When it comes to improving New Hampshire's business climate, several studies released this month show a path legislators should take. It is not one that would come immediately to mind.

In a new Tax Foundation ranking, New Hampshire placed 46th in the nation in corporate-tax friendliness. It was not a revelation. It is well-known that despite our highly favorable overall tax climate (ranked 6th by the Tax Foundation), we have very high business taxes when contrasted with other states. What is interesting is that this year the study came out along with others that showed how New Hampshire might make the state more business-friendly despite that disadvantage.

The National Council on Teacher Quality gave New Hampshire a D- in its 2011 yearly evaluation. It was not calling New Hamsphire's teachers awful.

It was measuring how thoroughly New Hampshire prepares its teachers to be the best they can be while weeding out bad ones. Its report showed that the state has a long way to go.

For instance, districts can promote teachers based “solely on years of experience and advanced degrees,” and teachers who get unsatisfactory evaluations are not necessarily put on plans designed to improve their performance. Also, teachers can teach for years without having to pass subject-area competency tests.

This study coincided with one released by Harvard Business Review.

It asked Harvard Business School alumni how competitive the United States was with other countries when it came to business location decisions. The study found that public K-12 education in the United States was viewed extremely negatively. Nearly 60 percent of respondents said it was worse than those in other advanced economies, and nearly 80 percent said it was falling behind.

Combined, these studies suggest strongly that New Hampshire could make itself significantly more attractive to businesses by improving K-12 education. How? Not by spending more money on the existing system, but by improving it.

Two methods come immediately to mind: tightening teacher training requirements and giving students and parents more choices.

A Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation study released this month noted: “The nation's collective failure to invest in high-quality professional feedback to teachers is inconsistent with decades of research reporting large disparities in student learning gains in different teachers' classrooms (even within the same schools). The quality of instruction matters. And our schools pay too little attention to it.”

Upgrading teacher training requirements would improve instruction within the system, while school choice would give students who don't respond well to the traditional factory-school model a way out. That would assure business leaders that their children and their future employees would be well-taught no matter what.

Move quickly to make those two changes, and we can make New Hampshire more attractive to businesses while taking our time to improve the tax code.