It is a best practice to assume that boards and committees in your municipality, be it a plucky berg or a sprawling metropolis, secretly (or not so secretly) hold disdain for the people they claim to serve. The more liberal the area, the worse that attitude will be. They are not your friends, and you are a barrier to their agenda. Take this School board.
Articles tagged as
Education
New Hampshire’s Education Choice Moment
“I think that eventually, school choice is going to be part of education.” Those were the words of Democratic state Rep. Barbara Shaw of Manchester, as she voted in the House Education Committee on Thursday to retain House Speaker Sherm Packard’s Education Freedom Accounts bill.
Why Can’t Johnny Get a Job?
The story from the employers or human resource officers over the past 10 years hasn’t changed. For every ten applicants for an entry-level job, over half cannot pass a simple literacy test.
Granite Crock: ‘Don’t confuse us with the facts!’
Long ago, a Congressman from my home state gained notoriety when he said, while defending Richard Nixon, ‘Don’t confuse me with the facts.’ I was reminded of this upon reading an article that Steve forwarded to me from the Granite Crock site, which was written to ‘debunk’ something I’d written.
School Funding: Lower Taxes, Same Student Achievement
If you had the Triangle of Light (from Tomb Raider), you could just go back in time to 1998, the year of the Claremont II decision. You don’t have that, but you have something almost as good — a filing cabinet.
‘Your money should follow my child’
A chant that has been gaining popularity is that where education is concerned, ‘the money should follow the child’. A second, related chant is that ‘parents should be able to decide how to spend their education dollars’.
Education Savings Accounts and a “Broad-Based” Tax
So I have read that Education Savings Accounts are going to lead to a “broad-based” tax because the cost may rise to $103 million. Sounds like a lot of money … until you look at the State budget. So here’s a schematic of the current budget: As a percentage of New Hampshire’s $6.7 billion budget … Read more
School funding: Viewing problems as opportunities
Remember that moment when Mulan figures out how to climb the pole? To do it, she has to change the way she views the two weights. What seems at first to be a problem (‘How do I carry these weights with me as I climb?’) turns out to be an opportunity (‘I can use these … Read more
NH School Administrators Assoc. Advocating ILLITERACY in Civics?
Yesterday, Representative Mike Moffett introduced HB 320 to the House Education Committee. AN ACT requiring a civics competency assessment as a high school graduation requirement. This legislation would require all students graduating from a NH High School to pass the U.S. Citizenship test.
School funding: If you teach a man to read, he can teach himself to fish.
If you give a man a fish, he has to come back when he needs another fish. If you teach a man to fish, he has to come back when he needs to learn something else. Why not teach the man how to learn?
Choice Within Public Schools, An Alternative to Education Savings Accounts
Every school is accountable to those who fund it. Private schools are accountable to the parents who fund them. If they start taking public funding, via Education Savings Accounts, then they must be accountable to the State.
HB20 – A Sincere Discussion About Equity in Education Begins With Education Freedom.
There was a lot of discussion about discrimination in the hearing on HB 20, The Richard “Dick” Hinch Education Freedom Accounts bill. To that point, T. Willard Fair is president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Greater Miami. He is a Civil Rights leader who advocates for school choice.
Mental Health: Creating More Bureaucracy Instead of Treating Children
Do you want another bureaucratic position created at the New Hampshire Department of Education? One that would work with school counselors but not treat the children who desperately need services?
HB 20, “Education Freedom Accounts,” Will Usher In Private/Home School Regulation and Broad Based Taxes
After the long pandemic year, thousands of parents are beyond frustrated with “remote” and “hybrid” instruction for their children. As a result, thousands of students have already left public schools, and many parents are desperately looking for alternative ways to give their children an adequate education.
The Magic of Per-Student Cost
Are your state representatives smarter than fifth-graders? Here’s a word problem that even a fifth-grader should be able to solve: A boat ferries passengers across a lake. Ten people want to ride it together. The captain says: It costs me $100 to run the boat, so you’ll have to pay an average of $10 each. … Read more
AFP-NH Puts a Focus on 10 Key Legislative Priorities for 2021
Last week American’s for Prosperity New Hampshire published a list of legislative priorities for the Granite State in 2021. They’ve put a much-needed focus on ten pieces of legislation covering Education, Licensing, Free Speech, Asset Forfeiture, Health Care, and (believe it or not) Climate Change (sort of).
HB 20 Puts Homeschoolers at Risk
The universal EFA bill, House Bill 20, as currently written makes nearly every child in the state eligible for the program, capable of transferring into it, but that is not the same as saying an EFA student is a homeschooler or EFA funds can be used for home education.
The NH Dept of Ed Wants “Increasing Equitable Access” – About That…
Got this Presser from the NH Dept of Education. Actually, I get a lot of them (don’t know if I get them all). At first blush I just went through it and then one word caught my eye: Equitable.
School funding: What problem are we trying to solve?
There is an old Chinese saying that if you chase two rabbits, both will escape. Before making decisions about what to spend, and how to get the money, and from whom, we have to decide what we’re trying to do: Educate children? Provide daycare and other social services to parents? Create job security for teachers? … Read more
Millions of Young People Have Too Much Loan Debt
Thanks to greedy capitalists millions of young people have too much loan debt. Do you believe that? Many people do; that or some variation on the theme. It is actually important for several reasons. Shall we look into the issue? The people who believe greedy capitalists are keeping young people deep in debt are believers. … Read more