Dover rallies for its teachers

Dover is the Seacoast’s hottest city right now.

A combination of relatively low housing costs, good public policy, being in the “lucky geography club” and a strong business community are helping Dover emerge as a great place to live.

Innovative zoning changes have encouraged downtown housing and private developers have created affordable, walkable apartment living for younger people. A new parking garage will stimulate downtown activity (it’s always easier to park once). The Little Bay Bridge expansion to eight lanes will eventually make commuting to work in Portsmouth, Pease or even Boston easier (already 13,194 of Dover’s 18,985 workforce are commuters). Large employers like Liberty Mutual, Wentworth-Douglass Hospital and Measured Progress attract and keep well-educated workers.

But Dover is also one of several cities that voted in a tax cap. In 2007, during the recession, voters amended the city charter to limit tax increases to the rate of inflation, adjusted to factor in growth of the tax base. It takes two-thirds of the City Council to override the cap.

So while Dover’s residential, business and civic life are thriving, its schools are underfunded, in part because of the cap. How underfunded? Prior to this year’s new contract, $36,228 was a starting teacher’s salary, ranking 113 of 159 among New Hampshire cities and towns, tied with Claremont. That’s not enough to live in Dover by a long shot.

Dover’s $12,234 spending per pupil is well below the state average of $15,865. It’s lower than neighboring Rochester or Somersworth, even Berlin. Compared to Portsmouth, Dover spends $6,112 less per student.

Dover’s middle school spending per pupil of $10,615 is the lowest in the state, and it has some of the highest class sizes – an average of 25.1 versus a state average of 16.2

Dover spends 52% of its budget on education versus a state average of 62%.

In spite of this, Dover schools produce outcomes on a par with other Seacoast schools. The high school boasts a 92% graduation rate and solid college admissions.

But it doesn’t take a genius to see a teacher making $36,228 with a large class of 25 kids is going to be headed to a better paying district as soon as they have enough experience. There is a steady exodus, teachers in Dover say. That ultimately robs children of teachers with skill and experience. Even more troubling to Superintendent Bill Harbron were teachers forced to work second jobs, diffusing their focus.

Fiscal conservatives might say Dover gets good education for short money by being a training ground. But such thinking rests on a backward-looking view of Dover as a very affordable city. As Dover heats up, those days are fast ending. The gap between pay and housing costs will start to widen dramatically, particularly after the new bridge is fully open.

Here lies the fallacy underlying the tax cap. By limiting spending to inflation, Dover is tying its educational future to a broad index that has little to do with real life. For a teacher, the biggest inflation items – indeed for all of us – are health care, education and housing. So while a teacher may be able to buy cheap consumer goods at Walmart (which keeps the inflation indexes down) what pinches are college debt and rising cost of housing in Dover. It’s here that the tax cap collides with the interest of Dover parents. Tying school funding to the CPI will keep teachers in penury, even as Dover’s economy booms.

The tax cap passed in 2007 in the teeth of the recession by a margin of 3,225-2,820, or 405 votes. Dover has 21,819 registered voters and the population is growing. So 15% of the city’s voters in a world of 12 years ago approved a policy that surely has hurt its students and parents today. In fact, those 3,225 tax cap voters have been a tail wagging a dog consisting of 11,213 parents and kids with a stake in good public schools (Source: U.S. Census).

The Dover council voted unanimously May 1 to override the cap. Most of the override – an increase from $57 million to $58.1 million – was in education funding driven by a more generous teachers’ contract. It’s a bold move (resulting in an increase to the average homeowner of $395) but it begins to redress the abysmally low teacher pay the city has inherited from 2007’s tax cap. In a statement of political honesty, Mayor Karen Weston said to teachers at the council meeting “you guys are at the bottom of the heap” and vowed to continue incremental gains. Political courage is a rare commodity today, but it was on display last month in Dover.

John Tabor is a member of Seacoast Media Group’s editorial board and the company’s recently retired president and publisher.