CONCORD, N.H. (AP) New Hampshire ends nearly six decades of providing school construction aid to all comers with a new law that uses a ranking system to determine which projects get funding.

The law wipes out a practice in place since 1955 that set no limits on who could get aid and replaces it with one where schools compete for limited aid dollars. The state is capping aid at $50 million annually, but only $6.2 million of that is available for new projects the first year. The rest is earmarked to pay off the state’s roughly $540 million share of 360 existing projects.

The rankings for the projects will be made by a six-member committee; then the state Board of Education must approve them.

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