Attorney General Steve Merrill advised Governor Sununu in a written opinion that the language contained in the Augenblick Legislation would undermine the state's position in the Jessemen case.

In June 1985, Governor Sununu signed a revised Augenblick Bill. The "equal educational opportunities" language, the 8% funding requirement and the use of revenue from the Business Profits Tax were all deleted.

On September 4, 1985, the school districts filed a Motion for Voluntary Non Suit ending the Jessemen litigation. The motion stated, "Plaintiffs believe that the adoption of the Augenblick formula, so called, will if funded, result in a more equitable distribution of state aid to education in this state."

The Jessemen school districts never reached a settlement agreement with the state which provided that if the Augenblick legislation were enacted and fully funded the plaintiffs would end their lawsuit.

The Governor and the Legislature have never fully funded the Augenblick formula as the Jessemen school districts had hoped. This failure is, in part, what prompted the Claremont lawsuit.

The state took the same tact in the Claremont litigation as it did in Jessemen. The state has never negotiated with the Claremont school districts. The state used the same attorney and the same expert witnesses as it did in Jessemen. A cottage industry developed around litigating against New Hampshire's school children. It was reported in the Concord Monitor that prior to the 1996 Superior Court trial, the state had spent close to $500,000 dollars on the Claremont litigation.

Unfortunately the struggle to secure the fundamental right of every child to a state funded, constitutionally adequate education has not ended with the school children's victory in Claremont II. Those same politicians and ideologues, who in the past have refused to acknowledge the state's educational responsibilities and the unfairness of New Hampshire's public education system, are now proposing to amend the New Hampshire Constitution.

Their proposed constitutional amendment will set into concrete the educational disparities and economic hardships that the state's school children and taxpayers have experienced year after year. Once again they are attempting to stifle the debate of how to fulfill the state's obligation to educate its children. The proposed amendment takes away your opportunity to participate in the forming of a solution.

However, many of the state's legislators and citizens are rising to the occasion and are exploring ways to provide every educable child in the state with their fundamental right to a constitutional adequate, state funded, public education. For the first time in 16 years, a governor of New Hampshire has proposed an education plan that recognizes the state's Constitutional obligations to it's school children.

Governor Shaheen set the appropriate tone for the debate in her 1/7/98 State of the State address,