New Hampshire
Center for School Reform
Bi-Weekly
Newsletter
July 14, 2004
We are pleased to bring attention to New Hampshire's
progress.
In this edition:
Please direct inquiries to Susan Hollins (susan@nhschoolreform.org)
CHOICE & OPEN ENROLLMENT IN New Hampshire
Our Charter School Law, RSA 194-B, is
actually titled the
Charter Schools and Open Enrollment
Act.
So we have an open enrollment
statute, now, under Section B:2 of RSA 194-B: “Any
school district legislative body may vote to
designate one or more of its schools as an open
enrollment school…that operates under the same laws,
rules, and policies as any other public school….A
school district may predetermine the number of
pupils residing outside …its attendance areas it
deems appropriate to accept…”
Why
wait for vouchers? Enterprising school districts
with space or schools they’d like to redesign with
bilingual or science emphasis can become choice
schools now. With so many schools needing choice
provisions, districts with available seats could
open their enrollment doors to new tuition revenue!
HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE ACADEMY …WELCOMES DESIGN
PARTICIPATION
An
APB is out for thinkers, writers, entrepreneurs, and
just plain interested people to help design a
charter high school with classical, high-standards
education and world class science programs. The
science group hopes to involve teachers,
universities, businesses, parents, and students;
submit a charter before December 2004; and, if
approved, open its door September 2005 with a 9th-grade
class. For now, the vision starts with gathering
interested others and beginning to talk ideas. For
more information and/or to participate: contact:
Bob Shalit,
Chemistry Teacher.
SCHOOL LAW CONFERENCE:
July 26-30th, Portland, Maine
The 11th
Annual Education Law Conference, held in Portland at
U. Maine School of Law, has pre-conference session
July 26--KEEPING STUDENTS SAFE: Responding to
Bullying and Harassment--and a
post-conference AUTISM special, July 30.
Useful sessions for
new school leaders, from a list of fine choices:
-
July 27th
a.m. - Discipline & Reality; How to Hire a
School Attorney & Advisors
-
July 27th
p.m. - Educator Misconduct; Teacher Pay &
Performance
-
July 28th
a.m. - Charter School Primer (Susan Hollins &
Kathleen Shoenberg, Esq.)
-
July 28th
p.m. - High Stakes Testing & Standards; School
Choice & Urban Reform
-
July 29th
a.m. - Sick Buildings and Allergies; Children
and the Law
-
July 29th
p.m. - K-20 School Reform; Legislation and No
Child Left Behind
The conference brings
together a diverse, national group of educators,
attorneys, and policy-makers to discuss legal issues
of concern to K12. This is a great chance for new
school managers to learn details on important school
law issues.
More info at
www.edlaw.org; to register contact University
of Southern Maine, Department of Conferences, 68
High St., Portland, ME 04101, 207-780-5951.
Charter School
Starters: The conference has offered “...four
for the price of three for charter group sign ups.”
CHARTER SCHOOLS DECREASE NEED FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION
A new report shows
that California charter schools are succeeding in
reducing the number of students labeled "special
education." According to a Reason Foundation
report, California charters "do a better job of
meeting inclusion goals by educating disabled
students with their non-disabled peers using
individualized curriculum and small class sizes to
meet the instructional needs of special education
students and using early intervention strategies to
catch learning problems early…" This makes
perfect sense if you understand that we have
children in special ed who are not educationally
handicapped to begin with.. Charter schools need a
fairer amount of funding than the 30% or 40% of an
average per pupil cost, now provided. There’s much
to gain by assuring our charter schools thrive.
view the full report.
For info on misdiagnosing ADHD:
http://205.180.85.40/w/pc.cgi?mid=40266&sid=5303h
MILTON FRIEDMAN: FREE TO CHOOSE—A Classic Inquiry
Into the Relationship between Freedom and Economics
If you’ve never read
Milton (Nobel Prize Winner) and Rose Friedman’s FREE
TO CHOOSE, 1980, it’s worth the read. A few
thought-provoking excerpts:
A society that puts
equality—in the sense of equality of outcome—ahead
of freedom will end up with neither equality nor
freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will
destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good
purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use
it to promote their own interests. On the other
hand, a society that puts freedom first will…end up
with both greater freedom and greater equality.
Though a by product of freedom, greater equality is
not an accident. A free society releases the
energies and abilities of people to pursue their own
objectives. It prevents some people from arbitrarily
suppressing others. Freedom means diversity but also
mobility. It preserves the opportunity for today’s
disadvantaged to become tomorrow’s privileged and,
in the process, enables almost everyone, from top to
bottom, to enjoy a fuller and richer life.
We have used
“education” and “schooling” as synonymous. But the
identification of the two terms is another case of
using persuasive terminology. In a more careful use
of terms, not all “schooling” is “education,” and
not all “education” is “schooling.” Many highly
schooled people are uneducated, and many highly
“educated” people are unschooled.
The sickness (of an
over-governed society…Walter Lippmann) has taken the
form of denying
many parents control over the kind of schooling
their children receive….
We have tried …to
outline a number of constructive suggestions: the
introduction of a voucher system for elementary and
secondary education that would give parents at all
income levels freedom to choose the schools their
children attend;
…the proposals are
visionary but not impracticable. …Insofar as we make
progress…we can strengthen the foundations of our
freedom and give fuller meaning to equality of
educational opportunity.
THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF SCHOOL CHOICE IN NEW
HAMPSHIRE
The Milton and Rose D.
Friedman Foundation gives grants to study and report
issues relating to school choice and vouchers. The
Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy was
recently funded to pursue vouchers, private school
placements, and the constitution.
The question: Does
a school choice voucher, dispersing funds on a
neutral basis with respect to religion, allowing
parents to defray costs of sending children to a
school of choice including a religious school,
violate the US or NH constitution?
Four relevant Supreme
Court cases have been decided in the past 20
years—1983, 1986, 1993, and 2002. In all cases,
apparently, funds to the private schools were
indirect and the programs were found to be
constitutional.
For the complete
report and analysis of this May 2004 report:
Click Here
READING RECOVERY:
It sounds like a technique, but “Reading Recovery”
is a specific and very expensive-to-implement
reading program. Its effectiveness is often
challenged in research literature. In 1997 Reading
Recovery became thee state reading program. Training
first grade teachers in this program in
New Hampshire became law, RSA 186:70. Speaking of
choice, why does New Hampshire
legislate only one reading program?
QUESTION or COMMENT? Please do not
hesitate to visit
our web site
and peruse the world of New Hampshire charter
schools. We are updating weekly and responding to
your requests and suggestions.
