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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.

Milford High School students may not have urinals in their bathrooms much longer as board members look for a compromise in the fight over a proposed policy regarding bathroom and locker room use by transgender and non-binary students. 

“We talk about our responsibility as school board members on a divided issue, which is to compromise. This is the compromise,” said board member Noah Boudreault.

Dozens of students, teachers, parents, and community members spoke out Monday night, most opposed to the policy which would bar transgender students from most bathrooms and locker rooms. Nate Wheeler, board vice chair, proposed the new policy which would, for example, prohibit biological males who identify as female from using bathrooms and locker rooms for female students. Those students would instead be required to use separate facilities.

Wheeler did not address the controversy during the meeting, though Chair Judi Zaino expressed dismay about the proposal and indicated she would vote against it.

“I would be acting with malice to put a population in danger, and that is why I feel the way I do,” Zaino said. “I do feel there is a degree of malice here, and that concerns me greatly.”

Boudreault’s counterproposal is to limit bathroom use for everyone. Students would only be allowed to use stalls in the bathrooms and changing stalls in locker rooms, with no changing in common areas.

The overwhelming majority of people who spoke out Monday night were opposed to Wheeler’s proposal, telling board members it was born of hate. They predicted it would directly lead to an untold number of trans students committing suicide. One resident said it was anti-science, claiming there are now more than two recognized genders. 

State Rep. Maria Perez, D-Milford, said school board members who support the policy ought to be ashamed of themselves.

“What this school board is trying to pass, it doesn’t adhere to human rights. Let them be. They are not doing anything wrong to you,” Perez said.

But there is a problem with female students being harassed in the locker rooms by transgender students, according to Samaia DeMarco, who recently testified in Concord about the bullying and harassment female students are experiencing in Milford. Marco told the Monday night meeting the policy is meant to keep the girls safe. The opponents were engaged in a bullying attempt to silence girls and women, she said.

“They’re claiming discrimination while ignoring children’s voices,” Demarco said.

Demarco also accused Perez of laughing as a female student who also testified in Concord about being harassed by transgender students.

“Do you feel shame for laughing at the little girl who shared her testimony,” Demarco asked.

The issue of public safety when addressing transitioning students has emerged as a significant topic in the wake of a high-profile case in northern Virginia, where a transgender teenager was found guilty of sexually assaulting a female student in a bathroom. Parents were outraged when they learned the biological male was transferred to another school, where he allegedly forced a second victim into a classroom, nearly suffocated her, and sexually assaulted her.

The result for the school district has been a lawsuit, the firing of the superintendent, and criminal charges against school officials.

It is not clear if Boudreault’s compromise plan is workable. His plan would eventually put stalls in all the bathrooms and remove urinals. The costs could be in the tens of thousands of dollars, and there is no current plan in place to fund the bathroom renovations.

Additionally, school board members learned Monday night schools are legally required to provide a certain number of bathroom facilities based on population. Limiting the use to stalls would likely drop the number of bathrooms below the required limit. There are also logistical questions about getting students changed in time for gym class if the space is limited.

The Manchester School District’s transgender student policy violates the state constitution which protects the right of parents to raise their children, according to a new filing in the lawsuit brought by a Manchester mother. 

The woman, who is known as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, is responding to the district’s motion to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the district has no legal obligations when it comes to telling parents about their child’s activities at school regarding sexual and gender identity.

The response, filed in Hillsborough Superior Court-North in Manchester and written by attorney Richard Lehmann, hits back at the district accusing school officials of interfering with Jane Doe’s rights as a mother by forcing staff to keep secrets from parents. 

“Knowledge that the school is actively supporting a child’s decision to transition to a different gender identity when a parent would believe a different response is in the child’s best interests is precisely the kind of information that a parent would be likely to consider in deciding ‘whether’ to send a child to public school or to choose some other option,” Lehmann writes. “However, the policy purposefully and intentionally interferes with the ability of a parent to obtain this information. The defendant argues that it has no duty to advise parents of a student’s transgender expression in schools. This too serves to burden a parent’s right to direct the education and upbringing of children.”

Lehmann also argues that Manchester’s policy, which requires school employees to withhold information from parents and to actively mislead parents at the child’s request, is a violation of New Hampshire’s Constitution’s Part 1, Article 2, which states all people “have certain natural, essential, and inherent rights among which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty . . . and . . . seeking and obtaining happiness.”

Lehmann notes the right of parents to raise their children has been recognized by the New Hampshire Supreme Court as a constitutional right.

“Our Supreme Court has recognized that: [t]he family and the rights of parents over it are natural, essential, and inherent rights within the meaning of the New Hampshire Constitution. Because of their fundamental importance, great judicial deference has been accorded parental rights,” Lehmann wrote.

Jane Doe learned in 2021 that her child, known in the filing as M.C., was using a different gender identity at school than M.C.’s biological sex, according to court records.

When Jane Doe confronted the school staff, M.C. ‘s teachers agreed that she had the right to step in as M.C. ‘s mother and direct staff to use M.C.’s natural identity and gender.

“I do think that a parent should be giving permission for their child to be called by any other name,” one of M.C.’s teachers wrote to Jane Doe.

However, soon after the teachers agreed to use M.C.’s biological identity, the school principal wrote to tell Jane Doe that the district’s policy makes that impossible.

“Good Morning [Jane Doe]. While I respect and understand your concern, we are held by the District policy as a staff. I have quoted our district policy below, which outlines the fact that we cannot disclose a student’s choice to parents if asked not to. If [M.C.] insists on being called [M.C.’s desired name] as a staff we have to respect that according to the policy or unfortunately we can be held accountable despite parents’ wishes,” the principal wrote.

No one in Manchester’s School Administrative Unit would talk to NH Journal in support of the policy. Mayor Joyce Craig, chair of the school board, also declined to defend it. No one on the school board’s policy committee agreed to speak about it, either.

The district claims in its motion seeking to have the case dismissed that the policy does not interfere with Jane Doe’s rights as a parent because she can use M.C.’s biological sex and birth name in the home. But in school, Jane Does has no right to say how her child is to be treated, according to the district’s motion.

“Whatever the scope of a parent’s rights vis-a-vis their transgender or gender-nonconforming children, they do not include the right to force a school district to act as a conduit for the parent exercise of those rights in this fashion,” the district’s motion states.

Lehmann argues the district’s position is akin to a Jewish family asking that their child receive kosher food or a Hindu family asking that her child be given vegetarian food, only to have the school staff keep secrets and lie to parents about what they are feeding the children.

“But when a school affirmatively acts in ways that hide these kinds of facts from parents, they violate the parent’s rights to direct the upbringing of their children, to become engaged in the child’s development, and to exercise their right to provide guidance,” Lehmann wrote.

Well, well, well, look who finally figured out how to have babies. 

Granite Staters have been gettin’ busy, with the highest birth rate increase in the entire nation according to new data from the Pew Trusts. The Granite State saw a seven percent increase in babies born in 2021 compared to 2019.

Lockdowns, amirite?

Let me be the first to say to all you new parents out there, from the bottom of my heart: Ha. Ha.

Your life is over. Kaput.

Some starry-eyed optimists might see all those little rug rats as good news. Take Gov. Chris Sununu, for example.

“We’ve long known New Hampshire is the best state in the country to live, work, and raise a family,” said Sununu. “This latest study reinforces that, highlighting that people are moving to New Hampshire to start a family because of our low taxes, high quality of life, and safe communities.”

So says the amateur with three kids.

As a father of 10 (Yes, I’m Catholic. Why do you ask?), let me tell you that being a new parent in 2022 is gonna be terrible.

I don’t feel bad for any of you. I’ve been doing my part for years to keep up the state’s population while the rest of you slacked off. You were all getting dogs and going hiking and starting microbreweries and binge-watching Bridgerton, blah, blah, blah. We were the schmoes changing diapers and pushing double strollers and driving vans with four car seats crammed in them.

Then, because you ran out of shows on Netflix, you decide to have a kid.

Suckers.

The pandemic/inflation/Ukraine/supply chain/BigFoot issues have made regular life hard enough, but parenting? I mean, I can buy dog food. Maybe not my guy’s regular brand all the time, but he eats. You poor saps with infants have to stand in the Costco parking lot in the middle of the night to meet your black-market baby formula dealers.

And it’s not like it gets easier when they get older. They keep eating! Their whole lives! And you’re supposed to pay for it for some reason!

Get to a grocery store and see. You’re paying $8 bucks a pound for bologna — and not the good kind. Milk might as well be diesel. And bananas are what? $10?

Forget the visions you might have of being a soccer mom or a Little League dad. Gas is $5 a gallon now. Imagine how much you’ll be paying in seven or eight years. How are you going to get to all of those practices? Hopes and dreams? Heck, by then you’ll be willing to sell the kid just to afford to get to work.

Maybe you can shell out $80,000 for an imaginary electric minivan. You know, one of those green cars that magically reduces carbon by getting all its energy from the electric grid that runs off coal and oil. Hope it’s not one of the exploding models.

New Hampshire does have lots of affordable housing options for young families, though. Just head to the nearest state liquor store and you can pick up all the cardboard you’ll need for the night.

But what about schools when your little tyke is ready? The good news is New Hampshire has some of the best public schools in the country. When they’re open. Otherwise, you can get free Wi-Fi at your public library with the Chromebook your teacher will hand out for remote learning. You’ll need it for the next monkeypox outbreak.

I bet you thought you were done doing fractions, huh. Think again. You’re the teacher now, and it somehow pays worse than a real teacher’s salary.

Maybe you’re ok doing all the educating of the kids while simultaneously paying property tax on your cardboard shack. Maybe you’ve heard how politically radical our teachers have become. Well, relax. No more than half of the members of the NH NEA are Marxists.

The rest are committed Trotskyites.

But don’t worry, the good folks in the House Freedom Caucus have a plan to fix education. They are going to secede everything in New Hampshire from the Union except for the public schools. Those will become part of Massachusetts. I don’t know what that will fix, but then again I never read Ayn Rand, so what do I know?

All kidding aside, New Hampshire’s baby boom is great news for every new parent, and it’s pretty good news for the rest of the Granite State, too. Choosing to have children is a bet on the future, a sign of your belief that living here is pretty good and it can get even better.

Which may explain why the birth rate in New York fell by 5.5 percent.

Live free or die!

Democrats and the state’s biggest teachers union say Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut needs to be stopped after he called out “activist” teachers who he says undermine New Hampshire family values. 

Edelblut set off a firestorm when he drew attention to classroom materials and teacher assignments he says show there is a problem between teachers and families. Many families in New Hampshire feel their values are being undermined in the classroom, he told NH Journal.

“The actions of some educators, which have become increasingly apparent through social media as a result of the pandemic, are undermining the sacred trust that educators hold. Our education system needs that trust to exist,” he said.

Edelblut called out schools that are teaching woke ideology in New Hampshire classrooms. Edelblut published a 74-page document that shows teachers using materials from critical race theory activist Ibram X. Kendi, an article teaching students how to protest police, one asking students in middle school for their preferred pronouns as part of a math class orientation, and another teaching 4th graders there are multiple genders.

“Some people identify as a gender that is not male or female, some identify as more than one gender, and some people don’t identify as any gender,” states one lesson for 8- and 9-year-olds.

Concerned parents have been contacting Edelblut about the classes that he says are running against the long-held trust the parents have in teachers and schools.

“To be fair, most educators do not engage in such practices,” he said. “When you send children to school you are trusting the teachers not to undermine your values, and educators who do that run the risk of eroding that trust in all teachers.”

The teachers unions and their allies in the New Hampshire Democratic Party reacted by blasting Edelblut, saying he is targeting public education with the goal of undermining the system.

“Our commissioner has turned his clearly visible disdain for public education into a crusade not to remodel our schools, but to close them,” said Megan Tuttle, president of the NEA-NH, the state’s largest teacher’s union. “By continually destabilizing what was once a model for public education in America, he is hoping more and more parents will opt out of New Hampshire public schools and choose the private and religious ones he favors and funds so generously with our tax dollars”

House Minority Leader David Cote (D-Nashua) and Senate Minority Leader Donna Soucy, D-Manchester released a letter calling for Edelbut to be removed. They accused Edelblut of being more interested in furthering his political career than in educating New Hampshire’s children.

“Frank Edelblut does not put the best interests of New Hampshire children first. His goal is purely to enact an extreme, far-right agenda to further his own personal political ambitions, whatever they may be. He is playing games with the very futures of our children and it is simply unacceptable,” they wrote.

Florida’s Department of Education got headlines last week when it rejected 41 percent of math textbooks because they included lessons allegedly inspired by critical race theory or other controversial educational theories like “social-emotional learning.”

One math problem in a book rejected by Florida begins with the phrase “What? Me? Racist?” In another, a fifth-grade math textbook featured standard math problems with the phrase “How can you understand your feelings?”

“Math is about getting the right answer. It’s not about how you feel about the problem,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said last week.

Edelblut said he does not have the authority to stop schools from using any specific text.

“In New Hampshire, that’s a school board issue,” he said. “What happened in Florida would need to be done by a school board in New Hampshire.”

Instead, Edelblut is focusing on supporting most teachers who stick to teaching students free from ideology.

“We want to make sure the teachers have the training and skills to be effective in the classroom and not be undermined by educators who undermine the value systems of children and hurt parental trust of the system as a whole,” he said.

Tuttle has lashed out at Edelblut since he first published the document, saying she and the other NEA-NH members are happy to be considered activists. 

“If it’s ‘activist’ to believe we all deserve the right to live, learn, work, and thrive no matter our color, immigration status or sexual orientation and gender identities—no exceptions, then every one of our members is an activist teacher,” Tuttle said in a statement directed at Edelblut. “Politicians like you push rules that restrict our freedoms and do your best to try to divide us. You are very mistaken If you believe calling us activists is an insult.”

As COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise amid the cold-weather surge, Gov. Chris Sununu said Tuesday there are no plans to close schools due to the worsening pandemic.

“Kids really need to be in school. They want to be in school, and that’s the best place for their education,” Sununu said during his weekly COVID-19 press conference.

Many schools in the Granite State went to remote learning models around Thanksgiving because of the pandemic last year. The state announced Tuesday an average of 900 to 1,000 new cases of COVID-19, a 43 percent increase, and 21 deaths reported in the last week, stretching back to the Thanksgiving holiday. Sununu noted cases are also up in Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts as well.

“Like the rest of New England, we’re seeing the winter surge that we had always predicted, and it’s very severe,” Sununu said.

New Hampshire schools will also have the funds available for masks and cleaning supplies to keep students safe, Sununu said. In extreme cases, schools might need to opt for remote learning, but that will not be the rule as New Hampshire heads into the holidays and beyond, he said. 

Remote learning hurts kids when it comes to mental health and educational outcomes, data show. According to the CDC, nearly 25 percent of parents whose children received virtual instruction or combined instruction reported worsened mental or emotional health in their children, compared to 16 percent of parents whose children received in-person instruction. 

“Going remote can be so detrimental,” Sununu said. “We really want kids to be in schools.”

So far, no Granite Stater under the age of 19 has died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Sununu touted the recent court-ordered halt to President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funds. New Hampshire was already experiencing a healthcare employee shortage before the pandemic, and he said many facilities in the Granite State faced forced closures if the mandate went into effect.

New Hampshire is involved in multiple lawsuits opposing Biden-backed mandates, and the current order is temporary pending more court action. Sununu has pledged to fight the mandates, though he continues promoting vaccination as a choice.

“We want everyone to get vaccinated. But if the vaccine mandate risks closing our nursing homes, it is a bad idea,” he said.

When asked about nursing home residents being cared for by unvaccinated nurses and staff, Sununu said he’d rather have an unvaccinated nurse than no nurse at all. Opponents of the mandate note medical professionals cared for COVID-19 patients for a year before the vaccines were available.

And a recent survey of 1,200 senior care providers by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) reported 99 percent of nursing homes and 96 percent of assisted living facilities said they didn’t have enough workers.

Sununu stressed the need for people to get vaccinated if they are able and for people eligible for a booster to get one. He plans to get his booster shot at the state’s Dec. 11 Booster Blitz, where vaccination sites will be operating at locations throughout the state.