NH Dept of Education to Croydon: Stop Paying Tuition - Granite Grok

NH Dept of Education to Croydon: Stop Paying Tuition

“If you’re going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy; God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won’t.” —Adm. Hyman G. Rickover

EDUCRATS_AT_WORK_smallEducation Commissioner Virginia Barry, in a February  25 letter to Croydon School Superintendent Cynthia Gallagher advised,
“It has come to the Department’s attention that the District is sending its pupils to private schools using taxpayer funds to pay tuition. Please be advised that this practice is contrary to law. Districts may only assign children to public school.”

as reported today in the New Hampshire Union Leader. Croydon is a small school district…about sixty students. Croyden has only one public school, Croydon Village school that goes from kindergarten to the fourth grade. Croydon then contracts with other towns for schooling of children.
The Union Leader’s Meghan Pierce also reported that Croydon recently ended its agreement with the Newport School District and the district started school choice in September, Gallagher to the UL, after the ending its agreement with the Newport School district.
So what did Croydon do? The engaged in an “ala carte” of sorts where education is concerned. Croydon used the cost of sending students to Newport as a baseline to fund their school choice. At a cost of $15,000 per student in Newport, Croydon paid half of that cost for a student to attend Kimball Union Academy.
“One girl, who was not doing well in Newport schools at all, is thriving at the Montessori school,” said School District Chairwoman Jody Underwood. “It’s not a one size fits all. Every kid learns differently.”

The Law is the Law…is the law…Virginia-Barry

Barry in her letter to Croydon, sited state laws RSA 193:1 and RSA 193:3 pertaining to the duty of the parent and school attendance.   Barry asserts the state “has implemented a system to guarantee that all public school children receive an adequate education. This system is exclusive to public schools.”   That made me laugh.
 Underwood said there is a precedent in the state of public school funds going to private schools in Vermont like St Johnsbury Academy and Pinkerton Academy in Derry, not to mention Coe Brown.
And yet another educrat chimed in and said those words…”NOT ALLOWED.” Judith Fillion, director of the Division of Program Support at the Department of Education said,
“[T]he issue that the commissioner was addressing was they are sending some of their students to private schools, which is not allowed under current law.”
That simply is not true. It is allowed. What is really not allowed (or as the DOE would have you believe) is the paying of money is not allowed. Many parents send their kids to private schools at their own expense….or home school.
So, there you have it. A battle is unfolding where the great big Edaucracy in Concord is poking the little district with a sharp stick…A district, by virtue of its location, has a limited number of options for schooling of children. This isn’t about education because we all know educrats care little about results or quality of education as evidenced by our standings. This is about money…Where the money goes and the educrats are going to control that to end. This is why Croydon is at odds with the Educrats in Concord. Croydon cares about educational results for their children within the means they can pay for it…and creatively maximize that result with choices I a sure parents are satisfied with.  Meanwhile, the educrats in Concord do not care one fig about Croydon’s logistical difficulties in getting the kids to school.
To be fair, I send my daughter to a private school and we pay substantially for that education…because we can afford to. We go without other things for sure, but this is a priority. Others who cannot afford to are stuck with the options left them by the eduacracy. That sucks. The time for school choice and vouchers is now, enabling parents to maximize the ability for their children to have a quality education that is affordable. I hope Croydon prevails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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