WHATEVER HAPPENED TO LOCAL CONTROL?

Most of the education-related bills that will be considered in the House and Senate this week have a common theme. As they constantly downshift costs to local communities, Republican/Free State leaders are working hard to “upshift” control over them.

These lawmakers want to mandate what teachers can and can’t say in class and demand that teachers relate to students, not as trusted advisors, but as undercover agents expected to “out” their students. They want to dictate the materials public school librarians can put on their shelves and force school administrators to follow a burdensome state-mandated process if a parent complains about a book, rather than letting them continue to use the procedures adopted by their school board. And they want to order every municipality in NH to schedule and pay for a vote on a local tax cap under conditions imposed by the State, whether or not anyone living in that town actually wants one. This despite the fact that local procedures to call for such a vote without any state mandate already exist.

Republican/Free State leaders talk a good game about reducing regulation, but the only “reducing” we see in the public education arena is on the money side. When it comes to educators, elected school board members and local property taxpayers, these freedom-lovers are all about micromanagement.