Abandonment of critical needs
In his letter, December 13, 2020, Senator Kevin Avard, urged the NH state legislature to accept a federal grant so that he can support legislation and Gov. Chris Sununu’s initiative to double the number of charter schools in New Hampshire. Avard states that charter schools have “bipartisan support”, and charter schools create “innovative approaches to education.” Mr. Avard offers plenty of empty platitudes, but no evidence that charter schools have real public support or offer anything better than our regular public schools. Public schools are run by the people in the community and are supported by the community. Charter schools have enrollment caps and resort to lotteries resulting in waiting lists for students who want to enroll bringing exclusivity to a public school system that is supposed to guarantee equal opportunity.
According to an NHPR report of February 2020, the NH state Department of Education reported that there are significantly lower percentages of English Language Learners and students eligible for free and reduced lunch services in New Hampshire’s charter schools compared to its regular public schools, so the claim that charter schools serve disadvantage kids is unfounded.
Sen. Avard is supposed to be representing Nashua, but I wonder if he has ever stepped foot in a public school in Nashua. Does he know about the Nashua Teacher Leaders Program where our Nashua Teachers are innovating teaching methodologies in areas such as teaching kids who have experienced trauma, teaching our students wellness, and teaching Social and Emotional Learning? Yet Mr. Avard claims charter schools bring innovation without actually telling us what that innovation is, or even bothering to understand what our teachers are currently doing in the public schools from the district he is supposed to be representing.
The charter school movement has been a mechanism to de-unionize the industry and eliminate local board of education control of public schools. Unions are not always about money. Over the past century, teachers unions have brought professional standards and better working conditions to public education. Furthermore, after no real improvement in the desegregation of America’s schools despite 67 years of Brown v. Board of Education, the rush to double the number of charter schools is simply the creation of just another avenue for white flight, coupled with Mr. Avard’s penchant to impose spending caps on local governments, it will result in the continued abandonment of critical needs for New Hampshire’s public schools, and our kids who rely heavily on our schools.