Gap Day

What is Gap Day?

The New Hampshire Citizens’ Voice Project’s Fund the Gap study shows that there is an average Gap of $2,125 per student in New Hampshire. This Gap is the difference between what the State provides on average for education funding per student and what it actually costs on average per student to meet four very basic state requirements: 1) some teachers and administrative staff, 2) some building costs, 3) transportation costs, and 4) system leadership costs. This Gap is currently funded with local property taxes. More information about our Fund the Gap Study is available here.

The result of the Gap is that State money to pay for the four basic components in our study runs out after about 118 school days in a standard 180 day school year. This year that means that State funding stops around March 10, 2005. After that day, local communities will be paying their educational costs entirely from local property taxes and any federal or grant funds they may receive.

The New Hampshire Citizens’ Voice Project is calling for March 10th 2005 to be known as “Gap Day.” We are planning to help coordinate local community forums on or around that day to help raise awareness about the Gap and to engage New Hampshire citizens in discussions about the Gap.

What You Can Do

If you have not received our Fund the Gap Report and CD with audio power point presentation please email us at info@nhcvp.org to get this free information.

Our audio CD provides information about the Gap and the impact of the Gap on local property taxes. The CD also contains a number of discussion questions and action steps so that citizens can take action to have the State Fund the Gap. The CD is designed to be shown to a group and provides all the information you need to conduct a local forum. The audio power point presentation on the CD explains all the information. The CD just needs to be put into a computer and started up and it will do all the work. The audio presentation lasts about 20 minutes. The discussion questions on the CD provide some starting points to discuss how the Gap affects your community. Some of the action steps include calculating your community’s Gap and the resulting local property tax rate to pay for the Gap in your community. The Gap varies from community to community depending on your actual costs for the four basic components we analyzed and the amount of State funding your community receives.

If you already have our Report and CD, schedule a community forum. The forum could be part of a town or school board meeting that has already been scheduled or it could be a separate event.

We are glad to help with the coordination of a forum if necessary. We can publicize the forum on our listserve and website and we have some funds available that can be used to help publicize the forums with flyers or mailings and to provide refreshments at the forums.

Training

NHCVP will be conducting a training on February 18th to provide some tips on how to conduct a Fund the Gap forum. The training will be conducted by teleconference at 10:00 am and last for about 45 minutes. It is provided free of charge. During the training we will provide detailed information about how to show our Fund the Gap CD and how to lead a discussion about the Gap in your community or group. We will also talk about action steps to take in your community after discussing the issues. These include having your community figure out its Gap and your community?s resulting local property tax rate to pay for the Gap. It is important to calculate this information and share it with NHCVP and with your state elected officials so they understand the true impact that state under funding of education has on local communities.

If you would like to participate in the training, please email us at info@nhcvp.org to get the access code and teleconference phone number. If you would like to participate in a training but cannot make the day or time we have set, please email us at the same address so we can try and arrange a training for you on a different day or time.

We Can Come To Your Community

We are also available to come to some communities on or around Gap Day to facilitate forums. If you would like us to come to your community email us at info@nhcvp.org.