HB 1121 Redefines "cost of adequate education" to EXCLUDE school nurses and superintendent services.

When a court tells you that you're not spending enough on schools, you have two options: spend more, or redefine "enough." Rep. Rick Ladd (R-Haverhill) chose option two.

The ConVal ruling found that NH's per-pupil adequacy funding of roughly $4,200 was far below the actual cost of providing an adequate education. The court ordered the legislature to fix it. HB 1121 is how the legislature is "fixing" it — by removing school nurses and superintendent services from the list of things that count toward adequacy. If you shrink the definition of what schools need, suddenly the funding looks less inadequate.

The bill also eliminates the requirement that the legislature review adequacy costs every 10 years. This means the definition of "adequate" could remain frozen even as costs rise, effectively guaranteeing that funding falls further and further behind actual needs.

Rick Ladd chairs the House Education Committee and has been the architect of the legislature's strategy to resist court-ordered funding increases. He's not hiding the ball — he's openly arguing that the courts overstepped and the legislature gets to decide what "adequate" means. The problem is that every court that has looked at the question disagrees with him.