Creative Solutions Needed to Resolve High Education Costs

In a situation which reflects funding problems all over the United States, New Hampshire has been embroiled in a seemingly never-ending conflict for over fifteen years, ever since the town of Claremont sued the state of New Hampshire for its method of funding education. The NH Supreme Court issued a ruling against the state in December of 1997, and ordered it to come up with a better method of funding.

The issue hasn’t been resolved yet, in spite of a number of attempts. One of the big problems is that New Hampshire depends primarily on two types of taxes to fund all of its governmental operations: sin taxes (motel rooms, meals, booze and cigarettes) and property taxes. Well, there’s only so much sin you can accomplish in New Hampshire, especially in the winter, and the property owners of the state are just about taxed out.

The state, and many other states and municipalities, definitely need to look at their methods of funding public education and come up with formulas that provide universally available, top-quality education. But beyond that, perhaps education planners need to get a little creative. Perhaps small schools in rural areas could institute block scheduling in their schools and share the best teachers in each subject, with the teachers spending a semester at one school and then moving to another; this could not only make it possible for schools to afford the best science and math teachers, which are a rare commodity, but to add extras like music, art, and drama, courses that often aren’t considered necessary, but that provide a tremendous motivation for many students to stay in school. Alternative building methods like using shipping containers for new school construction could save millions of dollars.

Right now, the state of New Hampshire is trying to come up with a definition for an adequate education. I think they’re barking up the wrong tree. I think they need to come up with a definition of an optimal education, and then figure out how to get that optimal learning experience to every student in the state, for the least amount of money. That will be universal education!