I keep getting asked why the state is reducing education aid. We’re not. We fight hard to ensure that our local towns get extra aid, and that aid continually increases. If locally, the voters decide to increase budgets beyond the usual state increases, or enrollment drops, it might feel like a cut as a percentage of what you have decided to spend. The fact remains, that state aid continually increases.
I was also asked why we don’t use the numbers put forth by the court opinion. We could. It would make the state’s job much simpler and cost very little. They recommended $7356.01 per student. We currently send an average of $7353 per student. District 3 towns do much better than that average. If we simply equalized the aid and sent the extra 3 dollars, it would result in devastating cuts locally.
The graphics below show state aid trends for District 3 towns. If you click the link below each picture, you can see the grant history and how it was broken out.
Charlestown got $6,250,711, or $10,494.40 per student.
Newport got $8,477,784, or $13, 656.22 per student.
Unity got $1,077,484, or $8,304.95 per student.
This is a heckuva lot more than than the recommended $7,356.01.
https://educationaid.nhhouse.gop/town/Charlestown
https://educationaid.nhhouse.gop/town/Newport
NH State Representative Steven Smith 
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