Don’t Weaken Our Public Schools
Defeat Expansion of School Vouchers and Uncertified Part-Time Teachers
Breathtaking hypocrisy in the Senate Education Committee this week as moments after Senator Tim Lang said that the State of New Hampshire did not have enough money in the Education Trust Fund to invest in helping students with special education needs get better supports in their public schools and lowering the burden on local property taxpayers, he introduced an amendment that would raise the income level on the over budget, unproven school voucher program from 350% of the federal poverty level to 400%. So, we can’t afford to help 30,000 students with special education needs in our public schools, but we can give a state subsidy to families earning up to $125,000 to send their kids to private school (most of these kids were already in private education). Even worse, estimates show that the voucher increase will cost an estimated $30 million in new state spending next year and the increased special education aid would have cost $17 million next year.
We should not be surprised by this as the same folks who are supporting this school voucher expansion also supported expanding it while simultaneously denying kids free and reduced lunch at school.
Part-time Uncertified Teachers In addition to raising the cap on school vouchers this week, the Senate Education Committee also voted to amend the House version of the part time uncertified teacher bill back to the original Senate version which would allow a person without a certification to work in a school as an educator for up to 30 hours a week. This bill dangerously removes any requirement other than some expertise in a subject area from those who would be standing in front of our public school students and calling themselves teachers. This would leave students’ quality of education at serious risk. There is no requirement that these so-called “adjunct educators” know anything about how to break their knowledge of a subject area down into teachable lessons, how students learn and about exceptional learners, how to differentiate lessons to meet student needs, how to communicate appropriately with students, how to manage student behaviors, how to assess student learning, and the many other things that go into teaching beyond just knowing your academic subject. The three senators who voted for this bill seemed to think there were others in the school who would handle all these pieces for any “adjunct educators.” Do they really plan to burden already overworked certified teachers just so they can hire uncertified part time teachers who don’t know anything other than their own academic content? That’s a recipe for serious discontent amongst your school staff. If this bill were to pass, we should expect to see students in districts that struggle to fund their schools’ education rely heavier on this new hiring loophole further exacerbating the gap between students’ education outcomes solely based on zip code.
Senate Action Both of these bills will be coming to the full Senate floor next week for a vote. Both of these bills will harm our local neighborhood public schools and both will hurt Granite State students’ ability to get the world-class public education that they deserve.
Please take action. Tell your state senator to vote NO on HB 1665 (expanding vouchers) and HB 1298 (allowing uncertified persons to teach our children). Our kids deserve better.
Thank you for continuing to reach out to your elected representatives.
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