Last year, New Hampshire had a Republican Governor and a Democratic legislature. The legislature blocked Governor Chris Sununu’s efforts to create vouchers and defund public schools. But Republicans gained control of the legislature in the 2020 election and are full steam ahead on privatization with 20 new federally funded charters and a full array of vouchers. Not only did the legislature endorse privatization, it banned the teaching of systemic racism, sexism, ableism, and other “divisive concepts.”
Christina Pretorious wrote the following summary for Reaching Higher New Hampshire.
Lawmakers pass budget with significant implications for public education in New Hampshire
On Thursday, June 24, lawmakers in the New Hampshire House and Senate passed two budget bills that will map out the state’s priorities and spending for the next two years. The budget bill includes provisions that will significantly change the landscape of public education in the Granite State, including a sweeping school voucher bill that will divert funding to private, religious, and home school programs. The budget also cuts funding to public schools by $25 million next year and institutes a ban on teaching and training on systemic racism, sexism, ableism, and other “divisive concepts.”
WMUR’s John DiStaso reported that Governor Chris Sununu signed HB 1 and HB 2 on Friday afternoon.
“With this budget, lawmakers and the Governor had the opportunity to fully fund our public schools to ensure that they had the resources they needed to offer every New Hampshire child access to a high quality public education. Instead, they reduced public school funding by $25 million and slipped in a sweeping school voucher program that was overwhelmingly rejected by Granite Staters,” said Christina Pretorius, Reaching Higher NH’s Policy Director. “At a time when we should be focusing on a strong and inclusive recovery, this budget hurts those that were hardest hit by the pandemic. New Hampshire deserves a budget that will help our students, communities, and state thrive. The policies in this budget will intensify the consequences of our already inequitable school funding system.”The key elements of the bill include:
- Sweeping school voucher bill: The budget includes the language of SB 130, which allows taxpayer funds to pay for private and homeschooling expenses through “Education Freedom Accounts,” or vouchers, for families who earn <300% of the federal poverty guideline (approximately $78,000 for a family of four in 2020). It has been overwhelmingly opposed by the public in hearings, polling, and in the news due to concerns over the absence of accountability or transparency provisions, the cost to the state and local school districts, and objections over using public tax dollars to fund private education. RHNH estimates that the program will cost New Hampshire $70 million in new state spending in its first three years and will cost local school districts $15 million in lost state revenue over the same time period.
- $25 million cut in public school funding: New Hampshire public schools were faced with an $89 million drop in state funding this upcoming school year due largely to the expiration of two targeted aid programs and enrollment fluctuations. The budget allows the NH Department of Education to use pre-pandemic student counts to calculate state aid for next school year and extends one of the two targeted aid programs (renamed a “Relief Fund”), but allows the targeted aid program for property-poor communities to lapse, resulting in a $25 million cut in public school funding.
- Tax cut for property-wealthy communities: The budget replaces a targeted property tax relief fund with a $100 million cut to the statewide education property tax (SWEPT), which disproportionately benefits owners of higher valued properties and would result in a cut in funding for residents in towns with lower property tax bases (“property-poor” towns).
- Maintains funding for two scholarship programs: The budget maintains funding for the Governor’s STEM Scholarship Program, which allows high school students to earn college credit for up to two STEM courses per year for free through the Dual and Concurrent Enrollment Program, a partnership between the Community College System of NH (CCSNH) and the NH Department of Education, and allocates $6 million for the Governor’s Scholarship Program, which provides up to $2,000 per eligible student for postsecondary educational or training programs.
- Adds $30 million into the school building aid fund: The school building aid fund, which was in moratorium for over a decade, will be infused with $30 million for new projects. There were approximately $250 million worth of projects proposed for the 2022-2023 biennium.
- Maintains separate funding and governance structures for CCSNH and the University System of New Hampshire: The budget keeps both entities separate, but budget negotiators expect a legislative proposal in the fall that would merge the two systems. Learn more: WEBINAR: Higher Education Roundtable by NH Alliance for College and Career Readiness
Join the New Hampshire Education Network (NHEN) to engage with the Reaching Higher team and other Granite Staters who are passionate about public education and ensuring that all children have access to a high-quality public education. Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 13. Sign up now and be a member.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“The God who made New Hampshire
Taunted the lofty land with little men.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
The God who made the Universe wasted the lofty space with little men”
Fixed.
Which god?
Do you have a pic of it/him/her?
Yes, here’s the photo
Here are two new laws in Indiana:
Teachers unions — Teachers must annually re-enroll in their union and complete a multi-step process to have union dues deducted from their paychecks. Indiana schools also must provide teachers notice during the year — in bold, 14-point type — that teachers can resign their union membership at any time. (SEA 251)
School buildings — The attorney general is empowered to monitor all school districts to ensure compliance with an existing state law requiring unused public school buildings be made available to charter schools for $1. School districts also are required to maintain unused school buildings until they’re sold or otherwise disposed of. (SEA 358)
“The budget bill includes provisions that will significantly change the landscape of public education in the Granite State, including a sweeping school voucher bill that will divert funding to private, religious, and home school programs. The budget also cuts funding to public schools by $25 million next year and institutes a ban on teaching and training on systemic racism, sexism, ableism, and other “divisive concepts.”
More excellent advocacy by ed reformers for public school students, I see.
Let’s review what the “ed reform movement” has contributed to public school students since the pandemic:
testing mandate
Ridiculous new laws banning discussion of anything “divisive”, but only in public schools- they exempted private schools from this harsh speech policing.
That’s it.That’s the sum total benefit any public school student or family got.
Ed reform and ed reformers return no value to any student or family who attends public schools. It’s the one constant in “the movement”- they offer nothing of productive or positive value to public school students or families.
Is it fair to have education policy completely dominated by an echo chamber of charter and voucher promoters who simply perform no productive work of any kind on behalf of public school students? Why can’t public school students have advocates?
It’s the same in Ohio, another state that is completely dominated by the ed reform echo chamber.
Total work performed this calendar year that is even relevant to the 90% of students in this state who attend the (ideologically) unfashionable public schools?
“Today, the General Assembly passed House Bill 82, legislation that contains comprehensive reforms to the state’s school report card system.”
Public schools get yet another measurement system. That’s it for public school students- that’s all they’ll get. Lavish new funding and promotion of private school vouchers and another gimmicky, expensive mandate pushed onto public schools.
These folks are NOT “agnostics” and to prove it all you have to do is look at what they do for students in public schools- they do nothing.
Public schools and public school students are unfashionable in elite ed policy circles. No one lifts a finger for our schools or students. Too busy “reinventing” and engineering privatized systems to do any work, I guess.
The public is paying most of these folks. Was it a good investment? How has it worked our for students who attend public schools?
The defining feature of ed reform legislation at the state level is this- it offers nothing to public school students or public school families.
Look at any ed reform-backed initiative in your state and try to find public school students- they aren’t in there.
I’m old enough to remember when the ed reform “movement” started and they sold the public on it by claiming they would “improve” public schools.
Now that the entire echo chamber spend most of their work days lobbying for private school vouchers, can we get an explanation why the public was misled about the ideological privatization goals that comprise 90% of ed reform work and that aren’t even relevant to public school students, let alone “beneficial”.
when ‘improve’ turned out to mean ‘make that massive ed funding more accessible for opportunism’
It’s really incredible how the ed reform echo chamber have flipped education policy on its head.
The only productive, positive, practical WORK that is even relevant to public schools or public school students now comes exclusively out of the Biden Administration.
Without Biden, it would be yet another lost year for public school student policy, coming after an entire decade where no one bothered with them.
The states captured by the ed reform myth will learn the hard way what it means to dismantle public education. It is not just a question of education. Public schools provide community, identity and so much more. Public schools offer cohesion and security in an increasingly fragmented world. They are an expression of democracy in action. These communities will lose a lot more than they believe they are gaining. Behind the scenes billionaires are smirking because they are perpetrating one of the greatest scams of all time.
They will learn the hard way too late — after they have effectively crippled public Ed.
Once a critical mass of people (especially the veterans) who make up an organization leave, it’s very difficult to reassemble it because a large knowledge and experience base leaves with them.
This is actually the greatest damage that the deformers have done and continue to do: drive good teachers out of teaching.
They will also learn too late that they have been suckered by the claims of shysters intent on profiting off the deprofessionalization of teaching.
This is already having a big impact in real time in NH communities. I sent this post to several friends who live in NH. One said it’s already impacted her children’s schools – they had huge cuts in staff this spring.
Awful.
This is already having a big impact in real time in NH communities. Severalfriends who live in NH, said it’s already impacted her children’s schools – they had huge cuts in staff this spring.
“The states captured by the ed reform myth will learn the hard way what it means to dismantle public education. It is not just a question of education. Public schools provide community, identity and so much more. Public schools offer cohesion and security in an increasingly fragmented world. They are an expression of democracy in action. These communities will lose a lot more than they believe they are gaining. Behind the scenes billionaires are smirking because they are perpetrating one of the greatest scams of all time.” says one teacher at the Ravitch blog
I POSTED a link at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/New-Hampshire-Endorses-Vou-in-General_News-Diane-Ravitch_Education_Education-Curriculum_Education-Funding-210628-351.html
“Choice Media
ChoiceMediatv
WEBINAR TODAY AT 10:30 am EDT – Seeking a Truce in the Civics & History Wars: Is ‘Educating for American Democracy’ the Answer?”
Gotta love ed reformers. People who don’t support the continued existence of public schools meet without public schools to decide what’s taught in public schools.
And only in public schools. The private school vouchers they all back will include no mandates on what is permitted to be discussed- all mandates and policing is directed at the unfashionable public school sector.
100% negative for public schools students. We get all of the ed reform mandates and policing with no advocacy and no additional benefit for our students.
This is a terrible deal for public school students and families. We should think about hiring some people who actually contribute something positive to our schools.
New Hampshire has a population of 1.36 million.
The population of the U.S. is 328.2 million.
New Hampshire holds 0.4 percent of the U.S. population. That makes New Hampshire the canary in a coal mine and that canary just died.
What do miners do when they are deep underground digging away working hard and their canary dies?
https://www.theonion.com/entire-nation-placed-under-jamie-spears-conservatorshi-1847175757
For security purposes, one should always have a bunch of backup Canaries on hand in case one or more dies.
John Steinbeck actually wrote a book about this entitled Canary Row
All I know is, if it upsets Chaira this much it must be fantastic!
Good work New Hampshire making public schools have to compete for students. Imagine the improved quality of students coming out of New Hampshire in the coming years as an after effect from this…
Such nonsense. Imagine public money for homeschooled children whose parents are high school dropouts. Imagine children indoctrinated by low-quality religious schools. Poor New Hampshire!