Let court rule on Governor Lynch’s targeted aid plan   Big
changes are happening in New Hampshire’s education-funding
debate. Gov. John Lynch and many of his fellow Democrats are now
in agreement with a view held by most Republicans. Our current
system of distributing a fixed amount of state aid for every
student should be replaced with a “targeted aid” distribution
formula. This is encouraging, but until this new common ground
expands to include bipartisan support for a constitutional
amendment, Republican giddiness is premature. A new distribution
formula alone is not an education-funding plan. A real plan must
address the fact that much of what the court said in its
Claremont decisions suggests targeted aid is unconstitutional.
Dismissing or ignoring that fact will not produce lasting
reform. I had to deal with the same issue when I was a candidate
for governor in 2002 and proposed an education-funding plan that
included targeted aid. Like Governor Lynch, I heard arguments
from lawyers who claim that targe