Yesterday, the New Hampshire House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted against House Bill 515, “An Act repealing the chartered public school eligibility for state school building aid.”
Although I was originally scheduled to speak against HB515, the floor debate did not occur. Why? The Representative scheduled to speak in support of HB515 backed out of the debate.
Ultimately, the Representative’s resignation handed NH charter schools a much-needed win. Nonetheless, charter schools continue to be the target of vicious attacks such as HB 515.
What follows is the speech I intended to give.
Thank you Mr. Speaker. I have deja vu because we’ve had this discussion before. About one year ago, I stood in this spot asking this body to support HB 354, which passed by more than a dozen votes and was bipartisan. Today, HB 515 seeks to repeal it. Specifically, HB 515 prohibits chartered public schools from applying for state building aid.
Under the new law, chartered public schools are eligible to apply and a few have applied. Yet, in the short time since the law became effective only last July, none have been approved. At least not yet.
So my question to each of you is should we repeal a good law before enough time has passed to see its effect? The answer is simple: No. We should not.
Furthermore, several traditional public schools applied for state building aid during the moratorium of the building aid program, which for ten years was placed on application approvals not on the applications themselves.
Therefore, traditional public schools have always been able to apply for state building aid, since the program began. It is only fair that all public schools be afforded the same opportunity, including New Hampshire’s more than three dozen chartered public schools.
After all, chartered public schools are required to complete the same application and demonstrate the same need as traditional public schools, recognizing that chartered schools are public schools educating public school students.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that five new chartered public schools are scheduled to open
this fall and one more is scheduled to open next fall. The students who attend these schools, like all students, deserve a place to learn and deserve buildings to learn in. With increasing charter enrollment, it is not timely to prohibit chartered public schools from applying for state building aid.
Additionally, reporting requirements, that exist to increase transparency, are repealed by HB 515. This provision was made “inadvertently,” according to the prime sponsor, and I could not agree more that this is a mistake. Although, I believe all of this bill is a mistake and is certainly not in the best interest of New Hampshire students.
So, please join me in supporting the committee recommendation of Inexpedient to Legislate. Thank you and Mr. Speaker I request a Roll Call Vote please.
Valerie McDonnell is a New Hampshire State Representative and a member of the House Education Policy Committee.
We’d like to thank Valerie McDonnell for this Op-Ed. As a reminder, authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
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