{"id":9337,"date":"2024-08-21T12:06:26","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T16:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/?p=9337"},"modified":"2024-08-21T12:06:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T16:06:28","slug":"nh-journal-students-first-act-may-break-school-spending-paradox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/?p=9337","title":{"rendered":"NH Journal: Students First Act May Break School Spending Paradox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From the NH Journal<\/a>
Posted to\u00a0Politics<\/a>\u00a0August 08, 2024 by\u00a0Damien Fisher<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Granite Staters are about to get more information about school spending thanks to the pro-transparency Students First Act that Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law requires school districts to detail basic information like the average cost per pupil, average teacher salary, and the salaries of the top administrators in their public reports. Too often, these details are not broken out before voters are asked to pass budgets at the ballot box, according to lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that parents are looking for accountability and transparency in education, and this bill takes us further in that direction,\u201d said bill co-sponsor and House Education Committee Vice Chair Rep. Glenn Cordelli, (R-Tuftonboro.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Students First Act was originally introduced as SB 219<\/a>, which ended up getting defeated during a House vote in May. It was subsequently added to HB 1265<\/a> which passed and was signed into law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another cosponsor, Sen. Keith Murphy (R-Manchester,) called the bill a common-sense law that gives taxpayers and parents the information they need to make informed decisions about budgets and tax rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so taxpayers can see where the money is going in their districts,\u201d Murphy said during his testimony for the bill earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Hampshire\u2019s public education system is spending more money to educate fewer students than ever before, according to Murphy. And the bulk of that money isn\u2019t going to teachers in the classrooms, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the last two decades our cost per pupil is up 77 percent adjusting for inflation, while our teacher salaries are only up one percent,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cIn the same 20-year period [the number] of our non-teaching staff is up 80 percent, the number of teachers is up only 23 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last 20 years, New Hampshire\u2019s student population has declined more than 11 percent throughout the state, while the cost per pupil is at a record average of more than $20,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Students First Act mandates that school districts make public annual reports that show a 10-year history of average cost per pupil in that district, average teacher salary, and total administrator salaries, all adjusted for inflation. Additionally, districts must include a table listing the top four highest-paid administrators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the complete article HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the NH JournalPosted to\u00a0Politics\u00a0August 08, 2024 by\u00a0Damien Fisher Granite Staters are about to get more information about school spending thanks to the pro-transparency Students First Act that Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law this week. The law requires school districts to detail basic information like the average cost per…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9338,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9337\/revisions\/9338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}