Disappointed in Homeschoolers and the Live, Free or Die State

I have been so disappointed in homeschoolers across New Hampshire. We moved to New Hampshire because we thought it was a State that lived by it's motto Live, Free or Die. The tax burden is the second lowest in the nation. But in November 2006 the Progressives and Democrats took control of the House, Senate and Governorship for the first time in almost 100 years.

With the change of power, already restrictive homeschooing laws were guaranteed to become worse. The assault began with SB 337, so called advocates made backdoor deals to a bill that surely would have been killed if left unchanged. They thought they were doing homeschoolers a favor. "Advocates" bargained with the enemies of homeschoolers, and some homeschoolers blindly followed these so called advocates. Then came HB 367 and 368, in 2009 over 1000 homeschoolers showed up in Concord to fight these restrictive Bills. There are over 5000 homeschoolers more of us should have showed up to fight HB 367 and 368. This year when Comrade Rous continued to try to ram this same legislation down homeschoolers throats even fewer of you showed up.

In 2010 finally after almost 20 years of repressive homeschooling laws which have been kept in place in part by so called homeschooling advocates such as Mary Faiella and Chris Hamilton, along comes HB 1580 with the help of a true homeschooling advocate Doris Hohensee.

The homeschooling crowd for HB 1580 was almost non-existent this Spring. I just don't know if it is that homeschoolers have given up the fight or if the so blindly follow so called homeschooling advocates such as Chris Hamiliton and Mary Faiella they believe these people know what is best for them.

Protecting homeschooling freedom is not a spectator sport. Even if you do not want freedom you should not be blocking freedom against those who want freedom, unless your end game is power over homeschoolers. You will always have the option of having the State or local School District help you if need be.

One last gripe before I get off my soapbox. The New Hampshire Liberty Alliance and the people of the Free State Project need to help in the fight for education reform and homeschooling freedom. This is not to say that the NHLA does not do great things because they have kept very restrictive laws from coming into place. Public Schools aka Taxpayer Funded Socialist Indoctrination Centers work against the Freedoms for which these groups fight. We will never get the liberties we desire until we deal with the indoctrination in Government Schools.

Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left as an exercise for my readers.

"I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave." — H. L. Mencken

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -Benjamin Franklin


"But neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man." Samuel Adams

New Hampshire Families for Education

New Hampshire Families for Education will be at the CheNH Convention this weekend.

If you are looking for a good cause to donate to consider New Hampshire Families for Education. Homeschoolers don't have a PAC and teachers unions, administrators and school employees do have PAC's and Lobbyists. Unless homeschoolers wake up and become more active at restoring their right to homeschool without government intervention we may not be able to homeschool anymore.

We would appreciate non homeschoolers supporting this cause as well. Homeschoolers save taxpayers billions of dollars each year by assuming the responsibility of educating their own children.

We have all seen personal liberty dissipate this past year. People like Comrades Rous and Casey would love to put an end to homeschooling don't let them win. Protecting homeschooling freedom is not a spectator sport.


Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left an exercise for my readers.

Free Speech Alert

The following was sent to me by CNHT please see their website for further details.

Quote of the Day - “Without Freedom of thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of speech” Benjamin Franklin


Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left an exercise for my readers.

Free Speech Alert!
By CNHT | May 26, 2010

Senator Hassan introduces amendment forcing non-profits and other corporations to disclose donors for any kind of political/issue advocacy, requires certification from secretary of state’s office for such activity, and requires determination of max. expenditures…

More… amendment language drafted by former head of NH Democratic Party and current legal counsel, Kathy Sullivan…

In what can only be described as one of the most outrageous attacks on political free speech, Senator Maggie Hassan has introduced an amendment to HB1459 which is designed specifically to target groups such as Cornerstone and its national partners, by not only making them disclose their donors, but further, making them take a vote of their Board or trustees to do such advocacy, getting the vote certified by the Secretary of State’s Office, disclosing to the Secretary of State that they plan to such advocacy, and makes the organization disclose a maximum amount they plan to spend!!

Again, this not only includes political activity, but ALSO includes issue advocacy such as the recent ads done on Governor Lynch’s record. The fact of the matter is that mandating the disclosure of donors by non-profit organizations which do issue advocacy is blatantly UNCONSTITUTIONAL!




It appears that Governor Lynch did not like the fact that the tables were being turned on him when he was criticized his record — and now he and the legislative leadership are attempting to change the rules because it no longer works for them!

ALL NON-PROFITS, CORPORATIONS, LLC’S AND PARTNERSHIPS WILL BE BOUND BY THESE NEW RULES UNDER THIS AMENDMENT… (see the amendment HERE – pertinent language starts at section 49, a little more than half way down)

An email yesterday sent from the NH Democratic Party’s legal counsel, Kathy Sullivan, to about 25 various organizations, outlining her revisions to the amendment to address some of the concerns raised by those receiving the email. Among one of her suggestions is raising the disclosure amount to an aggregate contribution of $10,000 — still unconstitutional. Remember: Kathy Sullivan also just recently filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office in an effort to get TV ads against Lynch pulled.

YOU NEED TO ACT IMMEDIATELY!!

This amendment has already passed the Senate (14-10) and is currently in a conference committee of House and Senate members. The committee will meet TODAY at 9am (LOB Room 302).

Call the Governor’s Office, the Speaker’s Office and the Senate President’s Office, calling on them to put an end to this unconstitutional power grab at once! Please be respectful, but let them know in no uncertain terms should free political speech be stifled in New Hampshire!!

Governor Lynch: 271-2121
Speaker’s Office: 271-3661
Senate President’s Office: 271-2111

Unsustainable Debt - Today's Soapbox Rant.

Brace yourself folks it is going to be a bumpy ride "AMERICA'S NATIONAL DEBTTOPS $13,000,000,000,000; DEBT PER TAXPAYER - $117,975;US DEBT TO GDP RATIO - 90.3%" Cloward and Piven and all the other communist pigs must be jumping for joy. Those of you on public pensions look out and taxpayers too. In the end only one will win and it is going to be messy until this is resolved.

Jim and I have been saying for over 7 years these pensions were going to bankrupt the States and boy did they just call us names and liars. Sadly Jim and I were right. It's a spending problem not a funding problem. If these people were not so damned greedy and they were fiscally responsible this whole mess would have never happened. This was all done without character and integrity, it was a bunch of foxes running the hen house. Ignorance just does not cut it in my book.

Quote of the Day - "I place economy among the first and important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy." T. Jefferson


Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left an exercise for my readers.

Blaming the Unions does not Cut it Anymore

You can not blame the unions without blaming the teachers. Year after year they supported the union and approved unsustainable contracts. If you are a teacher who can't see that the system is unsustainable you do not have the capability of actually educating children and clearly that can be seeing by the output and results in public schools.

The following piece appeared in the Daily Herald. Be sure to visit the Daily Herald website to view the comments.

Quote of the Day - " 'I believe what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way. "This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the charts crazy." Steve Jobs

Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left an exercise for my readers.



Teachers, public grow farther apart

If all the hardworking teachers were to speak out against the damage their unions and those who abuse their tenured positions have done to the integrity of the teaching profession, there would be more support from the public.

However, taking a paid day off to go to Springfield and demand that our property taxes be raised to supply more money while claiming "it's for the children" is doing nothing to encourage this support.

These dealings drive a wedge between the public and educators even deeper and it doesn't seem like anyone but the taxpayers care. It's unfortunate that the actions of some are creating this negative perception that includes nearly everyone in education.

The teachers, their union and the D211 school board know this and are doing absolutely nothing to change it. In fact, the D211 school board views the property tax payers as "complainers".



Until this "what's for me" ideology changes, teachers, unions and school boards will be viewed by the public as greedy, selfish entities. In addition, teachers, unions and school boards are seen as being counterproductive to their cause by utilizing these self-serving tactics. They are behaving as though their profession is nothing short of saintly.

The teachers union's funding of a board member's campaign is an irresponsible act on the part of that board member. The reasoning behind this statement is obvious.

Let's all try to work together to bring this situation back in balance. Right now the school board's methods of negotiating labor costs with the union have gotten out of control and do not reflect economic reality.

John Parker

Schaumburg

Woo Hoo Teachers Who Get It

I like that these teachers are finally getting but if you okayed any prior contracts or chose to be part of the Union you have only yourselves to blame.

Quote of the Day - "I say this not to the teachers, but to their unions: If education were a war, you would be losing it. If it were a business, you would be driving it into bankruptcy. If it were a patient, it would be dying. To the teachers unions I say: When I am president, I will disregard your political power for the sake of the children, the schools and the nation. I plan to enrich your vocabulary with those words you fear -- school choice, competition and opportunity scholarships -- so that you will join the rest of us in accountability, while others compete with you for the commendable privilege of giving our children a real education." Bob Dole

To bad Bob Dole did not win.


The following piece appeared in the Northwest Herald.

Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left an exercise for my readers.


Guest column: Not all D-26 teachers want to keep contract closed

The Cary Education Association has spoken. Of those voting, 74 percent voted not to open the contract and make concessions to help the district; 26 percent voted to open the contract and talk to the school board about saving programs for students and jobs for colleagues.

The undersigned are part of that 26 percent, and following is a history of how this vote came to be:

In January 2010, an entire month after receiving a letter from the school board about opening up talks, the CEA Board presented the letter in a meeting of the total membership. Their approach was to tell the membership that opening the contract could result in a “last best offer,” decided by the school board, which we would be forced to accept, an offer that could take away “everything.”



This, membership was informed, was information given to the CEA Board by the Illinois Education Association attorneys. Although many of the undersigned knew this could not happen under the circumstances and voted to open the contract, the majority voted not to open. At a later meeting, a group of Prairie Hill teachers questioned the IEA representatives about this “advice,” but the IEA would not affirm or deny what they had told the CEA Board.

The planned monthly union meetings of the entire membership were then canceled through April.

A second letter sent by the school board to open talks was returned with a negative response from the CEA Board; no information about this letter was given to the membership until after the negative response was returned to the school board.

With inaccurate information swirling through the community, the school board placed three possible options in public at a school board meeting. Having been given no information from our own union representatives, many of us were happy to hear something; still no vote for the membership.

Recently the membership was told of new options presented by the school board. Members were told about these options in separate meetings at individual schools, hindering the ability for members across the district to discuss concerns.

Throughout this process, we believe we were given only one message that never has changed: if the contract is opened, you could lose everything. Surrounding districts that are making successful concessions were never mentioned.

After the result of the vote was announced, a union co-president read a letter from several years ago touting the contract as being a good one. Before the economy took a nosedive, that might have been so, but the economy has suffered a blow in the past two years and many people are making sacrifices for the common good and being part of the solution, if they still have jobs.

The CEA press release after the last vote states, “However, the CEA will continue to work with the BOE and administration to find ways to further minimize the cuts that have been made and therefore provide cost-saving options in an effort to reinstate and maintain high-quality programs and educators...”. The CEA had the opportunity to do these things over the past four months but said no to efforts to reinstate programs and educators. Many cost-saving options were suggested by teachers: 2-step retirement, furlough days. Nothing came of these or any other suggestions made by those outside the bargaining committee.

We would like the public to know that many of our voices were suppressed over the past four months, and our questions remain unanswered, despite our efforts. Our reputations and integrity are important to us.

The undersigned represent staff who have been laid off and staff who have retained their jobs. We have been, and still are, willing to open our contract and make concessions for the benefit of the students, our colleagues, and the community. We remain dedicated to quality education for the students of District 26.

– Judy Arvidson. Mary Forni, Barbara Glowacki, Kathy Lazzerini, Kelly Low, Kristi Newman, Rita Patterson, Jameson Pearce, Pauline Walker