Parents recently testified to the legislature that public schools are not “safe” or “suitable” for their children. That’s because the state has bribed public schools, using taxpayer dollars, to implement every education fad from restorative justice, which results in widespread discipline and bullying problems, to social emotional learning, which replaces academic instruction with behavior modification. Rather than resolve this over-regulation problem, the state proposes to give bail-out funds to every family to help their children escape public schools and attend private or home schooling.
Meanwhile the state is involved in yet another lawsuit over the Claremont decision where the court fabricated a state duty to “cherish,” or fund, public education. This debate rages despite the fact that public schools were historically funded by local property taxes. Rather than resolve this funding problem, state legislators are creating a new stream of taxpayer dollars to fund private and home schooling.
Does any of this make sense?
Let’s look at state law, RSA 194-F Education Freedom Accounts, EFA students are not required to attend instruction full time, or even part time (RSA 194-F:2,VIII). The state doesn’t require certified teachers which it requires in public schools. Why are certified teachers still required in public schools if it’s no longer a criteria for an adequate education using EFAs?
EFA students can attend private school yet none of the state approval laws applies to these new “educator service provider” schools that are being set up to collect EFA state funds. Why then do we require state approvals for any private schools?
State approved private schools must:
- attend school for 180 days per year;
- display an American flag;
- teach reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar, geography, physiology, history, civil government, music, and drawing, the English language
- provide instruction in national and state history; and
- maintain and submit attendance registers to the state.
EFA students don’t have to comply with home education laws. They’re not required to keep a portfolio of the student’s work. Why require it of home educated students?
There’s even a section of the law, RSA 194-F:7 promising the “independence” of the “education service provider.” EFA students are seemingly free to do whatever they please with taxpayer funds.
How does this makes sense?
The state is setting a trap to censor and control private schooling. But how can they possibly do that when state law promises that “education service providers” will remain “independent”? Moreover, proponents of EFAs promise they will remain vigilant to protect against any and all state regulation of private schooling.
Legislators are regulating EFAs already. They’re quietly proposing changes to statutory language in bills, such as HB 673-FN, to include the requirement that “every school that receives state funding shall…..” and then includes a state mandate. This particular mandate is to develop policies against bullying or “targeted acts against a protected class” and report such student behavior to the state.
“Every school [district and chartered public school] that receives any state funding shall…”
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/pdf.aspx?id=7320&q=billVersion
It’s the same old bribe to control education trick, but parents won’t look too closely.
EFAs are not limited government, fiscal responsibility, or local control. It’s the opposite. It creates a massive new state spending program, well over $100M per year, without guardrails, accountability to the taxpayers, or limits on cost. It will blow up the state budget and burden taxpayers. It expands state reach, creating an unelected bureaucracy to oversee EFA distribution and compliance. It’s a nationwide scam masquerading as a reform. Families are being bribed, once again, this time to take taxpayer dollars in order to destroy the independence of private and home schools.
Where are conservative legislators when you need them?
