Here is the text of the constitutional amendment that Governor Lynch is submitting to the legislature:
In fulfillment of its duties with respect to education set forth in part II, article 83, the legislature shall have the authority and responsibility to define reasonable standards for elementary and secondary public education, to establish reasonable standards of accountability, and to mitigate local disparities in educational opportunity and fiscal capacity. Further, in the exercise thereof, the legislature shall have full discretion to determine the amount of, and methods of raising and distributing, state funding for public education.
The Governor's office tells us that a team of lawyers, including Chuck Douglas and Marty Gross, believes that this will maintain some level of judicial review of education laws.
I don't see how - "full discretion" seems pretty clear- but I am not a lawyer. Andru Volinsky is, and he was one of the lead lawyers in the Claremont case. NHPR reports that he thinks it eliminates any enforceable state commitment to education.
It seems to me that "full discretion to determine the amount of" state funding of education allows the legislature to set that amount to $0.00.
It also seems to me that, in doing so, the legislature would excuse local communities from supporting schools at all.
We live in a state that is under siege by carpetbagging Free State ideologues who reject the very idea of publicly funded schools. I fear - and believe - that Governor Lynch is proposing an amendment that gives them a dangerous new weapon. Town by town, city by city - we are, in my estimation, likely to see efforts to completely eliminate public schools and offer parents (for now) a couple thousand dollars to pay for private school.
O'Brien and some others believe that Lynch's proposal does allow for judicial review. (They also appear to be in a snit, which may take precedence over their legal analysis.)
As I understand it, New Hampshire allows the legislature to ask the state Supreme Court just what this means:
[Art.] 74. [Judges to Give Opinions, When.] Each branch of the legislature as well as the governor and council shall have authority to require the opinions of the justices of the supreme court upon important questions of law and upon solemn occasions.
Some clarity would be helpful.
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