Ronald P. Blais: 90 percent of cost of NH schools is paid for with property taxes

To The Daily Sun,

A recent opinion letter printed in the Concord Monitor took aim at the way that New Hampshire funds its education responsibilities. The fact that the residents of this great state allowed the Legislature to thumb its nose at the Supreme Court decision in the Claremont case needs to be brought back to light.

It shirked its responsibilities by “low-balling” what an adequate cost of educating a child was, and then established a sleazy solution by creating a state real estate tax to fund it.

In the 2016–2017 school year, not only did the Legislature decide that an adequate education for a K though 12 student costs $3,636, when the Office of School Finance, published that the average cost of educating a child in this state is $18,216, they again slapped the taxpayers in the face by funding it with their sham state Education Real Estate Tax.

How do they possibly believe that this relieves the onerous burden of funding schools in this state by constantly passing down the actual costs to local municipalities?

According to the same statistical source, Local and state real estate taxes provided 90 percent of total school funding in 2016–2017.

One need only to look at the politicians who continuously take the idiotic no broad-base tax "pledge” for the cause of this disproportionate reliance on real estate taxes to fund our schools. The cowards hide behind the pledge instead of resolving the situation.

Remember to VOTE in November!

Ronald P. Blais

Center Barnstead