NH Board of Education abandons children, votes for "politics as usual"

Members yield to political pressure, back down on public kindergarten, class sizes, stricter graduation standards

March 30, 2005

Children's Alliance of New Hampshire President Ellen Shemitz criticized the state Board of Education for its vote this afternoon not to include kindergarten, smaller class sizes and stricter graduation requirements among the minimum standards it will recommend to the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules.

"The majority of the Board of Education voted today for politics as usual, placing more value on placating powerful legislators than on setting high educational standards for our children," said Shemitz.

She said that every member of the Board had publicly acknowledged the critical importance of both universal kindergarten and smaller class sizes, but that the Board was unwilling to stand behind these educational policies when confronted by a disapproving Legislature.

Attorney William Boc of Dover was the lone dissenter in the 5-1 vote. Board member William Walker, who is on the record in favor of requiring public kindergarten and smaller class sizes, was not present at the monthly meeting. Debra Hamel voted with the majority, while noting her objection to the Board position on kindergarten and class sizes.

The Board has been rewriting the minimum standards for New Hampshire's public schools for nearly two years. It held a round of public hearings on a draft that would have required that every school district in the state offer public kindergarten. Currently, 16 districts, in which 20 percent of the state's 5-year-olds reside, do not offer public kindergarten. These are the only school districts in the United States that don't offer kindergarten.

Privately, Board members received heat from legislators who don't want the state to live up to its legal obligation to fund public education and who called the proposed standards "unfunded mandates."

At today's meeting, Dept. of Education legal counsel Sarah Browning reiterated her position that mandating kindergarten and/or smaller class sizes would not create an unfunded mandate. Despite that opinion, Board members Fred Bramante, Mary McNeil, John Lyons and Chair David Ruedig said that since the legislative committee would object to language requiring either standard, there was no reason for them to stand their ground.

"If the Board of Education cannot stand behind its own policy recommendations, then what role do they play?" asked Shemitz.

Board members Boc and Debra Hamel spoke forcefully in favor of school standards that placed a higher value on policy than political games. Boc reminded fellow board members that their charge was to serve their constituents and that their constituents were children, not politicians. He asked the board rhetorically: "If no one on the Board of Education speaks for children, than who will?"