Thoughts on Croydon – Residents Refusing to Accept Blame for Missing the Town Meeting Vote on School Budget
Listen to what a Croydon resident says at about 1:19 seconds in:
Listen to what a Croydon resident says at about 1:19 seconds in:
At the annual meeting of the Croydon School District on Saturday, the district demanded a ransom of $1.7 million dollars, and the voters of the district responded by approving a budget of $800 thousand dollars.
Here’s a story that hasn’t even broken in the press yet. At Saturday’s Town Meeting in Hooksett, New Hampshire, someone advanced a motion to cut 750,00.00 dollars from the school budget, and it passed! Wait, there’s more.
At Meet the Candidates Day in Croydon, one resident kept asking each candidate: Yes, or No, do you support the Free State movement? Do you support public education? Do you support the United States Constitution?
In an earlier piece on charter schools, I suggested that we need to start asking school districts: How much is enough? That is, if we want to get 100% of our educable students to proficiency in reading and math, how much would it cost?
You know how I can tell? The Laconia School District is doing what School Boards and Administrations have been doing all over the State – and the nation – change the Narrative and change the focus! That is, making it personal to their clients – Parents. Instead of concentrating on student achievement, right now it … Read more
In Croydon, where the school district has switched from a ransom model to a budget model, parents are suddenly asking lots of questions about the lower-cost alternatives for providing the opportunity for an adequate education that are being explored by the school board — mainly micro-schools run by companies like Prenda and Kai.
A headline in the UL yesterday read, “Amanda Leslie: Undo the hijacking of Croydon’s schools.” My retort is that the “hijacking” was done, not by those who showed up, but by those that didn’t bother to show up.
At most of the school board meetings that have followed the recent right-sizing of Croydon’s school budget, at least one parent has expressed a thought that simply breaks my heart:
House Bill 1393, which passed the House recently, seeks to make it possible for voters in school districts to do, as a matter of policy, what Croydon was recently able to do on a one-time basis: Tell the school district what they can afford, rather than wait to be told how much will be demanded … Read more
I have never seen anything like this and I’m probably never going to see this again. Thumbnail: At this past Saturday’s Town Meeting, the townfolk voted to HALF the School District Budget from $1.7 million to $800,000. Let that set in.
I printed these up to hand out at our annual district meeting tomorrow. I thought I’d post it here in case anyone else wants to try something similar in another district.
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InDepthNH just ran a hit piece by Garry Rayno on the Free State Project (FSP). As with the New York Times, I doubt that InDepthNH will run my response, but I thought I’d include it here, as I did with my response to the Times’s hit piece by Dan Barry.
I’m proud to be a new member of a distinguished club: Authors from Indiana who have had a book banned by a public library. Other members include Theodore Dreiser, Kurt Vonnegut, and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.
I have known Cindy Bennet for a while now, and while we may not always be on the same paragraph on things, I admire her as she’s SMAHT, is aware of what’s going on in a whole range of issues, is thoughtful and great to talk to. She also has a YouTube channel here.
A lot of journalists these days have a vocabulary problem. In particular, they think that if someone wants to repair or reform an institution, he is anti-[that institution].
For the sake of honesty and full disclosure, I should first point out my lack of qualifications to fancy myself a book critic, but when I have something to say that’s worth shouting from the rooftops, why hold back?
Summer 2022 Newsletter Giving voters a voice by empowering elected school district officials to reclaim control over budgets and curriculum. Announcing SDGA’s New President: Eric Pauer Eric Pauer, formerly SDGA Vice President was elected President at the SDGA Annual General Meeting on July 9th. Eric brings a strong background in organizational leadership, and we look forward … Read more