Hat’s off to Elinor Williams Hooker and the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire and to the Monitor for its coverage of Sunday’s Tea Talk, ‘Divisive Concepts: A Chilling Effect on Teaching History.’ It was a breath of fresh air to hear Elizabeth DuBrulle of the NH Historical Society, Erin Bakkom, an eighth grade social studies teacher, and Nikita Stewart, a journalist participant in the 1619 Project (not to be confused with the Woodson Center’s 1776 Unites).
HB 1090, the Divisive Concepts Act comes not from the legislative staff but from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is based in Washington, D.C. and is the purveyor of “one size fits all” legislation for like-minded legislators. ALEC was founded in 1973 as the Conservative Caucus of State Legislators. Our education commissioner, Frank Edelblut, supports this legislation. Overall, I have a sense that our commissioner has no commitment to public education. He does have a strong commitment to charter schools, home schools, nonpublic schools. His education agenda is modeled after ex-cabinet secretary Betsy DeVos.
Commissioner Edelblut, by his actions and public statements, is telling us that he is not up to the challenge of educating all New Hampshire’s children and supporting their teachers and administrators. Gov. Sununu needs to acknowledge this disconnect and ask for Mr. Edelblut’s resignation.
Kathleen Rooney
Concord