Evil Bill by Representative Day will be voted on 1/6/10

I received the following regarding HB 368 please share.

Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.

It is *critical* to contact your Representatives about this bill, preferably by phone. Emails and letters are too easily dismissed and overlooked. Ask your reps to vote YES to support the ITL on HB 368. The HEC vote of 14-6 on 11/19/09 may be the single biggest reason we can get support from the full House. Many of the reps look to the committee vote to determine how they should vote and know little about the bill themselves. Your comments to them may be the only solid information they have going into the vote.



You can find contact information for your Representatives here: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/ns/whosmyleg/

I posted some talking points on the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance forum. Feel free to use them if you wish.

Reasons to vote YES to support the ITL of HB 368:
#1: The HEC recommendation is ITL.

The House Education Committee had a bi-partisan vote on 11/19/09 of 14-6 to recommend HB 368 as ITL, after creating several subcommittees to study home education.



#2: The amendment by Rep. Day goes far beyond the original bill, incorporating language from HB367 that was ITLed in 2009. These rules are clearly designed to create greater burdens for homeschooling families, and dissuade families seeking alternatives from considering homeschooling.

a. Lists numerous specific curriculum requirements, which exceed the curriculum requirements of NH public schools. This is not fair or equal under the law.

http://www.ed.state.nh.us/education/standards/advisory6.pdf

b. Require annual evaluations by certified teachers AND standardized testing, increasing the cost and time requirements of compliance with no benefit to the students, home education programs, or participating agencies.

c. Allows the DOE to make future changes to evaluation requirements without any legislative input, creating an undefined and moving target.

d. Forces test scores and evaluations to bypass families and go directly to participating agencies, blatantly calling all home educators liars. As Rep Day wrote in the minority opinion, "parents pay the evaluator and can shop for positive evaluations ".


#3: Representative Day has commented that homeschoolers are unreasonable and would oppose any change. Chair Rous said in the 11/19/09 executive session that New Hampshire's home education laws are not excessively burdensome according to her research. However, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association, a national home education advocacy group, the proposed amendment would make NH the most restrictive and burdensome in the country.

http://www.hslda.org/elert/archive/2009/12/20091216134642.asp


The HEC has seen several bills in recent years that would seek radical change to existing home education laws. HB 368 is only the most recent, and with Rep. Day's amendments, the most egregious.

Parental Rights Bill

I was sent the following information that I am sharing. Our family will attend weather permitting.

Cathy

Next Thursday, January 7th at 1:15pm, is the first hearing for the Parents' Rights bill sponsored by Reps. Itse and Dumaine. Use this link to see the text of the bill:
CACR0029

This bill would allow parents to direct the health, education, and general welfare of their children.

Although it not specific to homeschooling and has other impacts, we believe it would strengthen our rights to home educate our children without the state's interference.

I know many of us will be in Concord the previous day for the homeschool bill's floor vote, but it would be helpful if we're able to attend on 1/7/10 to support this bill, too. Please share this information with your friends and family who support parents' rights.

Children and Family Law CACR 29 LOB 206 Th 1/7/10 @ 1:15pm

Thanks

Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.

Another Chapter in the Educrats Gone Bad Book

Why is this woman still getting paid with your tax dollars? A private sector employee would have been terminated immediately.

What was she thinking, she has been working as a teacher since 1999 so she is making decent bucks probably close to 55,000 if not more. She has outstanding benefits and in retirement her total pension compensation would have been close to 2 million bucks at least if she stuck it out. Her pay is way above what the average person makes in the private sector.

Only a government employee would still be getting paid after being charged with robbing two banks.

Cathy Peschke
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.

The following story appeared in the Union Leader.


Teacher charged in two bank heists
By DAN O'BRIEN
Union Leader Correspondent
11 hours, 15 minutes ago


BROOKLINE – A Hollis-Brookline Middle School teacher was charged yesterday with robbing two banks in Massachusetts.

Gail Rasmussen, 49, of 17 Winterberry Road, Brookline, was arrested and charged with two counts of unarmed robbery after turning herself in at the Concord, Mass. police station yesterday. School officials said she has been placed on paid administrative leave.



She was arraigned in Concord District Court yesterday afternoon and released on $500 cash bail, Concord police Sgt. Brian Goldman said.

No one answered phone calls last night at Rasmussen's home, which is in the Winterberry Estates housing development.

Rasmussen, a seventh-grade English teacher, is accused of robbing the Washington Savings Bank in Tyngsborough, Mass. on Dec. 16 and the TD Bank in Concord, Mass., on Dec. 20.


The robber is seen in a surveillance camera image at TD Bank, Concord, Mass.

Susan Hodgdon, superintendent of the Hollis-Brookline school district, said Rasmussen has worked for the district since 1999, with the exception of a brief teaching stint at the Wilton-Lyndeborough school district.

"It's startling news," Hodgdon said last night, "and tragic in many ways."

In her education career, Hodgdon said she's encountered teachers in trouble with the law, but "nothing like this."

"This is a first," she said. "But what I find is that there is always information that comes to light to help us understand. I'm anticipating that will happen with this."

Witnesses to both robberies provided police with similar descriptions. Both robberies involved a white female, wearing an all-black winter coat, who was seen fleeing the banks in a grey-colored sedan.

A note was passed to the bank tellers demanding money, but no weapon was shown or implied in the heists, police said.

The amount of money taken from the Tyngsborough robbery was not disclosed by police; $1,200 was reportedly taken from the Concord bank.

Police from Brookline and the two Massachusetts towns carried out a search warrant at Rasmussen's home on Tuesday.

Hodgdon said she provided police with information about Rasmussen at the request of police before they carried out the search warrant.

"They informed me of the investigation and I supplied the information that they needed," Hodgdon said. "Throughout the day today (Wednesday), as things developed, [police] informed me that Gail had turned herself in."

Hodgdon said she attempted to speak with Rasmussen by phone late yesterday afternoon, but was unable to do so.

"I have sent her a letter to let her know that she's on paid administrative leave," Hodgdon said. "I need to meet with her to find out more information. She'll stay on paid administrative leave until I finish that portion of the next step."

Kirsten Werne is a fellow seventh-grade teacher at Hollis-Brookline Middle School.

"This is the first I've heard," Werne said last night when reached by the New Hampshire Union Leader. "Everybody at our school is excellent. That's all I can really say."

School faculty and staff will meet Monday before classes to formulate the best response to the situation, Hodgdon said. She said students have not been notified of Rasmussen's arrest.

"Students are on vacation and I don't like to send out that type of information without adults being able to meet with students directly," Hodgdon said. "Our plan for Monday is to maintain as normal a schedule as possible."

End of story.

Everyday I receive news alerts for the words "teacher arrested", these are the results just for today. How many of our tax dollars are being wasted on educators who should be in jail?
Cathy

=== Google News Alert for: teacher arrested ===

Teacher charged in two bank heists
The Union Leader
By DAN O'BRIEN BROOKLINE – A Hollis-Brookline Middle School teacher was
charged yesterday with robbing two banks in Massachusetts. Gail Rasmussen,
49, of 17 ...


Greensboro middle school teacher charged with sex crimes
WRAL.com
Greensboro, NC — A Greensboro middle school teacher was arrested
Wednesday and charged with sex crimes against children. Harold Robert Grant
Jr., 57, ...

S

Gun battle erupts as Yemeni forces raid Al Qaeda hideout
Los Angeles Times
"I saw him once tenderly kiss a baby," said Ahmed Mohammed, a teacher at
the institute. "Today, he's turned into a monster who would have killed
children if ...



Abdulmutallab grew more religious, teachers and classmates say
Seattle Times
The teacher spoke on the condition of anonymity because Yemeni security
officials had ordered staff not to talk to journalists. "In 2009, he barely
came to ...



Tainted brownies at Stonington High lead to 2 drug arrests
TheDay.com
The episode recalled a 2004 incident at the school in which police arrested
a student who they said had given a marijuana-laced brownie to a veteran
teacher ...


AROUND SOUTH FLORIDA with ELGIN JONES 12-31-09
The South Florida Times
Lemika Watkins, 29, a substitute teacher at Sunrise Middle School, is
arrested and charged with one count of battery, after allegedly pushing a
student's ...

See all stories on this topic:


Kingsport man charged with blackmail, extortion of $30000 from Bristol, Tenn ...
Kingsport Times News
... been arrested on charges of blackmail and extortion after allegedly
demanding money from a Bristol, Tenn., teacher to remain silent about
“past actions” ...



Ashley Jo Beach, Middle School Teacher, Sentenced to 20 Years for Seducing 13 ...
CBS News (blog)
During the course of the investigation against Ashley Jo Beach, her
husband, Shawn Beach, was also arrested. Prosecutors say Shawn Beach, a
former employee ...


Teacher, Football Coach Indicted On Drug Charges
WFMZ-TV Online
Kevin Kane and dozens of other people were arrested in July. Two other
teachers and one former teacher were among them. Kane was a math teacher
and ...



Coach charged with 6 counts of sexual battery
Laurel Leader Call
By Charlotte A. Graham, countyreporter@laurelleadercall.com A Wayne County
High School teacher and softball coach that was arrested and charged with
six ...

Interesting Statistics

1.) During the 2007-2008 school year what percentage of schools reported one or more incidents of crime?

2.) What percentage of students were diagnosed with a disability during the 2006-2007 school year nationwide?

In Croydon if my recollection is correct 50% of the students are labeled with some sort of disability or another. If my recollection is correct, as I suspected too many students are being labeled with a disability in order to funnel more taxes dollars into the school system in my opinion.

3.) What percentage of the U.S. student population that received corporal punishment at school in 2006-07?



To see the answers click on read more.

Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.


Answer 1.

85% of public schools in 2007-08 that reported one or more incidents of crime at school.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2009"

Answer to 2.

13.7 % Of the U.S. student population in 2006-07, the percentage diagnosed as having disabilities.
Source: "Impairing Education: Corporal Punishment of Students with Disabilities in US Public Schools," American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch

Answer 3.

18.8% of the U.S. student population that received corporal punishment at school in 2006-07.
Source: "Impairing Education: Corporal Punishment of Students with Disabilities in US Public Schools," American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch

Look for Fees and Taxes to go up in Your City

According to the American City & County website city budgets will be in trouble through 2010. Well that is a big no duh! Will they cut spending? Heck no! Expect more fees and property taxes to go. God forbid the public sector oligarchies across the Country give a little.

Pretty soon the government is going to put us in money machines with the money we earn throughout the year. What you can grab you keep, what you can't grab the government keeps.



I am grateful that we live in a town where the selectmen are serious about controlling spending. Now only if we had a school district that would do the same.

Cathy Peschke
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.

Quote of the Day - A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures? ~ Marcus Tillius Cicero

NLC survey: Cities' financial distress will continue beyond 2010
Sep 3, 2009 1:40 PM

The effects of the recession will continue to drag down city budgets beyond 2010, according to a survey by the Washington-based National League of Cities (NLC). The situation reflects the typical 18-month time lag seen in the effects that economic shifts have on city budgets that results from the collection of tax revenues only at certain times of the year, according to NLC.



The report, "City Fiscal Conditions in 2009," found that cities face significant budget gaps this year because of a 1.3 percent decline of income tax and a 3.8 percent decrease in sales tax collections. Those taxes are typically the earliest source of city revenue to decline as job losses increase and consumer purchases decrease, according to NLC. Property taxes, which make up the bulk of city revenue nationwide, are beginning to slow, growing only 1.6 percent as real property assessments are adjusted to reflect declining housing values.

To read the rest of the story go to the American City & County website.

Where is the Porkulous Being Spent in New Hampshire?

Read it and weep. Look how your tax dollars are being spent. Who will pay it off? Your children, your grandchildren and/or your great grand children?

$340,920 for research to answer the question "How does changing seasonality affect the capacity of Arctic streams networks to influence nutrient fluxes from the landscape to the ocean?"

$772,709 to examine the "use of genome enabled tools to understand symbiosis?"

The state received $39 million in regular educational funding, $31 million in stimulus Title I funds and $51 million for special ed and 3 to 5 year old program, $3.2 million in educational technology, etc., etc.

To top it off Newport and the SAU want to increase the amount Croydon residents pay by 29%. Does the greed of educrats ever end?

The following piece appears in the Union Leader.

Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.

Quote of the Day - "A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." - George Santayana

The follow piece appeared on the Union Leader.


Stimulus proves to be a windfall for schools

By JOHN DISTASO
Senior Political Reporter
Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009



CONCORD – First of two parts

Ten months after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was enacted, where is the stimulus money going?

In New Hampshire, much has gone to projects you might have expected -- road paving and repair, for example, and extra unemployment benefits.

Some is going to college students and local school districts in big aid programs -- recipients you might think worthy but might not equate with emergency spending to spur the economy out of a deep recession.



And significant millions of your tax dollars are going for things you might not have expected to be part of a stimulus plan at all.

Did you think, for instance, that $340,920 in stimulus funds would go to research aimed at answering the question "How does changing seasonality affect the capacity of Arctic streams networks to influence nutrient fluxes from the landscape to the ocean?"


Or that $772,709 would examine the "use of genome enabled tools to understand symbiosis?"

Or that $693 in economic stimulus money would buy a hot-food counter at the Lamprey River Elementary School in Raymond?

The federal government says it paid out more than $414 million in stimulus money to public and private entities in New Hampshire as of Dec. 1 and that an announced total of $1.4 billion will be available to those entities by the time the program ends in mid-July 2011.

According to the state Office of Economic Stimulus, the stimulus program has provided nearly $140 million for roads and other transportation-related items and more than $120 million for energy- and environment-related projects, with the biggest chunk of the stimulus-fund pie -- more than $160 million -- going to education.

Public schools

In addition to $39 million in regular funding, according to the state Department of Education, scores of New Hampshire school districts have received a combined total of nearly $31 million in stimulus money through the federal Title I program. According to the federal Department of Education, the additional funding "provides financial assistance to (local education agencies) and schools with high numbers of poor children."

More than $51 million in stimulus money is targeted to supplement about the same amount of existing federal funding for special education, according to the state Department of Education. The federal government says that money is to ensure that "children with disabilities, including children ages 3 through 5, have access to a free appropriate public education to meet each child's unique needs and prepare him or her for further education, employment and independent living."

Additionally, the federal Department of Education has sent New Hampshire $3.2 million in education technology grants, $1.9 million for vocational rehabilitation, $323,000 in independent-living grants, and $190,000 to assist school districts in helping homeless children get to and from school and perform well.

Kathleen Murphy, director of instruction for the state education department, said these millions are worthy expenditures of taxpayer money.

She said all Title I and IDEA grants require applications that meet "the specific criteria they are targeted to help, and, when they get it, the school districts must focus it on students who are low-income."

Manchester, for instance, received $5.9 million in Title I and $4.4 million in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funding as of Dec. 1, according to the state stimulus office.

The city's superintendent of schools, Thomas Brennan, said the money allowed "some personnel hires," including 20 kindergarten teachers, seven high school and middle school assistant principals, and seven elementary school principals, "all working with specialized students under IDEA."

Brennan said the district hired three transition counselors at the high school level, also under IDEA, to support "specifically identified students."

He said the district also used stimulus money for "additional training for teachers in the development of individual education plans."

Murphy said she understands that the stimulus program is controversial, but said, "It is unprecedented for us to do the kind of work for the kids in New Hampshire that we've been able to do. It is terrific."

Broad definition

But these are not the types of programs that the most Americans expected stimulus funds to be used for, said David Williams, vice president of the national watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste.

"When people think of stimulus, they think of jobs being created quickly," Williams said. "Fifty people out there pouring cement -- that's what people originally think of a stimulus bill trying to do."

Little known to the average taxpayer is that, according to the federal government, the stimulus has a dual purpose: "To stimulate the economy in the short term and invest in education and other essential public services to ensure the long-term economic health of our nation."

The broad heading "invest in education" has resulted in some intriguing uses.

According to public state documents:

-- $68,590 was awarded to the Henniker Youth Theatre group, more than twice the amount it usually raises privately.

"We had a great time with it," said director Thomas Dunn, who said the program was able to double its summer minimum-wage counseling staff from four to eight 18- to 24-year-old actors/singers and expand into Hillsborough. He said the stimulus money headed off a planned hike in fees for participants.

"It was just wonderful," he said, looking forward to applying for more stimulus money next year.

-- In Manchester, besides the millions used for Title I and IDEA, there was $35,008 for a pot washer and $9,375 for a freezer at the Beech Street School.

-- In Rumney, $1,949 was awarded for a hot-food table and shelf at the Russell Elementary School.

-- Peterborough collected $539 in stimulus funds for a heater and $949 for a freezer at the South Meadow School.

Murphy said such funding, under the federal school lunch equipment assistance program, gives districts "a chance to replace equipment that is sometimes ancient and can be costly."

And in Manchester, superintendent Brennan said the Beech Street School's walk-in freezer, for instance, was necessary to replace an older piece of equipment.

.

Tomorrow: Much of federal stimulus money targeted for education has gone to public elementary, middle and secondary schools, but large grants also are going to the state's universities -- public and private -- and to their students.

Just Throw Them Under the Bus

Just Throw Them Under the Bus - That is the motto of many of our legislators and the teachers' unions. If education were for the kids, there would be no unions in public schools. There would be school choice and the tax dollars would follow the child and not the institution. If you really want to make a difference in school children's lives, lobby the legislators to the same extent that the teacher union thugs do. Don't condone the behavior of those who care more about protecting their little entitlement program than they do about actually educating the children of America.

The following piece appeared at the Business Wire.


Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.

Quote of the Day
"Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them." - Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)


D.C. School Choice Leaders Blast Appropriators’ Decision to Kill School Voucher Program

Call on Obama and Durbin to Stand with D.C.’s Low-Income Families

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The leaders of D.C.’s school choice movement, Kevin P. Chavous (former D.C. Councilman) and Virginia Walden Ford (executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice), today issued the following statement:

"House and Senate Appropriators this week ignored the wishes of D.C.’s mayor, D.C.’s public schools chancellor, a majority of D.C.’s city council, and more than 70 percent of D.C. residents and have mandated the slow death of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. This successful school voucher program—for D.C.’s poorest families—has allowed more than 3,300 children to attend the best schools they have ever known.



The decision to end the program, a decision buried in a thousand-page spending bill and announced right before the holidays, destroys the hopes and dreams of thousands of D.C. families. Parents and children have rallied countless times over the past year in support of reauthorization and in favor of strengthening the OSP.

Yet, despite the clearly positive results and the proven success of this program, Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Jose Serrano, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Secretary Arne Duncan worked together to kill the OSP. Funding the program only for existing children shrinks the program each year, compromises the federal evaluation of the program, denies entry to the siblings of existing participants, and punishes those children waiting in line by sentencing them to failing and often unsafe schools.

What is incredibly disappointing to low-income families in Washington, D.C. has been the silence of President Barack Obama. The President, who benefited from K-12 scholarships himself, worked on behalf of low-income families in Chicago, and exercises school choice as a parent, has stood silently on the sidelines while his Secretary of Education belittled the importance of helping such a small number of children in the nation’s capital.

Now, the fate of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program and the low-income children it serves and could serve depends on the willingness of Congressional supporters to insist that the FY 2010 budget allows additional children to participate in the OSP. We call on President Obama and Senator Durbin to stand up and do the right thing. Stand with the children of low-income families in Washington, D.C. who deserve access to a quality education right now—not five years from now—but right now. These children deserve that opportunity."