New Hampshire Schools Are No. 5 In Nation, New Ranking Says

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

New Hampshire schools are the fifth-best in the nation, a new analysis shows, a success for students and a rebuttal to claims the GOP-led state is underserving the education system.

For years, New Hampshire Democrats have accused Republican governors and legislators of “starving” public schools by supporting school choice programs and “devastating” the education system by opposing higher state funding for K-12 schools.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire schools continue to excel compared to the rest of the U.S. According to the latest rankings from the data analysts at Wallethub.com, New Hampshire is number five, behind Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Virginia.

The five worst states? Arizona, West Virginia, Alaska, Oklahoma and — dead last — New Mexico.

Among the findings about New Hampshire’s schools:

• Overall Rank: 5th
• 4th – Math Test Scores
• 4th – Reading Test Scores
• 4th – Pupil-Teacher Ratio
• 4th – Median ACT Score
• 29th – % of Licensed/Certified Public K–12 Teachers
• 17th – Dropout Rate
• 23rd – % of Threatened/Injured High School Students
• 1st – Existence of Digital Learning Plan

New Hampshire is also in the top 10 when it comes to per-pupil k-12 spending ($21,900), according to the Education Data Initiative.

“Getting enough funding is essential for a productive school system, but simply having more money doesn’t guarantee success. How funds are applied also plays a big role in how good a school system is, as does the quality of educators, other professionals and the curriculum,” said Wallethub data analyst Chip Lupo.

The New Hampshire State Supreme Court recently upheld a lower court’s ruling that the state must spend more on public schools — $7,356.01 or more, to be exact. (Two of the judges in the three-vote majority were fill-ins covering vacancies due to conflict of interest or ongoing criminal investigations.)

Opponents of the premise that judges, rather than elected legislators, should determine how tax dollars are spent argue that New Hampshire’s ongoing educational success demonstrates that the state’s schools are not underserved.

Drew Cline, chair of the state Board of Education and head of the Josiah Barlett Center for Public Policy, warns that the news isn’t as good as it first appears.

“It’s nice to see New Hampshire’s public schools get the recognition they deserve for ranking among the best in the country. However, we can’t look at this out of context. The frustrating truth is that every state’s public schools struggle to generate acceptable outcomes,” Cline said.

“The No. 1 state on this list, Massachusetts, gets only 40 percent of its 8th graders proficient in reading and 37 percent proficient in math. Studies that put a heavy emphasis on inputs miss that too many of those resources aren’t being used effectively, even in the highest-ranked states.”

DEVELOPING…

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.