Policy Blog NH

The marginal costs of education

The issue of tax credits for private schools is now being debated in the Legislature, with several new bills moving through the State House.

One key question in the debate is: what are the costs or educating a single child, and how do those costs change when that child (or several children) leave a public school? As part of this discussion, the Center was asked to help calculate the marginal costs of public education, as a way of estimating the potential financial impact of such legislation. Our conclusion is that the financial impact of the proposed tax credits would vary considerably depending on several factors, including the size of the school, desired student-teacher ratios, and the magnitude of the changes in public school enrollment that followed the implementation of the legislation in question.

Our full response follows.

A regional approach to policymaking?

New Hampshire's traditions of strong local control and town-based governance are deeply rooted in the state's politics and culture. But we at the Center have lately been thinking of ways that more cross-border, regional approaches might improve decision-making across the state.

An in-depth look at crime in New Hampshire

New Hampshire has not published a comprehensive report of crime statistics since 1993. The Center's latest publication (which you can find here) is the first to meet the need of criminal justice professionals, researchers, and policymakers in understanding crime in New Hampshire by examining recent trends in criminal activity.

The report includes detailed crime statistics for the state's largest communities, compares New Hampshire's crime trends to those of other New England states, and examines the link between crime rates and state corrections policy.

Update on gambling: Movement in Massachusetts

It may be NH Primary Day, but that doesn't mean state policy questions are taking the day off.

The New Hampshire House is set to vote soon on the latest proposal to legalize casinos. Gov. Lynch has promised to veto any bills that allows expanded gambling, but the current bill has earned the support of House leadership. In addition, the recent decision by Massachusetts lawmakers to legalize casinos in that state has raised the stakes in New Hampshire's gambling debate.

Uncertainty over November state revenues

Today or tomorrow – when November’s revenue estimates are released – state policy makers will get another data point that will help us understand New Hampshire's budget position. But there's still some uncertainty about one significant source of tax revenue.

A closer look at NH's senior population

New figures released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show the growth in senior citizen populations across the country in the past decade. The numbers underscore the fact that New Hampshire – and the Northeast in general – is adding older people at a faster rate than the country as a whole.

A fix for School Building Aid?

New Hampshire's School Building Aid program, which has been subject to dissection and discussion for several years, may finally be getting a makeover. But whether the latest proposal for reform goes far enough to address the program's fundamental problems is uncertain.

States may feel pain from Super Committee failure

Many folks are wondering what the fiscal fallout will be from the Congressional Super Committee's failure to reach a deal on deficit reduction earlier this week. Federal law requires a series of automatic spending cuts to follow in the absence of such a deal. And among those potentially on the receiving end are state and local governments, many of which rely on federal spending and contracts to fuel their economies. Here's a helpful graphic showing how federal spending (both defense and otherwise) is spread among the 50 states. New Hampshire, you'll notice, claims a relatively small share of that pot.

 

Watching the amendments: School funding debate takes center stage again

The Legislature this week returns to the debate over education funding, when it holds hearings on a constitutional amendment on the matter. Predicting the future of that amendment – or the future of two other similar constitutional amendments still before the Legislature – is tricky. But it’s safe to say that, if passed, all of them would fundamentally reshape the state’s long and tangled debate over education funding and would shift the grounds upon which any future education policy is based.

Revenue update: Signs of bottoming out, but little sustained growth

The fiscal year is four months old, and monthly reports on revenue collections now offer a better glimpse of the state’s future financial position. Our take? The long, multiyear slide in state revenues appears to have ended, but no clear future trend is yet apparent.