News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Parents recently testified to the legislature that public schools are not “safe” or “suitable” for their children. That’s because the state has bribed public schools, using taxpayer dollars, to implement every education fad from restorative justice, which results in widespread discipline and bullying problems, to social emotional learning, which replaces academic instruction with behavior modification. … Read more
There is no connection between money and academic outcomes unless you mean that kids can learn more for a lot less – there is a lot of evidence for that. But the Ed god behemoth demands to be fed, and those who benefit politically from this arrangement insist the answer is more. Always more. They … Read more
It seems that the State has decided that they need to move mental and medical clinics into your child’s school. Why even parent your children? It appears as if the State, in conjunction with school officials, will happily take over your job. There is no need to take your child to see their doctor during … Read more
The State New Hampshire and its towns and cities provide the opportunity to obtain a publicly funded education to every school-age child, regardless of income. And no one complains that this unfairly benefits higher-income households. To illustrate the point, the median household income in Hopkinton is $130,216. That’s 55% higher than in Concord ($83,701) and … Read more
Although many people resist acknowledging this, we use a kind of Marxism to fund our schools: The Accidental Marxist The Accidental Marxist, Part 2 That is, by taxing each property owner in a school district a flat rate on the assessed value of his property, we take more from people who have more. So that’s … Read more
One of the many problems with universal EFAs is that they take money from people who don’t have it, to give to people who don’t need it. Let’s ask a straightforward question: Under what conditions should we give tax money to, or spend tax money on, people who can afford to get along without it? … Read more
One of the many problems with EFAs is that they simply continue the Pay-and-Pray paradigm that is at the root of our failing school system. Let’s ask a straightforward question: Under what conditions should we spend tax money on something for which we have no specific, agreed-upon goals (and therefore no way to judge whether … Read more
Governor Scott is set to unveil his proposals for education reform this week, fulfilling campaign promises to lower property taxes which are a direct result of public school spending. But there are powerful special interests that want to keep that money flowing from your pocket to theirs. Chief among them, the Vermont Teacher’s Union, the … Read more
Let’s ask a straightforward question: Why should we spend tax money on education? The New Hampshire Constitution gives one possible answer: Education is essential to the preservation of a free government. The New Hampshire Supreme Court gave an expanded version of this answer: Every educable child should have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge … Read more
What did we learn from the Universal School Choice HB115 hearing? More importantly, WHY do I, as a Veteran Home Educator and Home Education Advocate in NH, care so much? Well, folks, I’ll tell you. The politics of this thing are ugly. Education Freedom Accounts and “School Choice” are ideas that Republicans nationwide invented in … Read more
I hope taxpayers aren’t covering the cost of admission. The NEA is the largest labor union in the US and, therefore, the largest teachers union, so when the NEA in NH announces a teacher’s conference, you’d be right to wonder what they want teachers to know. If you happen to be a member of the … Read more
Good Morning, Commissioner Edelblut, Senators Abbas and Lang, I am writing to you about the Special Education shortfalls in our state. As an older special needs mom with strong connections to the NH disability community and after reading the following article and getting a message from my Senator, Daryl Abbas, I have some major concerns. … Read more
Yesterday, there was a hearing in Concord to expand the EFA (School Choice) program. The EFA program allows families to use state tax money, and take that to an alternative school if needed. It opens up options for families who want an alternative education for their children. Here is a link to the proposed legislation. … Read more
Dear Friends of Classical Education, We are pleased to announce that we have created the Acta Non Verba Foundation, a charity whose mission is to provide financial assistance and mentoring to new and early stage private and public classical schools. The rapid growth of classical education in the United States demonstrates that American parents want … Read more
HB 115-FN – Universal eligibility for the Education Freedom Account program Parents are frustrated with public schools. Rightly so. The state legislature has destroyed them with costly and controversial regulations, resulting in high property taxes and no voice in our public schools. The legislature accepted federal bribes on an ongoing basis to implement “standards-based learning,” … Read more
Merrimack is using three English Language Arts programs, however, one of them causes emotional harm to children. According to the lawsuit against Wit & Wisdom, parents reported that their children had suffered psychological harm because of the Critical Race Theory focus in Wit&Wisdom. All of this was reported here. Now that parents have begun questioning … Read more
My guests are Jody and Ian Underwood. The topic is education, Public, private, Homeschool, charters, funding, including EFAs, and more. From unconstitutional monopiles to Claremont, from 5 feet to 30,000 feet, we fit it all in one hour. Production note: I’m still futzing with the program details: lighting, framing, logo, splash, music, all of it. … Read more
Suppose we ask a very basic question: Under what conditions should we give tax money to, or spend tax money on, people who can afford to get along without it? We don’t give LIHEAP subsidies to people who can already afford to heat their homes. We don’t give Section 8 subsidies to people … Read more
After describing the numerous problems in the Merrimack schools with their science and SEL programs, now is a good time to look at one of the English Language Arts programs used in the school. Oddly enough, it was mentioned during the budget committee meeting that Merrimack chose three E/LA programs for the students. One of … Read more
Republicans went from “EFAs will help low-income, urban kids get out of failing public schools” to “Universal School Choice” so fast, I’m not sure what happened to the so-called conservatives. Political pressure? Are any of you voters asking hard questions or understanding the program enough to truly support Republicans removing the income requirement? Taxpayer funded … Read more