Court sides with New Hampshire school districts in latest education funding case
1 year, 1 month ago

Court sides with New Hampshire school districts in latest education funding case

Associated Press  

CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire should be spending at least 80% more per pupil on public schools, a judge said Monday in one of two rulings that could force significant changes to education funding. In his order, Ruoff said while he is mindful that the Legislature has the final say, school funding is a “complicated and politically-charged issue with a history that suggests some level of judicial intervention is now necessary.” He suggested politics have impeded the state’s duty to children, but said “that ends today.” In a separate case, Ruoff also found the state has violated the constitution by not redistributing excess money collected via the statewide education property tax from wealthier towns to poorer communities. Kimberly Rizzo Saunders, superintendent of the Conval Regional School District, said the court recognized the substantial evidence offered by plaintiffs. “Today’s decision reflects what has been apparent for years: that the State of New Hampshire has not lived up to its legal and moral obligation to adequately fund public education,” she said in a statement.

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Federal judge strikes down New Hampshire ‘divisive concepts’ classroom law
6 months, 3 weeks ago

Federal judge strikes down New Hampshire ‘divisive concepts’ classroom law

Politico  

“Thus,” he wrote, “the Amendments violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” Approved in 2021 following a Trump executive order to block federal funding for the promotion of “divisive concepts” based on race and sex, New Hampshire’s laws prohibited state K-12 students from being “taught, instructed, inculcated or compelled to express belief” in the idea that they are inherently …

Gov. Shapiro seeks school-funding boost to help poorer districts, but Republicans remain wary
10 months, 2 weeks ago

Gov. Shapiro seeks school-funding boost to help poorer districts, but Republicans remain wary

Associated Press  

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Josh Shapiro is taking the first step in what is shaping up to be a complicated, yearslong process to respond to a court decision that found that Pennsylvania’s system of public school funding violates the constitutional rights of students in the poorest districts. The 14% increase reflects recommendations produced last month by Shapiro appointees and Democratic …

Pennsylvania’s schools say victory in court is final and Legislature needs to increase funding
1 year, 4 months ago

Pennsylvania’s schools say victory in court is final and Legislature needs to increase funding

Associated Press  

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Lawmakers should take action to address a now-final court ruling that Pennsylvania’s system of funding public schools violates the constitutional rights of students in poorer school districts, lawyers for the districts and groups that sued said Monday. The plaintiffs — including six school districts, the NAACP and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools — want …

Pennsylvania budget still in turmoil over school vouchers and equity funding case
1 year, 5 months ago

Pennsylvania budget still in turmoil over school vouchers and equity funding case

Associated Press  

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A court’s ruling earlier this year that the way Pennsylvania funds public schools is unconstitutional helped make education spending one of the thorniest issues in state budget negotiations. Along with a partisan divide over spending taxpayer money to help students attend private and religious schools, education funding has left the state’s 2023-24 spending plan incomplete. “Schools were …

Nebraska passes law on taxpayer money going to private schools
1 year, 6 months ago

Nebraska passes law on taxpayer money going to private schools

Associated Press  

— Nebraska lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that will channel public money to scholarships for private school tuition, despite critics who say the measure hurts public schools, benefits wealthy taxpayers and helps mostly parochial schools that can discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. Public school advocates have blasted the measure as a “school voucher scheme” that will hurt the state’s K-12 public …

Poorer districts win challenge to Pa. public school funding
1 year, 10 months ago

Poorer districts win challenge to Pa. public school funding

Associated Press  

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania judge ruled Tuesday that the state’s system of funding public schools falls woefully short and violates students’ constitutional rights, siding with poorer districts in a lawsuit launched nearly a decade ago in pursuit of billions of dollars in additional annual aid. Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer found that the state hasn’t fulfilled its constitutional …

4-month trial in lawsuit over public school funding wraps
2 years, 9 months ago

4-month trial in lawsuit over public school funding wraps

Associated Press  

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A marathon trial over how Pennsylvania funds public education reached an end Thursday but it will be months before a judge rules in the case brought by a group of poorer school districts against Republican state legislative leaders. The plaintiffs argue the current system denies students the “thorough and efficient system of public education” mandated by the …

Judge: N Carolina must spend $1.75B to narrow education gap
3 years, 1 month ago

Judge: N Carolina must spend $1.75B to narrow education gap

Associated Press  

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina trial judge on Wednesday ordered the state to pay out $1.75 billion to help narrow the state’s public education inequities, angering Republicans who said the directive usurps lawmakers’ constitutional authority over state coffers. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2004 in the Leandro lawsuit — named after an early student plaintiff — that while …

School districts’ lawsuit over state funding heads to trial
3 years, 1 month ago

School districts’ lawsuit over state funding heads to trial

Associated Press  

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A lawsuit that could result in drastic changes to how Pennsylvania funds public education goes to trial Friday in a Harrisburg courtroom, seven years after a handful of the state’s districts first went to court to challenge a system they consider unfair. Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre, one of the defendants, said in a statement …

Latest school funding challenge in NH headed to trial
3 years, 9 months ago

Latest school funding challenge in NH headed to trial

Associated Press  

CONCORD, N.H. — The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an attempt by the state to dismiss the latest challenge in a decades-long debate over how to fund public schools, setting the case up for a trial to give school districts a chance to show how they need more financial resources. In response, the Legislature began sending each school …

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