WNTK posed the question...How do you solve the school funding problem?

WNTK posed the question...How do you solve the school funding problem?

First there is not a funding problem there is a spending problem. Cut back spending and the "funding problem" will disappear.

Any individual can obtain information about their school's finances for the past several years. Analysis of said finances would show that schools are spending faster than the rate of inflation with some school districts exceeding inflation by as much as 50 - 100%. Limit spending to the rate of inflation.

An analysis of student to teacher ratios will show that ratios continue to decrease with no improvement in student performance. The decreased student to teacher ratios inflates the cost of education.

I am 44 I am sure many of my older readers remember a time when we did not have teacher aids. If there was any help in the classroom there was a room mother and they were not in classroom that often. The switch to teacher aids also inflated the cost of educating our children, as well as having another group of tax eaters demanding more of our tax dollars.

We need to get rid of the state department of education. It is just a bunch of bureaucrats wasting are tax dollars, furthermore they are just another lobbying group for educrats and education tax dollars. They have no direct educational influence on our children. Getting rid of the state department of education would send a ton of money back into the classroom or back into taxpayers’ pockets. I would like to see an analysis of student performance results, dropout rates and literacy rates before and after the state department of education existed.

We need to get rid of tenure. The only people it benefits are poor and mediocre teachers and the families that benefit from that paycheck.

We need to get rid of the teachers' pension plan. It is a Ponzi Scheme that has no benefit to New Hampshire's public school students. Our legislators need to switch from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. Today our pension system is 1.6 billion under funded. It is constitutionally protected with the taxpayers going to have to eventually foot the bill.

Increase the age of retirement.

We need to get rid of the SAU's this is yet another group of bureaucrats eating our tax dollars with no direct influence of the education or educational performance of our children.

These are just a few steps that could solve the school-spending problem but it will never happen. Because of greed on the part of those that believe "It's for the kids." If education were truly "for the kids" the funds would follow the child and not the institution. When will our legislators stop pandering to educrats and start really caring about the education of New Hampshire's children.


Public schools are nothing more than government schools and like many forms of government there is waste, patronage and corruption.