NH State Board of Education adopts controversial minimum standards despite sharp public opposition

December 13th, 2024

The New Hampshire State Board of Education formally adopted the Department of Education’s proposal to overhaul the state’s Minimum Standards for Public School Approval, also known as the ED 306s. The majority of the rule changes become effective immediately, except for changes in graduation credit requirements, which will go into effect for the 2026-2027 school year. 

Some of the most significant changes, like gutting of academic program requirements, removing class size maximums, and replacing “course requirements” with access to “learning opportunities” and curriculum, likely won’t have immediate impacts in local public schools. 

However, the changes could have school funding impacts, especially as the state is defending the amount that it provides for public schools ($4,100 per student) in a lawsuit currently before the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Earlier this week, the state defended the amount per student that it provides public schools, saying that schools aren’t required -- and the state shouldn’t have to pay -- to provide facilities, heat their buildings, or have principals. The changes in the minimum standards could allow the state to further downshift the cost to local property tax payers by removing key requirements of what the state defines as an “adequate education.”

The vote marks the end of a nearly three year long process to overhaul the rules, which govern all public schools in the state and set minimum requirements for their operation and management, which has been marred by significant public opposition and concern from educators, public school supporters, and parents that it would undermine and weaken public schools. 

In November, an oversight committee of lawmakers voted along party lines to approve the NHED’s proposed rule overhaul, while acknowledging the overwhelming public opposition and ambiguity in the rules. 

About the proposal: Removing maximum class sizes and course offerings

The NHED’s proposed overhaul received significant pushback from members of the oversight committee and the public, including:

• Removing maximum class sizes. The NHED removed New Hampshire’s maximum class size regulations, replacing them with a “student-educator ratio” that would not cap the number of students in a classroom. 

• Replacing “courses” with “learning opportunities.” The NHED replaced the term “courses” with “learning opportunities” throughout the minimum standards. This could eliminate the state’s responsibility to ensure that all students have guaranteed access to a well-rounded set of in-person courses taught by certified teachers. Under the proposed rules, the minimum offering would be access to “learning opportunities,” which are vaguely defined as “educational experiences” that could be heavily dependent on a school district’s local resources. 

Notably, State Board of Education Chair Drew Cline, who also serves as the Executive Director of the conservative think tank The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, asserted at the beginning of the State Board meeting that the rules don’t, in his interpretation, remove maximum class sizes. 

Calling it “misinformation,” he said that the rules do not, in fact, remove maximum class size requirements of public schools. 

However, the key language — “class size for instructional purposes, in each school shall be” — has been removed from the rules, and replaced with “class size ratios” and an expansion of what is defined as an “educator” to include paraprofessionals. 

Changing graduation requirements 

The rules change the high school graduation requirements, beginning in the 2026-2027 school year for students entering high school. The changes add more social studies and math credit requirements, and lessen the number of English and elective credit requirements for high school students. 

Oversight committee’s concerns

Over the fall, the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (JLCAR) raised significant concerns about the impact of the minimum standards overhaul. In November, Representative Carol McGuire (R-Epsom), who chairs the committee, acknowledged the months of public opposition they received. 

However, the committee voted along party lines to approve the proposal. Ironically, they voted to oppose a set of rules put forward by the Department of Environmental Services about landfills, partly because of the public opposition that the agency received. 

Several people spoke at the JLCAR meetings over the fall, in addition to the hundreds of people who have been engaged since the beginning of the process. 

“This should not be about politics. Yet, we seem to be going in a direction where we are ignoring the vast majority of our educators, our administrators, our parents, all whom have major, major concerns with these rules,” said former Senator Becky Whitley (D-Hopkinton), a member of JLCAR, said in her opposition statement to the committee in November. 

“The changes reflect an entirely different vision: a vision in which school districts don't have to provide education. They just have to ensure it and where instruction may or may not be offered, and where class sizes may be determined by the number of people in the room that don't necessarily all meet the definition of teachers,” Mary Wilke told the committee in opposition to the rule proposal during the November meeting.

What’s next

The New Hampshire Department of Education announced that the rules went into effect on December 13, 2024.