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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 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.

“I think that parents are looking for accountability and transparency in education, and this bill takes us further in that direction,” said bill co-sponsor and House Education Committee Vice Chair Rep. Glenn Cordelli, (R-Tuftonboro.)

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

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.

“It’s so taxpayers can see where the money is going in their districts,” Murphy said during his testimony for the bill earlier this year.

New Hampshire’s public education system is spending more money to educate fewer students than ever before, according to Murphy. And the bulk of that money isn’t going to teachers in the classrooms, he said.

“Over the last two decades our cost per pupil is up 77 percent adjusting for inflation, while our teacher salaries are only up one percent,” Murphy said. “In 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.”

In the last 20 years, New Hampshire’s 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. 

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.

Murphy said it is possible for the average parent or taxpayer to find this information, but only with hours of research through district documents. 

Shannon McGinley, executive director at conservative advocacy group Cornerstone Action, said the bill will let parents know how much they are paying for district staff who don’t actually teach.

“These non-teaching staff include DEI consultants and auxiliary superintendents who enjoy six-figure salaries while often failing to demonstrate any return on the taxpayers’ considerable investment in their hiring,” McGinley said in a Cornerstone oped.

“By requiring school districts to report salaries for administrative positions and DEI consultants ahead of local school budget meetings, (the law) would shed light on these obfuscated costs for taxpayers before they are forced to foot the bill.”

One example: Rachael Blansett was hired in 2022 by the Oyster River School District in Durham, N.H., for a salary somewhere between $95,000 and $105,000 as a DEI officer.

Cordelli thinks the bill will clear away misinformation about what is really going on in school by making the numbers clear and available for everyone.

“A lot of people have no idea how much is being spent in public schools per student, even among teachers,” Cordelli said. 

Cordelli hopes showing how many non-teaching administrators there are and how much they earn will help explain the New Hampshire education spending paradox.

“At some point, parents and voters are going to say ‘why is the budget continuing to go up when the enrollment keeps going down,’” Cordelli said.

As the legal battle over school funding plays out in the ConVal lawsuit trial in the Rockingham Superior Court this week, new data show the massive increase in school spending is tied to the nearly 60 percent increase in the number of district administrators.

School superintendents are among the highest-paid public employees in the state, with salaries more than double that of the average teacher. That is certainly the case in the Contoocook Valley Regional School District, which is currently in court demanding more state funding.

According to data compiled by the New Hampshire Department of Education, Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders’s salary is more than $171,000 a year. That makes her one of the highest-paid superintendents in the state.

A study released this week by the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy showed taxpayer spending on New Hampshire school districts rose by $1.5 billion over the last 30 years even as the number of students fell by 14 percent. Even adjusting for inflation, taxpayers poured in an additional $937 million to educate fewer kids.

“This massive spending increase–40 percent when adjusted for inflation–occurred as public school enrollment was cratering. From 2001-2019, New Hampshire district public school enrollments fell by more than 29,946 students or 14 percent,” the report stated.

It was particularly true for administrative costs. According to the report, that 14 percent drop in enrollment was accompanied by a 15 percent increase in district administrative staffing.

“Adjusted for inflation, per-pupil spending increased 83 percent for support services, 82 percent for general administration, [and] 74 percent for school administration.”

The trend appears to be at work in ConVal schools. For example, in 2001, the Contoocook Valley Regional School District had 3,227 enrolled students. By 2019, it had fallen to 2,176, or 32.5 percent.

At the same time, school spending — mostly paid for by property taxpayers — rose from $37.3 million a year to more than $47 million, an increase of 26 percent.

The numbers don’t lie, said Ben Scafidi, the author of the report and a professor of Economics at Kennesaw State University and director of the school’s Education Economics Center. “Taxpayers are spending more money on fewer students,” he said.

The problem isn’t teacher pay, which has risen modestly. Instead, one of the biggest cost drivers in public schools has been the number of district-level administrators and staff, up 57 percent, Scafidi said. They are employees who do not teach and who generally do not interact with students.

“Most of the spending increase went outside the classroom,” Scafidi told WFEA radio’s Drew Cline Wednesday. Cline is also the president of the Josiah Bartlett Center.

While the number of students dropped 14 percent, the number of school principals overseeing their education dropped by just two percent.

“It’s very out of whack with the decrease in students,” Scafidi said.

In the same period, schools were beefing up spending and losing students, and the rest of New Hampshire’s government was growing at a much smaller pace, Scafidi said. He said that public colleges and universities saw an 8 percent increase in the number of students and responded with a more than 7 percent increase in staff. All other state agencies grew by about 1.2 percent, with more than 300 employees, even though the state population went up 8 percent.

New Hampshire is now spending thousands more per pupil than other states; he said, around $3,900 more. The average state spending per pupil is close to $19,000. This hasn’t stopped districts like ConVal from fighting the state for more per-pupil spending.

The state sends nearly $4,000 per pupil to each school district as part of the adequate education grants. ConVal’s lawsuit claims the real cost of the constitutionally mandated adequate education is much higher, and it wants the state to send $10,000 per pupil.

In addition to Rizzo Sanders’ $171,000 a year — which puts her in the top bracket of school superintendents — the assistant ConVal superintendent earns more than $141,000. That’s more than many superintendents in nearby districts, where the pay ranges from about $100,000 to $150,000.

Not that ConVal is at the top of the heap for administrative salaries.

Hanover’s superintendent brings in $178,000, and Nashu pays its superintendent $172,500. Oyster River’s superintendent is the top earner, taking home more than $192,000.

Part of the blame for the increase in the number of outside-the-classroom administrators falls on state and federal governments issuing rules and mandates for local schools.

“Public schools get funding from the federal government, the state government, and local property taxes,” Sacfidi said. “You have many layers of government telling schools what to do, and each layer of government has its preferences, and they impose them on public schools.”

According to Sacfidi, the result is more taxpayer money going to schools that teach fewer students, and more of that money goes to employees who do not step inside the classrooms as part of their jobs.