On Wednesday, the New Hampshire legislature will vote on a voucher bill that is unnecessary and will harm the state’s fine public schools, which enroll nearly 90% of the children in the state. Parents should rise up and tell their legislators to support their public schools.
Joe Onosko, a professor of education at the University of New Hampshire, explains succinctly why this proposal should be rejected.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/SB-193-is-an-attack-on-NH-public-schools-14621827
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s amazing how quickly ed reform has gone from all charters all the time to all vouchers all the time.
I’m old enough to remember when the claim was this wasn’t about privatizing public education. That was 5 years ago.
I saw the Heritage wish list for k-12 education in 2018. Public schools aren’t even mentioned. All of the people who said the end game of all this was privatization, and who were smeared as over-reacting, have been proven to be right. They are moving so far Right they’re now past Barry Goldwater’s vision. Public schools have simply disappeared- it’s as they don’t exist.
Cross-posted at Oped news: https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/SB-193-remains-an-unjustif-in-General_News-Education_Ideology_Public-Assets-To-Private-Wealth_Public-Education-180102-405.html
I am a former resident of the Granite State. Although I am a “son of the South”, I have a great deal of respect, for those hard-headed Yankees. (Maybe that is part of the reason, that New Hampshire is called the Granite State)! The motto on their license plates, is “Live free or die”. Now, they are demanding freedom to opt-out of publicly-operated schools. I hope that the legislation passes.
One of the methods that the public school perpetuators continue to use is the “90%” mantra. The reason that ~90% percent of families have their children in the publicly-operated schools, is that families cannot afford to pay both school taxes, and non-public school tuition. I am certain, that if more families were accorded choices, the percentage of children enrolled in public schools would certainly drop below the 90% level.
see this article (It is over 15 years old, but very prescient. The topics that it shows, just leap right out of the past, right into the present) :
https://www.heartland.org/publications-resources/publications/february-2002-the-year-of-school-vouchers?source=policybot
The Manchester (NH) Union-Leader, is a center-right newspaper, which has consistently support the right of NH parents to opt-out of publicly-operated schools. This article, makes a convincing case, that school choice/vouchers (as proposed in the pending legislation) will result in MORE , not less state money flowing into the publicly-operated school systems in the Granite State.
see
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20171210/OPINION01/171219954
Good grief. This country has NOT had a qualified person as Secretary of Education for EONS. This is a HUGE PROBLEM.
Both parties sold out public schools and public school teachers to BIG money, FAKE issues, and FAKE solutions … and here we are … ONE HUGE MESS.
@Yvonne. I am somewhat in agreement with you on this. Nevertheless, I felt that Lamar Alexander of Tenn. was a highly-qualified secEd. (I believe that Diane will agree with me on this). I have often advocated for the abolishment of the (Federal) Dept of Education, and “de-volving” (nearly) all educational policy and funding responsibilities to the states/municipalities.
If we had no Dept of Ed, we would not have unqualified Secretaries of Education!
This is a “nose in the tent” moment for New Hampshire. If vouchers are provided for low income students, this will be the tip of the iceberg. The free market lobbyists, backed by dark money, will swarm the state looking for a greater piece of the public money pie. “Choice” offers no solutions or miracles, and vouchers are a waste. Your public schools, which are successful, will be in a state of decline due to voucher drain. New Hampshire needs to protect and defend its public schools and students from outside commercial exploitation.
As Gomer Pyle would say “Surprise, Surprise!”. This is a tactic that school choice advocates have been using for many years. You get a state legislature to pass limited school choice, for poor families, or special needs families, or Native American families, or military families, or families who have not been able to get their child into a charter school, etc.
Once the school choice plan has “taken root”, then you water the plan, and help it to grow and expand. This is exactly what is occurring in Arizona right now!
It is obvious, that (in most cases) you cannot just go into a state, and the “drop” a state-wide, school choice plan on everyone. People are generally suspicious of major changes like this.
It is easier, to come in, one step at a time, and gradually get the choice plan passed for a limited number of families, and then expand the program!
You can read all about it in Sun-Tzu’s “The art of War”.
swarm. WELL DESCRIBED.
This bill has nothing to do with providing $$$ for “low income students”… as it is written now parents who earn $74,000/year will qualify for this de facto voucher. You are correct, though, that this IS a “nose in the tent” moment for NH schools. Here’s hoping the camel stays on the outside!
Maybe it is different for someone who was raised in a city, but I can’t say that my parents or any of us children felt like we were attending a “government school,” whatever that means. My parents voted for a school board composed of residents of the town who then ran the schools. The meetings and their proceedings were transparent and anyone who was interested could see exactly where their tax dollars were going. If they didn’t like it they had the right to express their opinion at meetings and run for office with the support of like-minded citizens if they so chose. This “choice” movement takes the community out of the process. I no longer care about all of the children, just my own. My tax dollars are no longer seen as something that supports the welfare of the entire community but as an arbitrary contribution I am forced to make to an entity for which I feel no commitment.
Ditto here & for my children (in their 20’s now) & no doubt a large part of the country– certainly most of NH. I expect it’s quite different for those in large densely populated cities, whether poor or not. I lived in NYC for a long time, & had many friends raised there &/or raising kids there. There’s a prevailing feeling “you can’t fight City Hall”, & not just about schools. Doubt if that’s a majority feeling in NH w/their top-notch public schools.
I feel my school system only cares about certain children, whether they get high grades, score on the court or get Medicaid money. There are many children who aren’t advocated for who could excel if the “system” felt they had value. Kids are being graduated without the basic skills to survive in life, because the adults are too bust scamming the “system.” I have no choice but to pay my taxes. I pay no money for “homeschool program” and by law, my district has to pay tuition to a program in another State that my child attends. People don’t really know what their children’s educational rights are & my school system is keeping people in the dark, because they don’t want to lose money.
I just finished reading the full (linked) article, and it was very good indeed. Mutatis mutandis, the same arguments or variants thereof could be employed in nearly every state with vouchers. The fact that NH’s public schools are at the top of U.S. rankings makes it clear that this isn’t anything to do with “quality” – it’s about privatization and profit.
I live in NH and forwarded this article to each of my representatives and Senator. Living in a “blue” region I was not surprised to find that they all oppose SB 193. Any NH readers who have GOP House members or senators need to send this to them ASAP because the bill’s passage is not assured. I you haven’t done so already, you also should also send them this analysis for Advancing NH Schools: https://anhpe.org/2017/12/03/local-property-tax-revenues-will-go-along-with-each-sb-193-voucher-why-is-that-not-a-problem-for-legislators/. It shows how the passage of this bill would impact their towns’ property taxes… and in some cases it is not a pretty picture.