There is an outstanding editorial by Ian Underwood in the Manchester Union Leader. Here’s a taste.
The state constitution says only four things about schooling.
First, that: “it shall be the duty of the legislators and magistrates, (…) to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries and public schools.”
Second, that the public must be protected from monopolies.
Third, that: “no money raised by taxation shall ever be granted or applied for the use of the schools of institutions of any religious sect or denomination.”
And fourth, that money from the state lottery can only be used for educational purposes.
Whatever “cherish” is supposed to mean, basic grammar tells us it must mean the same thing for both seminaries and public schools. So it cannot mean fund, operate or regulate.
The state constitution says that the Legislature must cherish public schools without funding, operating or regulating them; and that schooling must not be controlled by a monopoly.
A fifth-grader could understand this. But New Hampshire judges, who apparently skipped fifth grade on the way to law school, interpret the state constitution to say that the state is required to set up a monopoly to fund, operate and regulate public schools.
Read it all at Union Leader.com.
