New Hampshire Supreme Court Rules State Violated Constitution by Underfunding Public Schools

In a major victory for New Hampshire public school students and their communities, the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld a trial court ruling that the State is underfunding its public schools. 

The case, Contoocook Valley School District (ConVal) v. State, was brought by New Hampshire school districts and taxpayers in 2019. The trial court initially granted summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs on one of their claims, ruling that New Hampshire’s school funding law was unconstitutional. But the New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed that decision in 2021, ruling that determining the components of an adequate education and their cost required fact finding. The case was sent back down to the superior court for trial, where superintendents, school district personnel, and other school finance experts testified.

In November 2023, after a three-week trial, Judge David Ruoff found that the “base adequacy amount” determined by the State to be $4,100 per pupil was inadequate. Per-pupil base adequacy is the amount required to educate one student with no additional needs. 

Judge Ruoff concluded that the components of an adequate education not only include resources such as teachers, instructional materials, curricula, libraries and technology, but also transportation, facilities maintenance and operation, and school nurses. Judge Ruoff provided what he called a conservative minimum threshold that base adequacy must exceed: $7,356.01. He ruled that the current funding law was unconstitutional and ordered the State to immediately increase base adequacy to an amount exceeding $7,356.01. The State then appealed.

 The New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed the judge’s ruling that the existing state funding law is unconstitutional, as well as his conservative minimum threshold of $7,356.01. In its decision, the Court noted that by determining the components and cost of an adequate education, Judge Ruoff did exactly what they had ordered him to do in 2021. The Court also remarked that the State offered no “evidence justifying the sufficiency of the current funding level.”

But the majority of justices reversed Judge Ruoff’s order that the State immediately increase adequacy aid because, although there had been a long line of education funding cases in New Hampshire, this was the first case challenging the base adequacy funding amount. On that narrow issue, the Supreme Court declined to find an “absence of action by other branches” of government, and, therefore, reversed the trial court’s order for immediate payment. The Court noted that, in other education funding cases, the State remedied unconstitutional education funding schemes within a year.

Two justices dissented from this portion of the ruling. Justice Nadeau, writing for herself and Justice Abramson, noted that there have been eleven school funding cases since 1993, and “not once has this court conclusively determined that the legislature has fulfilled its constitutional duty.”  Justice Nadeau also observed that the trial record showed that the State enacted the unconstitutional funding law knowing the amount was inadequate.

Education Law Center, together with co-counsel in Rand v. State, a related school funding case also pending before Judge Ruoff, filed an amicus curiae brief in the New Hampshire Supreme Court supporting the ConVal plaintiffs. The brief was submitted on behalf of New Hampshire taxpayers, their Rand clients. ELC’s co-counsel are New Hampshire attorneys John Tobin, Natalie LaFlamme, and Andru Volinsky, as well as the law firms White and Case, and Harter Secrest & Emery LLP, working pro bono.

The Rand trial was completed in fall 2024, and the plaintiffs are awaiting Judge Ruoff’s decision.

The ConVal plaintiffs are represented by Michael Tierney and Elizabeth Ewing of Wadleigh, Starr & Peters, P.L.L.C.

Related story

MAJOR VICTORY FOR STUDENTS IN TWO NEW HAMPSHIRE SCHOOL FUNDING LAWSUITS

Press Contact:
Sharon Krengel
Director of Policy, Strategic Partnerships and Communications
skrengel@edlawcenter.org
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