Many of you saw a petition warrant article on the agenda at your recent town meetings. The idea was to get towns to vote to send the petition to the legislature and the governor.
It’s kind of a silly idea — if you’re going to tell your representative something, you should do that as an individual.
It’s also kind of a silly petition — riddled with misstatements of fact. So at our town meeting, I proposed that the article be amended as shown below. The proponents of the original petition immediately tabled the article indefinitely (which is basically the same as withdrawing it) rather than get into a debate about it.
But I’ve included the amended version below (first marked up, and second as amended), in case any of you want to send it, as individuals, to your elected representatives. Which I encourage you to do.
Note that the 90% requirement seems impossible to meet, but in fact, it’s quite easy. All a school district would have to do is start assigning students to grades based on their current levels of proficiency in reading and math, rather than based on their ages.
Article 21 Petition Warrant Article – Property Taxes for Private Education: A Call for Responsible Use
Whereas, taxpayers have a right to know how their money is spent and deserve clear, verifiable evidence that it is being spent wisely and delivering results; and
Whereas, taxpayer dollars are being diverted from used to fund both private and public schools that do not spend these dollars wisely, and which do not deliver results to private and religious education through Education Freedom Accounts (vouchers), and this shift does NOT reduce public school expenses, leaving local taxpayers to cover the difference through higher property taxes; and
Whereas, unlike some private schools and all public schools, private education funded by taxpayers through vouchers lacks key meaningful accountability measures, such as suffering significant financial consequences when students fail to achieve adequate levels of literacy and numeracy reporting how funds are used, tracking student performance, ensuring services for students with disabilities, conducting background checks for staff, and adherence to minimum standards;
Therefore, we, the voters of Croydon, New Hampshire, call on our state elected officials to uphold their duty to fiscal responsibility by rejecting any expansion of taxpayer funding for both private and public schools where less than 90% of students are performing at the proficient level or above on the statewide assessment private education until we have full accountability, transparency, and a sustainable funding plan that ensures no further strain on public schools or local property taxpayers. We further direct the Croydon Select Board to deliver this warrant article and the results in writing to New Hampshire’s Governor and members of the State Legislature within thirty days of this vote.
Property Taxes for Education: A Call for Responsible Use
Whereas, taxpayers have a right to know how their money is spent and deserve clear, verifiable evidence that it is being spent wisely and delivering results; and
Whereas, taxpayer dollars are being used to fund both private and public schools that do not spend these dollars wisely, and which do not deliver results; and
Whereas, some private schools and all public schools lack meaningful accountability measures, such as suffering significant financial consequences when students fail to achieve adequate levels of literacy and numeracy;
Therefore, I call on our state elected officials to uphold their duty to fiscal responsibility by rejecting taxpayer funding for both private and public schools where less than 90% of students are performing at the proficient level or above on the statewide assessment.
