren’t rich.

“They are thrilled to be at Hawthorne Academy,” he said.

Regarding ConVal’s budget, Creighton said the district has a $60 million budget and spends $30,000 per student, while the state average is $22,000. As someone who has led teams, Creighton said trust is important, and right now, that trust doesn’t exist.

“We have to build that trust,” he said. “We have to build that ability to work together.”

Once the floor was opened to the audience, Cindy Lynch of Peterborough said schools have been underfunded for decades, but also that she’s worried about the schools losing diversity. She cited her own children, who had vision issues, saying that thanks to ConVal, they lead “great, independent lives,” and that if supports go away, students will not have that kind of diverse experience.

Creighton responded that diversity is important, but that students with EFAs make up a small part of the population.

“I don’t think that threatens the public schools in terms of population,” he said.

Hamilton addressed the comment by also referring to Creighton’s remark about the budget, saying 25% of what ConVal spends is for special education, with 80% of that being paid by local taxpayers. And if the district can’t provide services in-house, it has to look outside.

“It’s very expensive to deliver special education services,” he said.

Glennifer Gillespie of Peterborough said the issue is “a systemic problem that doesn’t have simple solutions,” and that it ties in with housing, because if there are fewer families, there are fewer students, and those students’ education becomes more expensive.

“We can’t just talk about this in silos,” she said.

Patty Long of Peterborough said that when her family moved to the area 30 years ago, the first place they looked at was Peterborough Elementary School, followed by the church.

“Your school is the most-important thing for a family when they move to town,” she said.

According to Long, public schools are not being supported, but come 2027, there will be no income threshold for EFAs, meaning every student in the state will be eligible.

“We are losing our public schools, and we are on the backs of our retirees and young families,” she said.

Jay Schechter of Dublin, who as chairman of the former Dublin Education Advisory Committee helped lead the town’s failed effort to leave the ConVal district earlier this year, said ConVal students are struggling on tests, and that based on federal Census data, 50% of students in Dublin and other towns don’t go to ConVal.

“I’m curious as to how ConVal defines ‘great’ when it has a 50% market share,” said Schechter.

According to Schechter, the quality of ConVal’s education is not improving, but Dublin residents are paying almost $40,000 per student, and he attended board meetings for a year with no talk of addressing either issue.

“We tried to withdraw,” he said. “They wouldn’t let us withdraw.”

Hamilton said it’s not accurate that ConVal didn’t let Dublin withdraw, as it was voters who denied the request.