News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
President-elect Trump has nominated former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education. President-elect Trump promised that, if confirmed, Mrs. McMahon would “spearhead” the effort to “send education back to the states.” This has led some people to wonder if Linda McMahon may be the last Secretary of Education. The Constitution does not … Read more
As I have noted in past observations of the Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont, this collection of special interest group lobbyists has no real desire to solve the property tax/education finance crisis facing Vermonters today. Their objective, quite to the contrary, is to keep the money flowing unhindered and unquestioned into … Read more
Most readers already know what I think of our lame duck Senate quietly rubber-stamping the RTK tax (HB 1002) and advancing it to the Corner Office without any in-chamber discussion or roll call, but I’m here to discuss more of the upper chamber’s subversive antics. First, let’s look at today’s article on Ruth Ward by … Read more
Before we get into the meat of today’s topic, here’s a quick review of how property tax reform has gone down in Vermont since Act 60 became law in 1997: Property taxes go through the roof…. A critical mass of voters howl…. The Democrat-controlled legislature promises in public they’ll do something about it, but in … Read more
SEL is now infused throughout public education. SEL is found in math programs like Eureka2, which is used in many schools throughout New Hampshire. This means that less time will be spent learning math, and more time will be spent reshaping your child’s values, attitudes, and beliefs. The SEL model will now also be infused … Read more
The degradation of liberal education in America is anything but a niche public-policy concern. Like all rights-protecting democracies – and especially as a 21st-century great power with globe-spanning interests – the United States requires a host of highly-trained individuals to keep its government functioning, military operating, economy churning, and civil society thriving. Essential men and … Read more
The Commission on the Future of Public Education in VT’s subcommittee on Finance Reform met on September 4th (going back a bit, but the Commission has not been too punctual about posting its meeting recordings). It was their first meeting so, in fairness, expectations for any real substance were low. Still, some initial observations are worth … Read more
Well folks, primary season is over, and our candidates for NH General Court, Executive Council, and Governor are in. I voted in the primary, as I do in every election in Rochester. Many of my candidates did not win their primaries. I am still voting in the election, as boycotting any vote is against my … Read more
One of the few areas where liberty made gains in the COVID lockdown era was the increase in homeschooling. Many parents started homeschooling out of frustration with the failure of “virtual learning” to provide children with a quality education. Other parents withdrew their children from government schools when virtual learning allowed them to discover how … Read more
There’s more that can be done to make New Hampshire a freer state for education entrepreneurs looking to start small, decentralized, and unconventional educational environments, but so far the state is doing better than most. That’s according to the Education Entrepreneur Freedom Index released by the yes. every kid. foundation. Of 10 possible points that a … Read more
A few sentences into his recent piece in InDepthNH (and other places), Andru Volinsky demonstrates that he has no idea how the statewide education tax actually works, let alone how it should work. First, no one gets excused from paying anything. Every district collects the full SWEPT tax, spends it on adequacy, and applies … Read more
Education Options held our first two EdOpt Expos at the Richards Free Library in Newport in August. While there are many things for us to learn, we’re off to a good start. The best part was that all the attendees could point to something that they learned there. I know I was part of a … Read more
The Supreme Court Case between Jane Doe Vs Manchester School District was decided last week. In this case, a parent (Jane Doe) sued the Manchester Schools by challenging the district’s transgender policy. Within the policy, school officials were unable to share information with the parent after the parent questioned them about her child’s name change … Read more
In the landscape of political philosophy, the concept of the social contract plays a pivotal role in understanding the relationship between individuals and the state. Central to this theory are the ideas of positive and negative rights, each representing fundamentally different obligations of the individual, government, and society. While positive rights require the state to provide specific benefits … Read more
As mentioned in [Part 1], the most straightforward (and least Marxist) way to fund schools would be to use a uniform (per capita) tax. You take the budget, divide it by the number of taxpayers, and that’s the tax each one pays. But even that ends up implementing a sort of reverse Marxism, taking money … Read more
After looking at [Part 1] and [Part 2], we can consider a third case, where the kid who takes the EFA comes from a district that would be tuitioning him to a school outside the district, because the district doesn’t offer the grade that he’s in. For example, suppose each district pays $15,000 to tuition … Read more
As a parental rights advocate focused on education, I hear many parents say, “Why don’t teachers speak out more?” I tell them, it’s because if they do, they will be punished one way or another. That’s exactly what happened to Martia Holloway. She explained in one of her online videos that the district administrators were … Read more
Okay, so given what we saw in Part 1, let’s consider what happens when a student leaves each of the two districts to open an Education Freedom Account (EFA). In District 1, what changes? Things that change are highlighted below: Before After Taxpayers 1000 1000 Students 100 99 Budget $2M $2M Adequacy $400,000 $396,000 … Read more
One of the things that allows so much nonsense to be bandied about when discussing school funding is that almost no one — including legislators, judges, and DoE officials — seems to understand how SWEPT (Statewide education property taxes) and adequacy grants are related. In what follows, I’ll use nice round numbers that approximate but … Read more
From the cooler evening weather to the jam-packed “Back to School” section at Walmart, we all understandably feel the pressure to consider Fall plans for our children. There are options aplenty, and the Educational Freedom Account pathway promotion is in full, political, high gear. The EFA is a fourth educational pathway to satisfy compulsory attendance … Read more