NEW HAMPSHIRE: Schools, Taxes, No Child Left Behind?
Each year, we see our New Hampshire property taxes rise and our communities struggle to fund education. A large share of the blame lies with the U.S. Congress. Congress enacted the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, yet they have underfunded it by $56.8 billion thus far. Instead of receiving our federal income taxes back to be used for federally mandated programs, taxpayer dollars are on a one-way street to the wealthiest one per cent of Americans.
The federal government tells us how to run our schools and we are required to pay additional local taxes to be in compliance. The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee finished writing an appropriations bill (H.R.5647), which contains the education funding for fiscal year 2007, on June 20, however they have refused to bring it to a vote on the floor until after the November election. This budget proposal calls for a continuation of underfunding NCLB by an additional $16.4 billion. To New Hampshire taxpayers, this means our schools will not receive more than $51 million of the promised funding in 2007. More than 600 teachers will not receive the training promised. Over 11,000 children will not receive the help they need to pass the required tests.
This comes on the heels of lower than promised federal funding for special education. Public Law 94-142 states the Federal government will fund 40% of our special education needs; however Congress has chosen to return only 16% percent of the $298,750,000 for 2007, for a shortfall of more than $71 million. Once again, New Hampshire will not receive promised funding from our federal taxes and we will have to raise state taxes to make up the difference. We don’t know how many residents have given up on the dream of home ownership due to rising property taxes.
All of New Hampshire’s Representatives and Senators in Washington have voted each time to enact No Child Left Behind, yet voted to under fund public education. At the same time, they have voted to give tax breaks to extremely wealthy Americans.
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