The Sununu administration, led by its able and innovative Commissioner of Education, Frank Edelblut, has made great strides. By enacting legislation that promises to allow parents to choose educational options that best meet the needs of their children (despite bitter opposition from public school administrators and their teacher union fellow travelers.)
SB 8 (2017), “the Croydon bill,” allows NH towns to use local school tax funds to enter into tuitioning agreements with independent schools. Educational tax credits help low-income parents pay tuition at independent schools. And the proposed Learn Everywhere program would allow NH high school students to receive credit for up to 30% of required courses outside of their public school districts.
While these measures promise welcome relief from “one size fits all” public school monopolies, their implementation by NH towns remains a daunting challenge.
Dublin, NH is one of nine towns which comprise the Contoocook Valley Regional School Cooperative (“ConVal”). Dublin has one elected representative on the thirteen-member ConVal board of the directors. Dublin taxpayers currently spend $26,000 per student in combined local and state school taxes to send children to ConVal. Compared to a district and state average of $18,000 per student.
In 2018, 55% and 30% of ConVal eleventh graders tested below proficiency in math and reading and yet ConVal reported an 89% graduation rate.
ConVal operates a K-4 school in Dublin at one-third of capacity. Six teachers and six support staff attend to fewer than fifty students. Despite the almost four to one student to staff ratio, 38% and 46% of Dublin fourth-graders tested below proficiency in math and reading in 2017.
In view of the excessive cost and poor performance of the ConVal schools, an ad hoc committee of Dublin residents was formed in March 2019 to determine how we might withdraw from ConVal and enter into tuitioning agreements with the many excellent independent schools in our area.
We expected strong opposition from the ConVal employees in our town but were surprised that our elected representative to the ConVal board, Bernd Foecking, enthusiastically joined the opposition. In researching his background, we discovered that Mr. Foecking is married to a ConVal administrator. Who knew?
In March of 2019, GraniteGrok reported that Douglas Ley, one of Dublin’s state representatives and the NH house democratic majority leader, was also the well-paid president of the NH chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Who knew?
In June 2019, a very courageous resident of Representative Ley’s district, Chris Mazerall, filed a formal ethics complaint against Mr. Ley alleging that he had failed to recuse himself on legislative matters that benefited the AFT.
While Dublin may have the dubious distinction of being the poster child for compromised NH elected officials, it is quite likely that other NH towns share the same problem.
Unless concerned citizens identify and replace conflicted school board and legislative officials, the promise of school reform and educational choice in NH will continue to be frustrated.
