New Hampshire’s Senate has voted 15-9 for the new education funding plan, sending it on to the Senate Finance Committee for additional review.
The bill calls for nearly $3,500 per pupil for "universal” costs, such as teachers and supplies, and "differentiated” aid of $675 per pupil requiring instruction in English as a Second Language, along with funding for special education students.
The bill also creates a five-step plan for directing additional aid to schools with greater concentrations of students receiving free or reduced-price lunches. Schools targeted to receive this "differentiated” aid will be asked to apply it to one or more programs that have proven successful in raising academic achievement for economically disadvantaged students.
State aid under this system will be aimed at individual schools as opposed to previous plans, which targeted aid at the district level.