William Marvel: Winning by Default

Today, Conway voters will come to the town garage to cast their ballots on school spending, only to realize that they have again been deprived of any choice. The difference between the school district's proposed budget and the default budget has been magically pared down lower than $10,000, or less than .02 percent of the total budget. And just to encourage you to cast what looks like a vote of confidence in the school board and administration, the default budget has been set higher than the board's budget. If you vote against the proposed budget, the schools get even more of your money.

This is the old and tried strategy by which New Hampshire school districts nullified the voter empowerment that SB 2 meetings were intended to enable. The default budget serves to manipulate voter response when it is set near or above the operating budget, and guarantees that even if the proposed budget is defeated, the schools will still get the bulk of the money requested. It was an ingenious response to the Legislature's valiant effort to wrest political power from the parents and teachers, who have the most incentive to sit through endless hours (or nights) of contentious meetings, and have no trouble driving at night.