Yeah, sure thing, Baby Huey. Once again, you’ve taken an issue important to your (now shrinking) Republican base and tossed it into the trash can. And again, it’s over what PARENTS believe is best for their children. Nice to see that you’re showing us that you’re “Bigger” than they are – and using the rubric of “Local Control” as cover.
You’re lying, again, because you KNOW, as Governor, that for all the talk of “Live Free or Die” and “Local Control”, the latter is only a shell game and you’re dismantling the former. You know that NH is a Dillon’s Rule State which means that “subdivisions of the State” (e.g. towns, cities, school boards, et al) can only do those things that the State Legislature allows them to do and not anything more (or in certain cases, not less).
To that latter point, the most local of “Local Control” is that of Parents having the responsibility for their children. And just like with HB1431, the Parental Bill of Rights, that you have threatened to veto, you just vetoed the ability of Parents to determine the health control of their children. And then he proves my point (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Sununu vetoes bill to ban face covering mandate in schools
CONCORD — Calling it “Big Government” and a “one-size-fits-all approach,” Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed legislation to place a ban on requiring students or the public to wear face coverings while inside public schools. Sununu signed 55 other bills Friday and only rejected this one (HB 1131), which was a priority of the anti-vaccine mandate activists that packed committee hearing rooms several times during the 2022 session.
In his veto message, Sununu said the bill violates local control, a hallmark of public school regulation that leaves decisions to school boards and administrators.
“Just because we may not like a local decision does not mean we should remove their authority,” Sununu wrote. “One of the state’s foremost responsibilities is to know the limits of their power.”
Sununu said it’s inconsistent for the Legislature to oppose federal infringement on state rights such as vaccine mandates while trying to usurp local power on similar topics.
Two days, two vetoes. May I remind him that he DID do the “one-size-fits-all” during the pandemic with his “Public Health Trumps Everything” outburst – showing his lack of respect for the Constitution (pick one: US or NH). We ALL had to do as he said under penalties and fines. All in all, sir, you’ve made sure of this lockstep. You made NO exceptions at all – no locality had any Power under your decrees at all.
And by not recognizing Parental Rights and telling school boards, especially, you’ve told Parents that they are to be those “one-size-fits-all” victims again in which the school boards can deny them any agency at all in invoking their Rights or in their responsibility in guiding their education. Or just denying those Parental Rights outright (by keeping necessary and neefdful information for raising their children from them).
Vetoing the mask bill that no longer allows Parents, once again, to make the best decision for their children; Government will. One more slice of that thousand.
“Just because we may not like a local decision does not mean we should remove their authority,” Sununu wrote. “One of the state’s foremost responsibilities is to know the limits of their power.”
“One-size-fits-all” – a dodge. What you’ve done is to elevate, again, the State and local Government above Parents. It is clear that you don’t even recognize any limit to Government’s Power.
In these two issues, your lack of recognition in the role of Parent to child in education shows you have no problem in being anti-Parent.
So what ARE those limits to Government’s Powers in this regard? Government used to respect its lanes, its boundaries, its LIMITS. He uses that word as if he actually applies them.
Or are there any, Guvna?
(H/T: Union Leader)
