News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
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
It’s become the norm for Superintendents to eliminate teachers if they do not get the budget they want. This time the Portsmouth Superintendent is threatening to eliminate teaching positions if he doesn’t get the increase in the school budget. Why is it, they never take that hammer to their own salaries? Most SAU administrators working … Read more
Then NH House Rep. Cindy Rosenwald used to let out-of-state campaign workers use her home address to vote in Nashua. The Democrat then got herself a promotion when she was elected to the State Senate. This has addled her already questionable mental health, a problem she shares with her party in general. Democrats are nuts. … Read more
Paul Ingbretson continues the Claremont Decision discussion with Senate Counsel Attorney Rick Lehmann, who also practices law in New Hampshire. He’s been involved with the Court filing amicus briefs on behalf of the Senate. ln this podcast Rick lays out some of the separation of powers issues resulting from those decisions. If you missed Part … Read more
A few days ago I read and shared an article by Ruy Teixeira on his Substack page, The Liberal Patriot, titled The Democrats’ Governance Problem; They’re bad at it and getting worse. It contained this key insight that I think applies particularly keenly to our little state of Vermont: “Democrats have developed a philosophy … that prizes … Read more
Boston’s City Council is weighing a tax on sugary drinks to improve health, advance equity, and increase its coffers by tens of millions of dollars a year. Such progressive policies seek revenue in the name of rescue but inevitably inflict more significant inequities on the marginalized communities they purport to serve. A sugar tax is … Read more
Okay, we have established that the Clean Heat Standard is an unnecessarily costly, unnecessarily complicated, ruthlessly regressive, unworkable word salad of legal confusion. But, hey, at least, so bleated its supporters incessantly for three plus years, it wasn’t/isn’t a tax, fee, surcharge on home heating fuel, right? So, what’s are the options for moving forward … 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
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
So much to unpack from Thursday’s big reveal of the Clean Heat Standard rules package from the Public Utilities Commission (PUC)! The big news is we got an “official” cost impact estimate – sort of. Just shy of a billion dollars over ten years with the impact per gallon of fuel oil bouncing from 8 … Read more
Governor Scott gave a good inaugural speech this week echoing the voters’ call for “affordability” in the last election. “Vermonters told us – loudly and clearly,” explained Scott, “they expect us to get back on course; to spend within THEIR means; and above all else, make Vermont more affordable for them.” I think this sums 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
In response to Ron Willoughby, who is concerned about school spending in Haverhill, NH (“Haverhill Taxpayers-Are you happy?”, Caledonian-Record), he and every Grafton County resident/taxpayer should be deeply concerned about spending at the Grafton County Complex. While there is a minority of Republicans who make up the County Delegation and the Executive Committee, with every … Read more