New Hampshire School Funding Fairness Project briefs Timberlane board on SWEPT, adequacy formula and pending lawsuits

Zach Sheehan, executive director of the New Hampshire School Funding Fairness Project, presented an overview of how the state's school funding formula works and the effects of the statewide education property tax (SWEP) during a presentation to the Timberlane Regional School District school board and community.

Sheehan described the structure the project calls the “adequacy” formula: a base per‑pupil amount plus supplements for students eligible for free and reduced‑price meals, students receiving special education services and English learners. He said the state’s published base adequacy figure is $41,100 per pupil and that recent court litigation has challenged whether that number is sufficient to provide what New Hampshire courts described as a constitutionally “adequate” education.

“[The plaintiffs] argued $41,100 is not enough,” Sheehan said during the presentation, outlining both the ConVal/Conval lawsuit and a separate taxpayer suit often described as the Rand case. He told board members that a…