Former Gov. John H. Sununu has written a letter to Republican legislators urging them to vote for the constitutional amendment on education funding, CACR 12, up for a vote on Wednesday. The letter is below.

Dear Members of the Republican Caucus,

I am very sorry that I cannot join you in person at your caucus on Wednesday, but I have a travel commitment that I could not change.

The Constitutional Amendment which you are about to consider under CACR 12 is, in my opinion, one of the two most important issues you will have to address in this legislative term. When I agreed to serve as the state chairman in 2009, I was motivated by two key issues extremely critical to the future of the State of New Hampshire. The first was the dire straits of the budget. You have done a wonderful job in cutting spending and saving the economic viability of the state. The second was grave concern over the impact that the Claremont Court decision has had on the character of our New Hampshire.

I truly believe the fundamental difference between New Hampshire and the 49 other states is the strong reliance we have on home rule. Local control has historically allowed our individual citizens to have a significant say in the fundamental level of expenditures within their own communities and of the state. The key to local control is the local leverage over education spending. The major fault of the Claremont decision was that power and responsibility was shifted away from our local school district meetings to a centralized and court-dictated spending process in Concord. Furthermore unless we undo the theft of power by the Court, the Court will remain the fundamental decider of all things educational.

I have already met with a number of you in smaller groups expressing my feelings that the 2010 election provided us with a very unique opportunity that I doubt we will ever have again. We were given significant majorities of Republicans in the New Hampshire House and the New Hampshire Senate. And paradoxically, with those super majorities of Republicans in the legislative bodies, New Hampshire elected a Democratic governor. It behooves us to make good use of this unusual combination.

To his credit, Governor Lynch is willing not only to support passage of the language now before you for CACR 12, but he has indicated that he will endorse it publicly when it is on the ballot. Because we need a two thirds vote to adopt a Constitutional Amendment, that bipartisan support, available now because of the unique distribution of power, is absolutely critical.

Therefore, I strongly urge you all not to squander this opportunity to undo the mischief and problems caused by the Claremont Court decision. If we fail in what is the difficult but necessary process of instituting Constitutional change to return the power of educational funding, educational policies, and educational oversight to the New Hampshire legislature, and through the legislature to our local communities, we will be complicit in permanently destroying the fundamentally advantageous nature of New Hampshire's local control and strong citizen commitment to our communities.

PLEASE, PLEASE SUPPORT CACR 12.
Thank you for your good service to the state of New Hampshire.