News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Dear Commissioner, Legislators, Executive Councilors, and State Board of Education Members: We are seeing school budgets rising while enrollment declines. Changing the model in public schools to the Community School (CDC’s) model will certainly add to those escalating costs. Turning our schools into mental health facilities has brought a whole new set of problems, and next … Read more
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
Ludwig von Mises called the universities of his day “nurseries of socialism” because of the inevitable socialist bias of all government-funded universities. He also said that there is always a remnant of students, however, that does not buy into the endless drumbeat about the alleged wonders of socialism and the “imperfections” of free-market capitalism. It is this … Read more
Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about budget caps for school districts, and the kinds of numbers that are being thrown around. Would a reasonable cap be $25,000 per student? Or closer to $100,000? It’s crazy to try to choose a number without first knowing what you would be getting for that amount of money, … Read more
In a response to a post about whether Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs) should be universal, a reader responded by saying: I still believe it is a societal responsibility to ensure children are schooled. The problem with discussing ‘societal responsibilities’ is that once you get beyond the defense of self and property, there’s usually a lot … Read more
Governor Scott’s plan for education reform does some things right, and others unnecessarily very wrong. What’s right? The move to a foundation-based funding formula and the primary focus on cost savings being the elimination of supervisory union level of bureaucracy. In no way shape or form do we need 52 supervisory unions governing 109 school … Read more
What’s to be done? Parents are distraught, school district budgets and property taxes are skyrocketing, and there’s bullying and declining academic outcomes in public schools. State legislators shrug their shoulders. They don’t know what to do. Most of them don’t even think they’re responsible for the mess. It “just happened.” But the problem is “so … Read more
Maine has not lost its way. Maine has lost its collective mind. I am speaking of the Democrats in Maine, but they are the ruling party today, and it was the voters of Maine that gave them the power to manipulate and control the state. Unless you reside under a rock, you must know how … Read more
So, Governor Ayotte is moving us down the road towards universal eligibility for Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs). Awesome! Now what will she do to move us towards universal eligibility for food stamps, and heating oil subsidies, and housing assistance? While I don’t need any of those subsidies, I would certainly like to have them. And … Read more
I’m sure you’ve all thought about property tax, especially when it comes time to pay them. But have you ever considered how they work? Aside from the fact that NH schools are funded by them – and you’d think that property taxes were the only funding, but they’re not. The Concord school system receives approximately … Read more
I was recently asked: How would you go about eliminating public schools? I think we would eliminate public schools in the same way that we would eliminate public oil refineries, and public farms and ranches, and public grocery stores, and… Oh, wait, we don’t have those, do we? We don’t have those, because we have … Read more
Last year several parents, including myself, began warning school administrators about a child sexual predator attending the high school girl’s soccer games. Several parents went to work to not only warn administrators, but to address the court system that allowed Marc Jacques to roam freely at these soccer games. FROM THE U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE: Marc … Read more
Zoie Saunders serves as Vermont’s Secretary of Education, appointed by Governor Phil Scott. Before this role, she was the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Broward County Public Schools in Florida. Saunders has a background in educational leadership, having worked with Charter Schools USA as well. Her appointment in Vermont was relatively contentious, initially rejected … Read more
Send this to your school board and Superintendent. When you look at your school’s proficiency scores in math, you might be surprised that many students have not reached proficiency in mathematics. This might help them figure out where the problems exist. 1)Find your school’s proficiency scores HERE: https://www.education.nh.gov/who-we-are/division-of-educator-and-analytic-resources/iplatform2) Scroll down and click on IReport3) Scroll … Read more
The Executive Order Trump Train hasn’t lost any momentum even as we near the one-month mark in office. As an aside, anyone who was wondering what might happen in the first 100 days is curious as to whether he can keep this up for 100 days. By “keep up,” I mean what could be next. … Read more
Social and Emotional Learning has come under fire since it first began showing up in schools. SEL was going to be used as part of a behavior framework known as the Multi Tiered System of Support. The MTSS-B is a 3-tiered framework that guides schools on how to handle behavior or mental health problems with … Read more
Vindaloo Bugaboo (VB) and I join forces against the array of squishies, socialists, and environmentalists at Carbon Upfront. What we haven’t succeeded in doing is instructing them that they can mandate anything they want when it comes to how people are to live but that they will receive a lot of pushback – by politics … Read more
A Federal Government Publication Affirms That Education is “A matter reserved for the states” About ten years ago, I stopped in a library in Medfield, Massachusetts, a town about 40 miles West and South of Boston. At its book sale, I found “Formation of the Union Under the Constitution” in 1943 which was published to … Read more
Dan McGuire’s Bill, that narrows down what an adequate education is in New Hampshire, has everyone in a tizzy. HB283 would reduce the list of subjects that define what an adequate education. You can see how an adequate education would be defined if this bill were to pass, and be signed into law. The state would … Read more
From local elections to legislative debates to legal challenges, discussion of public education in New Hampshire has been dominated by two persistent myths. The first is that more spending is the primary means of producing better educational outcomes. The second is that our educational outcomes are stunted because funding for K-12 public schools has “been slashed,” as … Read more