Since today is New Hampshire Day on the blog, I am reposting this article.
Since the 2020 election, Republicans have controlled both houses of the New Hampshire. The governor is Chris Sununu, a very conservative Republican and son of John Sununu, who was chief of staff to George H.W. Bush. In other words, New Hampshire is controlled by very conservative Republicans, even though the state has two Democratic Senators.
Sununu appointed a home schooler, Frank Edelblut, as his Commissioner of Education. His chief credential seems to be his contempt for public schooling.
Edelblut just made a new hire. He chose one of Betsy DeVos’s team to be New Hampshire’s Director of Learner Support. Her name is McKenzie Snow, and she is a voucher advocate like her old boss and her new boss. She was in charge of pushing vouchers while at the U.S. Department of Education. She was a consultant to Trump’s controversial “1776 Commission,” which attempted to promote a conservative version of history, minimizing racism and other shameful episodes in our history.
Although she will be in charge of “learner support,” she apparently was never a teacher.
New Hampshire NPR reports:
If confirmed, McKenzie Snow will direct the Division of Learner Support, overseeing student assessments, technical assistance for schools, student wellness, student support, adult education, and career and technical education.
Prior to working at the U.S. Department of Education for two and a half years, Snow analyzed and advocated for school choice reform as a policy director at ExcelinEd, a non-profit founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and directed by former House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor.
She also worked on educational issues at the conservative Charles Koch Foundation and Charles Koch Foundation Institutes, according to her LinkedIn account.
During her tenure at the U.S. Department of Education and ExcelinEd, Snow championed Education Savings Accounts (ESA’s), which give taxpayer dollars to parents to spend on approved educational programs of their choice, including private school and home school.
Snow’s confirmation is expected at the Executive Council meeting this Wednesday.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
NH is a swing state and all over the map politically. Right now the GOP/libertarians control the state but the entire congressional delegation is represented by the Democratic party. NH went for Hillary and Biden in the presidential elections. One can only hope that the people will come to their senses in NH and reject school privatization. Sadly there is a strong strain of libertarianism rampant in the state.
Has a strong strain of racism developed in the state as a result of the deprivations caused by concentrated wealth?
and across the nation
“The commission is grateful to …McKensie Snow…who assisted with the preparation of the report” – The President’s Advisory 1776 Commission Final Report
From NCRonline, 2-4-2021, “We must reject the white, racist God of the 1776 report…it is an especially dangerous document.”
We’ll see who is on the winning side in N.H., the professor who wrote the NCR article or the Catholic hierarchy that promotes vouchers to further the teachings of the Paul Weyrich.
Weyrich was funded by the Koch’s. He was co-founder of the religious right, ALEC, the Heritage Foundation and the National Council on Policy.
Yes, Paul Weyrich was an especially nasty piece of work. He hated democracy and didn’t want too many people voting. Thom Hartmann will occasionally play the Weyrich speech in which he deplores democracy and universal voting.
Weyrich: “Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome — good government. They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our [right wing fascists] leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
[my words in parentheses]
Quite a person to become “Director of learner Support.”
She is a rightwing ideologue.
“and career and technical education”
The next national ed reform scandal will be “career and technical education”
They threw piles of money at it, it’s completely unregulated and most of it is junk. It’s all ideologically motivated. They’re selling low wage jobs in health care, corrections and food service to students as “career education”.
I guarantee that within five years the scandals will start to break. Everyone is cashing in on it.
It’s a shame. I think the adults are giving high school students very bad advice. Tell students to vet these programs CAREFULLY. Do their own due diligence, since there’s almost no regulation. Most of them are garbage and kids can waste years on them.
There ARE really solid programs that exist, but they’ll have to seek them out and wade thru a lot of rip offs and fads.
This is not a post about education or education in NH, but I just watched Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) do a bang up job of smacking down FBI Director Wray. He didn’t have his charts and pictures like he did with Amy Comey- Barrett, but he was direct and to the point and did not ask about the events of Jan 6th. He was getting at the “bob and weave” and partisan politics of the agency because not many questions are being “answered” by the FBI…..prior to AND about Jan 6th. I LOVE this man!
Whitehouse gets info. from the Center for Media and Democracy which makes him well-informed about the Koch assault on democracy.
I saw that too. His jaws were moving but we didn’t actually learn anything. Nobody was at fault. Nobody did anything wrong. Nobody will be held accountable (unless they can blame a low level underling).
Same old, same old.
DeVos clone. Thanks a lot for adding new characters to my nightmares! Night of the Living Dread.
“Learner support” but has never taught? How is it possible to get such a post with so few qualifications?
Oh, wait, I think I …
sorry,
Stay safe, and thank you for letting us know of this, Diane,
I guess that we just keep rolling up our sleeves and working to build both critical thinking and empathy, for the long-term?
-Shira