"Claremont III" Steve Rand Steps into the Breach
Steve Rand is not what one might describe as an educational zealot or a fellow who tilts at windmills. His family is about as steeped in tradition within the town of Plymouth as it gets. He took over the family business in Plymouth from his dad and, despite Walmart, the migration of business away from the town center, and all the odds, Rand’s Hardware continues to thrive on the main street in Plymouth. He is a blend of pragmatic Yankee and street-smart entrepreneur. But behind that wry smile lies a philosopher and a visionary; a man who wants to “leave the woodpile just a little higher” when his days are done.
So when the opportunity arose for him to be a plaintiff in New Hampshire’s ongoing litigation over educational funding he did not hesitate. The lawsuit, we’ll call it Claremont 3, though, to my knowledge, no moniker has yet been assigned to it - may be the culmination of more than 3 decades of legal action (and political inaction) based on the New Hampshire constitutional obligation to provide funding for an adequate education to all public school children.
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I wanted to speak with Steve Rand, not because he can recite chapter and verse about the legal history of the Claremont cases or the numeric minutia of tax disparities between towns or their relationship to the quality of schools from high-income or low-income school districts. Rather, I wanted to speak with someone who came at this from an experiential basis; someone who has lived the disparities on a day-to-day and year-to-year basis. Someone who has seen how the system short-changes our kids and our communities.
There are many heroes in the long arc of this story. The late Arpiar Saunders, who (perhaps purposefully) cornered Andru Volinsky, stark naked, in the gym locker room to recruit him to the Claremont team. Andru Volinsky of course. John Tobin, who has spent his life advocating for those living in the shadows of life. Senate President Ralph Hough (R-Lebanon) who despite being named as a defendant in the second suit, filed an Amicus brief and testified on behalf of the children of New Hampshire against the state.
Today, Steve Rand and the other plaintiffs have stepped into that line. But, they would all be the first to say that the greatest heroes of this story are the good people of towns like Claremont, Berlin, Plymouth, Rochester, to name a few towns, who despite having to dig four to five times deeper into their own pockets to fund education in their communities, continue to step up for their kids, to make sure that they have a shot at a future worth living.
A procedural history of the Claremont lawsuit
Staff WriterPortsmouth Herald
30 Years Since Claremont: The Monumental Ruling and the Work That Remains
ANDRU VOLINSKY
Nebraska Law Review
2005 New Hampshire 's Education-Funding Litigation: Claremont School District v. Governor, 635 A.2d 1375 (N.H. 1993),modified, 703 A.2d 1353 (N.H. 1997)
Andru H. Volinsky Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson, P.A., avolinsky@bernsteinshur.com
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1281&context=nlr
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