Monadnock elections: Your vote could have made the difference

Here's a perfect example of why it's important for Monadnock parents to vote.

Article 3 on the Monadnock School District warrant this year asked voters to set aside $230,925 to put toward the building capital reserve fund. Not a dime of that money would have come from new taxes. All of it would have come from New Hampshire State School Building aid reimbursements from previous projects. It could have been used to help reduce costs for the construction that the district must do soon if the Middle/High School is to retain its accreditation.

The article lost by eight votes, 1403 to 1411.

The biggest problem in the Monadnock District is not the Monadnock Taxpayer's Association or the teacher contracts or even the embarrassing condition of our Middle/High School infrastructure.

The biggest problem is that few parents take the time to vote and to actively support their children's schools. The extent of the complacency is astounding. Yesterday I spoke with an elected official who was at the polls and took note of how many parents showed up in Swanzey on February 4th. The answer: very, very few. It's not just a Swanzey problem, however: the apathy extends district-wide.

Politicians talk about playing to their "base." In 2005 Monadnock children - your children - had no political base because parents weren't in the game. They didn't show up for School Board meetings. They didn't show up for Budget Committee meetings. Less than 200 showed up for the Deliberative Session prior to going to the election.

And they didn't vote. For want of eight votes this important article - and many others - failed.

Parents can change all of that. So next year go to the polls. Call your neighbors and friends and ask them to support your schools. Fight for the education your kids deserve rather than accepting the education that can be purchased for the least possible cost and still remain legal.

Next time around your vote could make all the difference for the election - and for your kids.

Senate passes dropout law

With the bill's passage in the NH Senate, it looks like the law to raise the legal high school dropout age from 16 to 18 will become law. According to the news story in the Concord Monitor (see Dropout bill gets $1.2 million), the Senate also added $1.2 million for pilot programs to create alternative programs to help those children stay in school. This was a response to criticism that simply forcing kids to say in school without any programs to help them would end up with them becoming a nuisance. Last year, 23,000 students dropped out in New Hampshire. The catch with this money is that this program is only targeted at Manchester and Nashua and is a one-time allocation.

In SAU 38 there is only one program I'm aware of that could possibly help channel kids that don't fit the regular mold in the right direction. That's the Monadnock Community Connections School, which is partially funded through a grant (MRPSOC) that runs out next year. It's innovative, it could help. Will voters support it? In March of 2005, amidst a raft of negative publicity from the Monadnock Taxpayer's Association, voters passed a measure saying that they did not support the program. The future of the program is in doubt, unless parents can organize and do more to build public support for the program. The grant runs out in 2007. The new law goes into effect in 2008.

Raising school dropout age: Right goal, wrong approach

Developing a program to keep kids from dropping out is a great idea. Unfortunately, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch's proposal to raise the mandatory school attendance age to 18 doesn't appear to do much in the way of creating or funding programs to help deal with the reasons why these children have dropped out in the first place.

The risk here is that this feel good legislation from Concord will saddle financially strapped schools with the additional burden of babysitting teenagers who don't want to be there without providing any additional resources to meet those children's needs.

Now the effort has gained support in the Senate (see Stay in school, kids in the Concord Monitor).

Forcing kids against their will to attend school when they don't want to attend and without any program to help them could become a big headache administrators, a classroom disruption for students, and an additional resource drain on SAU 38's already strapped budgets.

Students who drop out have problems that require special programs that can be expensive. How will Concord address that?

Ironically, one innovative program in the Mondanock school system that could help, MC2, suffers from a lack of public support and has been under sustained attack by a local anti-tax group, the Monadnock Taxpayer's Association.

Without public input this measure is likely to become law. Monadnock School District residents who have concerns with this measure should contact Sen. Thomas Eaton at (603) 271-2111 or thomas.eaton@leg.state.nh.us. Voters from other districts can can find their representative's contact information on the NH Senate Members Web page.