Policy expert and Josiah Bartlett Center President Drew Cline joins host Jeff Chidester to unpack the New Hampshire Attorney General’s landmark appeal asking the state Supreme Court to overturn the decades-old Claremont education funding decisions.
Starting with the AG’s August 14 filing, Jeff and Drew dive into the historical and legal arguments challenging the court’s original 1993 interpretation of Part II, Article 83 of the NH Constitution. (1)
They highlight a key oversight in the Claremont precedent: the omitted word “seminaries” and the court’s misinterpretation that “cherish” means “required.” While plaintiffs argued that cherishing public schools mandates full state funding, Article 83 groups “seminaries” with public schools and instructs legislators to support both private and public institutions.
Drew explains why this missing distinction invalidates the claim that the state must fully fund only public education.
Later in the segment, Jeff and Drew tackle media accountability and point out blatant misinformation in a recent InDepthNH.org article titled “New Hampshire Ranks Near the Top for Lifetime Taxation.” (2)
The duo breaks down how the outlet relied on deeply flawed data, misconstrued the findings, and presented completely false conclusions.
