I read Rep. Sherman Packard’s “My Turn” (Sunday Monitor Forum, March 27) with a mixture of anger and disbelief, especially the assertion that “members of the N.H. House are elected to represent constituents in their district and vote in their communities’ best interests.”
If this is how Rep. Packard believes his Republican colleagues should and do vote, explain to me why many with full-day kindergarten in the towns they are supposed to represent voted against HB 1563 to fully fund kindergarten.
In fact, four Republicans on the Education Committee, Chair Rick Ladd (Haverhill), Glenn Cordelli (Moultonborough), Allen Cook (Brentwood) and Victoria Sullivan (Manchester) voted against this bill in committee, in spite of the fact that their towns have full-day kindergarten.
It made it out of committee because Rep. Jim Grenier joined the Democrats in supporting it. Two of his town – Goshen and Lempster – have full-day kindergarten.
Once before the House, the bill was defeated on a mostly party-line vote, with many Republicans voting against their full-day kindergarten “communities’ best interests.” Rep. Packard also asserts that the Republicans were “able to pass a budget that meets the needs of our state.”
Try to sell that to voters as the red-listed bridges in Northwood and elsewhere around the state are closed for want of funds to repair them.
TOM CHASE
Northwood