The N.H. House of Representatives recently shot down Gov. John Lynch’s proposed constitutional amendment on education funding. The House voted 264-114 to kill the amendment, which would have allowed the Legislature to target school aid to communities that need it most.

Democrats had hoped House Speaker William O’Brien would wait until the House reconvened in January before calling the vote, allowing more time for dialogue on the amendment. But O’Brien instead abruptly called the vote during a House session on Nov. 30 without any public hearings.

“I would have expected this amendment to go through the normal hearing process, with an opportunity for careful review and public input. Unfortunately, this was not the case,” Lynch said in a statement.    

State Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley, too, accused Republican leaders of pushing the vote without “due consideration of public input.”

“Their goal was to play irresponsible political games, not make progress for the people of New Hampshire,” Buckley said in a statement.

The amendment would have given the Legislature the authority to “define standards for public education, establish standards of accountability, mitigate local disparities in educational opportunity and fiscal capacity” and “determine the amount of state funding for education.”

House majority leader D.J. Bettencourt denied those allegations, saying Republicans repeatedly reached out to Lynch to try to negotiate an agreement on an education funding amendment.

“We look forward to resuming negotiations as soon as possible so that we can arrive at a bi-partisan constitutional amendment that we can all agree upon,” Bettencourt said in a letter delivered to Lynch on Dec. 1.