What you can do to try to stop CACR 18

Your urgent help is needed!
Please attend the senate hearing on Lynch's constitutional amendment, CACR18, on Tuesday, April 3, 2007.
The hearing is at 1:15pm in Room 103 of the State House.
We will meet in the cafeteria at 12:30. We’ll have lapel stickers that will identify you as being opposed to CACR18. Please let me know if you will be able to attend.

See what the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition is doing to stop the loss of local control and stop an income tax. Visit our website at http://www.thenhadvantage.com and watch our newest TV commercial.

Why this Constitutional Amendment is a Bad Idea:
The Lynch amendment, CACR18, does nothing to get the courts out of education policy and funding. Unless the Governor is planning on handing out blank checks to the school districts, count on the lawsuits continuing. His amendment allows anyone so inclined to sue the State on the grounds it hasn’t properly defined an adequate education, determined the cost, created appropriate standards of accountability, or all three. Then some unelected judges who know next to nothing about public education will have the final say.

What’s even worse is that CACR18 writes the Claremont decisions into the Constitution. So forget about a future Supreme Court made up of judges that respect the difference between adjudicating and legislating overruling Claremont. And forget about a future Legislature that understands the separation of powers standing up to the Supreme Court’s brazen power grab. New Hampshire henceforth will be government of the lawyers, by the lawyers and for the lawyers.

- If the Lynch amendment passes, kiss local control goodbye.
- Lynch’s amendment also adds the requirement that the State pay for fifty percent of the cost of an adequate education.
- Lynch's definition of an adequate education costs around $2.5 billion dollars.

We are not limited to choosing between the lesser of two evils when it comes to public education. We need to tell the them that the choice between the income tax and the Lynch amendment is a false choice. The message should be that we are going to target aid for public education and we are going to pay for it without a broad-based tax. If the black-robed busybodies on the Supreme Court don’t like that, too bad. The targeted-aid money is going to be sent out anyway.

What you can do to help:
1. Email your senator and tell them that you do not support this constitutional amendment, that you do not want them to support this constitutional amendment, and that you will not vote for them in the November 2008 election if they do support any amendment that writes into law any part of the Claremont decision(s).

You can find out who your senator is here: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/ns/whosmyleg/default.asp

Or, you could just email them all. Their email addresses are:

john.gallus@leg.state.nh.us; deb.Reynolds@leg.state.nh.us; joseph.kenney@leg.state.nh.us; kathleen.sgambati@leg.state.nh.us; peter.burling@leg.state.nh.us; jacalyn.cilley@leg.state.nh.us; harold.janeway@leg.state.nh.us; rpojr@aol.com; sheila.roberge@leg.state.nh.us; molly.kelly@leg.state.nh.us; peter.bragdon@leg.state.nh.us; david.gottesman@leg.state.nh.us; joseph.foster@leg.state.nh.us; senclegg@aol.com; sylvia.larsen@leg.state.nh.us; Ted.Gatsas@leg.state.nh.us; jack.barnes@leg.state.nh.us; betsi.devries@leg.state.nh.us; robert.letourneau@leg.state.nh.us; dalas@leg.state.nh.us; iris.estabrook@leg.state.nh.us; michael.downing@leg.state.nh.us; maggie.hassan@leg.state.nh.us; martha.fullerclark@leg.state.nh.us

2. Attend the senate hearing on CACR18 on Tuesday, April 3, 2007, Room 103, State House, 1:15 pm. We will meet in the cafeteria at 12:30.

3. Call your senator and reiterate that you do not support CACR18. You can find their phone number here: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/ns/whosmyleg/default.asp

4. If you are a Republican, contact the NHGOP Chair, Fergus Cullen, and tell him that the NHGOP needs to take a strong, vocal position against this amendment. His email address is fergus@nhgop.org and the NHGOP office number is 225-9341.

5. Write letters to the editor to your local newspaper explaining why a constitutional amendment is a bad idea. If you’re stuck on what to write, email me and let me know and I will send you some suggestions. I can also email you with a list of all of the email addresses for papers across the state – you don’t have to submit to just your local paper.

6. Contact Governor Lynch and tell him that you do not support this constitutional amendment and that you do not want him to support any amendment that writes into law any part of the Claremont decision(s). His office number is 271-2121.

7. Contact your senator again, and remind them that you do not support this constitutional amendment, that you do not want them to support this constitutional amendment, and that you will not vote for them in the November 2008 election if they do support any amendment that writes into law any part of the Claremont decision(s).

8. Become a NHAC supporter by visiting http://www.thenhadvantage.com/join.html and adding your information to our list. We can't do this alone!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks for your help.

Tammy Simmons
Executive Director