Candidates for state representative receive questionnaires from numerous organizations. They often contain “loaded” questions, but the most incendiary was not from an advocacy group but from the League of Women Voters: “What should state government do to ensure an equitable, quality public education for all children pre-K through grade 12?”

The N.H. Constitution as interpreted by the N.H. Supreme Court requires that all students receive an “adequate” education not an “equitable” one. Under the standard of Brown v. Board of Education, equitable schools would require uniform teacher salaries statewide, a state-imposed curriculum, building aid targeted to the most obsolete facilities, etc. The Legislature is not even funding a truly “adequate” education; there is no way right now that they will find the money for “equitable.”

More significantly, even people and groups that take pride in their sense of social justice may not want equitable education.