Janet Ward lives in Contoocook.
At the September 8 meeting of the NH State Board of Education, the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire presented the Board with a copy of the League’s public service advertisement supporting public education which appeared in the Monitor on August 28.
State Board Chair Drew Cline, members of the Board, and Commissioner Frank Edelblut expressed amazement and dismay at the inability of New Hampshire citizens to appreciate their efforts to support public education.
Let us review some of the efforts cited by these folks as support of public education. They include the promulgation of a school voucher program with minimal oversight which was cleverly folded into our state budget, passed, and signed by Governor Sununu. Why was the school voucher bill included as part of the state budget? Because it failed to get support from the Legislature as a stand-alone bill.
Approximately $8 million New Hampshire taxpayer dollars have been drained from public schools and directed to private and religious schools and homeschooling. Most school voucher students had already been pursuing non-public education before they enrolled in the school voucher program. This year the cost of the school voucher program will be $14.7 million. Again, this includes a majority of students who were already pursuing non-public education without being subsidized by public tax dollars.
Here is the heart of the matter. New Hampshire taxpayers do not know in any real detail how our tax dollars are being used in these private educational situations. We do not know what is being taught or by whom. Yet we are required to pay for this non-public education. This is taxation without representation.
The commissioner and State Board of Education next touted its privatization of Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) through the Department’s Learn Everywhere program. What was not made clear to anyone present at the meeting or to online listeners was the fact that a statewide program had already been in place which offered a variety of Extended Learning Opportunities. These ELOs were carefully monitored by local school districts.
The existing ELO program was transformed by the commissioner and the State Board so that students are now allowed to participate in extended learning situations run by private firms or individuals with little oversight by the student’s own school district. School districts were told that credits students earned in the new, privatized Learn Everywhere program must count toward the credits necessary for graduation. However, local school districts have no effective quality control over these Learn Everywhere private options.
Commissioner Edelblut expressed particular dismay when he recounted a lack of support for the department’s efforts to outsource tutoring in reading to a private entity. The question of why such tutoring could not be encouraged within public schools was not discussed.
Since observers at NH State Board of Education meetings cannot comment or ask questions once the public comment period has ended, the State Board chair, Commissioner Edelblut, and members of the State Board were not required to respond to questions, defend or explain any of these programs or other privatization initiatives.
The assertion that NH Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut, Chair of the State Board of Education Drew Cline, or members of the State Board of Education support public education is not true.
New Hampshire citizens, largely educated in public schools, understand this.