Tag: Charter Schools

In Defense of Charter Schools

March 7, 2025 Valerie McDonnell

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 … Read more

Many Think That the Government Schools Are Salvageable. I Have to Respectfully Disagree.

November 12, 2024August 12, 2023 Hal Shurtleff

Recently, I was listening to the Jeff Kuhner Show, which airs on WRKO AM 68 Monday to Friday, 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. He was interviewing his wife, Grace Vuoto, who calls in every Wednesday for her weekly commentary.

Studen laptop online learning Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash

Free NH Charter School Provides Customized Education with Complete Flexibility

July 7, 2023 Op-Ed

Have you ever thought about educating at home, but didn’t know how to start? Did you know there is a free online charter school for New Hampshire residents in grades K-12 and beyond?

Reading education sunset Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

NH Public School Enrollment Down While Charter School Enrollment is Up %14

November 30, 2022 Steve MacDonald

The headline reads, “New Hampshire charter school enrollment increases 14% in past year” which is good news for parents and students, but is it bad news for public schools?

Here’s a Way to Improve Education for Minority Students and All Students

October 5, 2022October 5, 2022 Ann Marie Banfield

Oftentimes politicians or political activists say they want to help public education, but we can see that it doesn’t necessarily work. With the focus on everything but academics in our public schools, parents are actively challenging their school boards to go back to the basics. Go back to focusing on academics.

State School Board Approves Charter for Lionheart Classical Academy

November 16, 2021 Op-Ed

New Hampshire’s State Board of Education today voted to approve a State Charter for Lionheart Classical Academy Chartered Public School. The academy, scheduled to open in September 2022 in Peterborough, will be a new chartered public school initially offering a tuition-free classical education for grades kindergarten through 5.

Long-Awaited Public Charter School Grant Competition Announced

June 24, 2021 Op-Ed

Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Education is excited to announce the start of the 2020-2021 federal charter school grant competition, which provides competitive grant funds to start new public chartered schools, as well as replicate and expand existing high-quality public chartered schools.

NH’s Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee Accepts Federal Charter School Grant

December 11, 2020 Steve MacDonald

You’ll find a lot of conversation on this topic among our authors, from several angles. I’m talking about a 46 million dollar federal grant to support new charter schools. Previous Democrat majorities blocked it repeatedly. Republicans just took over and rubber-stamped it first thing.

Democrats Out to Kill Charter Schools

October 17, 2020 Op-Ed

We have just ended Joint Fiscal Committee meeting of the New Hampshire Legislature. The most controversial item was a Federal Education Grant of 46 million dollars over 5 years, for improving and adding new charter schools. The first installment to be voted on was 11 million dollars.

Joe Biden’s Promise to Defund Charter Schools

September 18, 2020September 18, 2020

America is beginning to see a clearer picture of what Biden’s America would look like. Going to Leftist policies means less choice, and it certainly means higher taxes. We’ll pay more and get less. But we will all be the same whether we are or aren’t.

Opposing School Choice Supports Systemic Racism

August 19, 2020 Op-Ed

There was a time when the Democratic Party worked to prosper working people. Today, in New Hampshire and around the country, they oppose allowing tax dollars of working parents to follow their children to achieve the best possible educational environment for their children.

COVID19-Response: The Private Schools are Kicking the Public School’s Ass

July 19, 2020 Steve MacDonald

The inability of public education to adapt along with the demands of union teachers is sending a message to parents across the country. Teaching Students is not the most important part of that equation. They are also discovering that there are options and this bodes ill (ironically) for the Government Monopoly.

Statement of Commissioner Frank Edelblut: Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee denies 120 NH students education choice

July 11, 2020July 11, 2020 Skip

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 10, 2020 Contact: Grant Bosse (603) 271-0448 office (603) 513-3030 cell Statement of Commissioner Frank Edelblut CONCORD- Following today’s party-line vote of the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee to keep a $46 million charter school replication grant on the table, Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut issued the following statement: “I remain disappointed that … Read more

Charter schools: Red herrings

February 23, 2020 Ian Underwood

In a recent editorial about how school choice and charter schools ‘put public school funding at risk’, Donald Cohen waves three red herrings, hoping to distract you from the real issues at hand. They come up a lot, so they’re worth looking at more closely.

Op-ed: “We’re not giving up on charter schools”

December 16, 2019 Op-Ed

On Friday, hundreds of public charter school students who traveled to Concord learned a harsh lesson about the legislative process. They learned that sometimes partisan politics gets in the way of bipartisan problem solving. They came to the Legislative Fiscal Committee asking lawmakers to accept the first round of a $46 million federal grant to … Read more

Fiscal Committee Rejects Federal Grant

December 14, 2019December 14, 2019

On Friday the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee voted along party lines to reject $10.1 million, the first-year portion, of the $46 million federal grant intended to expand and replicate successful chartered public schools to support at-risk students. Students from several charter public school packed the committee room and flooded the hallway. In August the grant … Read more

The $46 Million Free Lunch

December 8, 2019 Ian Underwood

The first thing to understand about charter schools is that reasonable people disagree about whether the outcomes from charter schools are significantly better than those from regular public schools. (And by ‘outcomes’, I don’t mean just final scores. I mean improvements. Schools that have students who would do well under any circumstances don’t deserve any credit when those kids do well.)

And what do taxpayers deserve?

October 12, 2020December 8, 2019 Ian Underwood

A recent Grok post begins: All our state’s students deserve the best education possible…

I’m sorry, but that’s just wrong.

Online Learning May Help the US Close Education Gap

Students Deserve the Best Education Possible

December 7, 2019December 7, 2019

All our state’s students deserve the best education possible, and many people contribute to making that happen. Parents, teachers and school officials are all critical in the effort to educate our kids and help them unlock their potential. But our state legislators are also important, because they help set the overall approach that schools take … Read more

If NH is Too White Why Did Dem’s Reject Money for a Program That Attracts Minorities?

December 4, 2019December 2, 2019 Steve MacDonald

Democrats say that New Hampshire is too white. There isn’t enough color. They also believe that the government can fix it. Probably not. But when the chance arose for the government to do something that attracts minorities, they chose to vote against it.