January 13, 2009
Concord Monitor
Discontent over state-required kindergarten is spreading through the southern tier with a second town signaling that it may not comply with a law that requires school districts to offer public kindergarten this fall.
Last week, Salem’s budget committee stripped about $1.6 million from the school budget, money that had been included to provide half-day kindergarten to 300 children this September. Committee members also urged the district to join Hudson in a lawsuit that claims requiring kindergarten is unconstitutional.
Those working to bring kindergarten to Salem are undeterred. Superintendent Michael Delahanty said the school board and the budget committee have differing opinions. Board members will meet in the coming weeks to consider options for the deliberative session this month, but Delahanty says kindergarten is a priority.
“The board has remained steadfast in its belief that one, the provision of the law would likely prevent us from prevailing (in a lawsuit), and two, and probably more importantly, it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “While the rest of the country is talking about publicly funded programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, we’re talking about 5-year-olds.”
Since 1989, New Hampshire has been the only state that doesn’t offer public kindergarten to every child. Parents aren’t required to send their children to school until they are 6, but lawmakers have long encouraged districts to open kindergartens by offering grants for construction and other start-up costs.
Nearly two years ago, the Legislature included half-day kindergarten in its definition of an adequate education, something lawmakers were ordered to prepare under the terms of the most recent lawsuit over how New Hampshire pays for public schools.
One by one, the holdout towns, about a dozen in all, complied with the new law, until only Hudson remained. Some residents in other towns have fussed about the requirement and lauded Hudson for filing suit, but Salem is the only community that has taken a formal vote.
Other southern-tier school districts are having an easier time. Pelham plans to open a self-contained kindergarten in portable classrooms this fall, although the school district won’t provide transportation. In Windham, school board Chairwoman Barbara Coish says the school’s kindergarten plans are generally well accepted.
“Fortunately, we do not have a budget committee here,” she said. “We have not heard any rumbles about anyone who wants to stop us from going where we’re going.”
Nothing is certain until the votes are cast in March, but school district leaders say they’ll have little choice to comply with the law, even if their budgets undergo deep cuts.
“This is one of the mandated programs that it is going to be included in the default budget. . . . If someone decides to take money out, it really isn’t going to do any good,” said Roxanne Wilson, the assistant superintendent of schools in Pelham. “There’s a constitutional reason why some people are totally against this and I understand that. But I also understand that there’s a law in place.”
Delahanty said the Salem School Board will likely have three options at its deliberative session: accept the smaller budget and delay kindergarten, ask voters to restore the money; or accept the smaller budget and fund kindergarten by cutting other programs.
The board would have to find about $700,000 in other areas. The rest of the start-up money, about $900,000, would come from the state in the form of construction grants.
The state expects every town to comply with the kindergarten requirement this year, except for Hudson, which is exempt while its lawsuit is pending. The Department of Education has yet to say how, or if, a town would be punished for not complying, but Ed Murdough, who oversees school approval for the state, said budget reductions aren’t an excuse to sidestep the law.
“Districts frequently don’t get all the money in the budget that they want, but that doesn’t relieve them of their responsibilities,” he said. “It’s like saying we’re taking out the money for the third grade.”