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Now that she doesn’t have to run for reelection in Manchester, Mayor Joyce Craig is leaving the city with a school system that is losing students and a budget that relies on $30 million in one-time funding. 

Craig’s proposed 2024 budget uses $30 million in COVID relief funds to pay for ongoing school district expenses like salaries and staff benefits, as well as transportation costs. Craig’s use of temporary revenue will become a problem for whoever takes her job next. Craig recently announced she is not running for a fourth term.

Jay Ruais, a Republican running for mayor, said Craig’s budget for 2024 is irresponsible.

“Using one-time funds for recurring costs is a band-aid approach, not a long-term solution to our city’s needs, and is a practice that will continue to harm us down the road,” Ruais said.

“Communities like Manchester will continue to face significant education funding gaps as long as the state continues to underfund public education and downshift costs to local taxpayers. I encourage the legislature to pass pending legislation that reinstates state contributions for teacher retirement and increases State Adequate Education Aid,” Craig said during this month’s annual budget address.

Craig blames a drop in state education funding for creating the need to use federal funding for operating expenses this year. In fact, state aid has increased on a per-pupil basis. It’s falling enrollments that are costing the district funds, leaving taxpayer groups to ask why the city needs more money to educate fewer students.

According to data from the New Hampshire Department of Education, since 2000, enrollment in Manchester schools has fallen by nearly 28 percent. At the same time, per pupil costs have risen more than 55 percent.

Craig’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Victoria Sullivan, a Republican considering another run for mayor, said Craig is going to leave the city by giving residents a tax increase after she’s long gone.

“The increased tax burden facing the taxpayers next year when the city has to reconcile the budget without the tens of millions of Cares Act, ESSER, and ARPA funds that have been irresponsibility used will either force significant layoffs across our city or force rents and property taxes to skyrocket,” Sullivan said. “Our citizens cannot afford this short-sighted budget or the inevitable consequences of it.”

Manchester’s projected State Adequate Education Aid grant comes to a little more than $44.8 million for 2024. That’s based on an anticipated average daily attendance in the district of 11,601 students.

Since the State Adequate Education Aid is based on those attendance numbers, the city’s adequate funding depends on its ability to keep families and students. Last year, with more than 12,000 students, Manchester schools got more than $45.5 million from the state, meaning the projected 2024 grants are hardly a large drop in funding. 

In 2014, Manchester was getting more than $46 million from the state in adequacy grants thanks to the fact it had more students. At the time, Manchester’s average daily attendance was more than 13,000 students.

Manchester isn’t alone in losing students. According to data released by the New Hampshire Department of Education earlier this year, The Granite State has seen a 22 percent drop in the number of students since 2002. That year, there were 207,648 students enrolled in schools in 2022. The number has fallen to 161,755 enrolled for the current school year. Meanwhile,  the cost per pupil has gone up an average of 78.4 percent since 2000. 

Craig’s $390 million total 2024 proposed budget for the city and school district is headed to the Board of Alderman for approval. Of that, the school district budget is about $190 million. Craig boasted in a recent budget address she’ll be able to lower local real estate property taxes under her plan using money left over from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, part of the CARES Act.

The ESSER funding was sent to districts in order to make sure students were still getting an education during the COVID emergency. The U.S. Department of Education recommended using the money to support remote learning for all students, especially disadvantaged or at-risk students, and their teachers.

Ruais said Manchester is ready for leadership that knows how to balance a budget without tricks.

“Our city cannot achieve its full potential unless we have a fiscally sound budget. Year after year we see taxpayers footing the bill for irresponsible spending practices, as taxes continue to go up,” he said.

Manchester is breaking new ground in misery as the Queen City death totals from the opioid crisis keep rising. It is a crisis, Republicans say, driven by illegal fentanyl pouring over a border Democrats refuse to secure.

Manchester and Nashua experienced a record-high number of opioid-related overdose deaths last year. Manchester is on track to exceed that number in 2023 said Chris Stawasz with American Medical Response.

“There were 18 suspected opioid deaths in Nashua and Manchester in February. That is the most suspected opioid deaths in one month for Nashua and Manchester combined since tracking began in 2015.”

Nashua suffered 44 opioid-related overdoses last year, the most since 2018 when 35 people died. Manchester saw 79 people die from opioid overdoses in 2022, the highest number since 2017’s 67 deaths. More troubling, while Nashua is estimated to see a slight dip in deaths this year, Stawasz anticipates Manchester’s death toll to reach 111, the most ever.

Synthetic fentanyl, the type being smuggled over the southern border by Mexican cartels, is the most likely culprit for the increase in deaths. Fentanyl is used in counterfeit pills, and it is used to lace other illegal drugs.

“The significant increase in deaths can most likely be attributed to very potent synthetic fentanyl which is now being found in nearly all types of illicit substances,” Stawasz said. “In many cases, people who are using illicit substances have no idea that what they are using contains synthetic fentanyl – or how potent the synthetic fentanyl in the product is. Synthetic fentanyl can be lethal the first time you use it, knowingly or unknowingly.”

Fentanyl is responsible for the majority of overdose deaths in the country, according to federal government statistics. In 2021, 90 percent of all overdose deaths were connected to the drug. And most of that is coming from Mexican cartels who are producing the synthetic drug using ingredients from China, then using their control of the southern border to smuggle it into the U.S.

“The source of fentanyl is Mexico and its drug labs,” said Todd Bensmen with the Center for Immigration Studies. “I’m not seeing any evidence that the Biden administration is interested in damming up the source.”

Gov. Chris Sununu acknowledges New Hampshire is being hit hard by the opioid crisis, but he noted it is part of a national problem.

“States across the country are seeing a rise in opioid-related deaths and New Hampshire is not immune. Every death is tragic; it is someone’s son, daughter, and family member,” Sununu said. “The bottom line is that fentanyl is now in all different types of substances, whether that be cocaine, methamphetamine, fake pills, or vape cartridges – assume it is in anything and everything.

“There is no safe experience with substances, unless they are prescribed by a provider, and taken only as directed by the person they are prescribed to.”

Getting a handle on the crisis in Manchester calls for more police support, and getting cops the tools they need to do the job, said Jay Ruais, a Republican running to replace Democratic Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig.

“We must provide greater resources for our police department to go after drug dealers and fight for bail reform at the state level to keep them off our streets,” Ruais said. “Additionally, most who suffer a fatal overdose have previously overdosed, meaning we have to build better systems for individuals when they are at their most vulnerable like in hospitals, jails, and prevention programs in schools. Solving this crisis doesn’t cost more money. It requires prioritization and better coordination with existing community partners.”

Sununu announced a new PSA campaign this year, “No Safe Experience” to educate Granite Staters, especially young people, about the danger of fentanyl and other illegal drugs. Expected to run through the fall, the campaign includes video and public service announcements, social media campaigns, an informational website, billboards, and highly visible signs, posters, and materials that will be widely disseminated across the state and made available to schools, and an active media campaign to share that there is no safe experience through personal stories and data.