In her My Turn, Ms. Deb Howes (Monitor, 12/10), president of our teachers’ union, wrote a number of lies to prove her false narrative that parents are not qualified to make good educational choices for their children. The first is that there is no accountability for the expenditure of these monies. The bill provides for a “Scholarship Organization” under RSA 77-G that is responsible for making sure that there are only qualified educational expenditures paid from these accounts. The second is that a parent can go on vacation to “Epcot in the name of world history” or that “a student can buy a snowmobile under the guise that it is for physical education.” These would not be qualified educational expenditures that would be approved by the Scholarship Organization.
If someone says that there is not accountability, they either have not read pages 4-8 in the bill or they are just repeating misinformation to support that false narrative. Ms. Howes goes on to say that because of a lack of accountability there is no guarantee that students will get a quality education. What guarantee does she give parents whose children attend public schools in NH with less than a 50% proficiency rating? Parents need a school system that produces a minimum of 70%. When our public schools stop acting like a monopoly, the system will produce better proficiencies. A monopoly produces inferior services at a higher cost without competitors.
Joe Mendola
Warner