Letter to the Editor:
One of the big educational policy issues of the 21st century in this country has been educational choice and serving the educational needs of each student. Giving students/parents the opportunity to access the most appropriate education venue sounds like a laudable goal. In fact, New Hampshire has offered school choice and individualized education for decades. We offer lots of choices - some would say too many as we have added several additional opportunities in the last few years. The issue is not choice -- it is the state's lack of commitment to our public schools and the 86% of students attending those schools.
For a long time NH has provided alternatives including but not limited to — access to other public schools, charter and magnet schools, homeschooling, supplemental and primary online education, individualized education plans, regional vocational centers, early access to community colleges and credit for experiences outside the classroom - all toward addressing the educational needs of each students. What have each of these allow?
Some of NH’s schools have voluntary open enrollment policies where a student can choose to attend a different public school from their local school— this might be a school in a different neighborhood or a different town.
Since 1991, New Hampshire law has supported chartered public schools. These chartered schools are independent tuition-free public schools with a defined mission and curriculum. They operate under a charter authorized by the town’s or city’s legislative authority, are governed by a board of trustees and are accountable for meeting specified goals and obligations.
NH’s Virtual Learning Academy Charter School has been providing courses for elementary, middle, high school, and adult learners since 2008. As a state-approved on-line public charter school VLACS is free to all New Hampshire residents in grades K-12 and under the age of 21. VLACS is an example of a charter school but it is also an online education option - it can supplement the programs of a public school or be the sole source of public education.
NH also allows magnet schools. Magnet schools are free public schools that allow kids to narrow in on a specific learning track, such as engineering or the performing arts. At a magnet school, all the subjects are taught through the lenses of that specific track. Parents are welcome to organize additional charter or magnet schools based on an identified need.
In 1990 NH refined its laws related to Home Education which is another alternative to individualized instruction. A parent is eligible to establish a home education program for their child(ren) between 6 and 18 years of age including an "educationally disabled child”.
NH’s Micro-schools, pods, and learning pods all refer to a concept of students gathering together in a small group – with adult supervision – to learn, explore, and socialize. Pods themselves can take a variety of legal forms, but in general they include homeschool collaboratives or micro-schools as well as learning support pods. These are permitted by New Hampshire law.
Many NH students have personalized educational plans designed by educators, psychologists, counselors, certified evaluators and parents to meet their specific needs. These Individual Education Plans or IEP’s are required for special needs students but are sometimes developed for other students. Parents sign consent for an IEP and are involved in the evaluation and design process. Parents, educators and others involved with the child monitor progress on an ongoing basis to ensure his/her educational needs are met.
New Hampshire students also have access to regional vocational centers programs, community college classes and designated other enrichment programs. Plus, NH’s Learn Everywhere program gives students credit for learning taking place outside of their school day. There is a web list of programs approved by the state and how many credits can be earned in these programs.
Recently NH also established Yes Every Student scholarships to help students negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Students can receive $1000 for state-approved tutoring and special education services. These scholarships focus on helping students catch up if there was a loss in academic progress due to the pandemic.
Also recently established are Education Tax Credits. In this program a business or individual can designate the taxes they pay to the state toward scholarships for students choosing/needing an alternative educational program. Through the Children’s Scholarship Fund NH, families direct these education dollars, and choose from a list of 700 education providers.
Even newer are EFAs, which give taxpayer money to parents, the equivalent of the state’s adequacy education funds for a student, to assist in paying for private school, homeschooling, tutoring, or other alternatives. The intended purpose of EFA’s — serving the needs of students who are in the public school system but whose needs are not being met. To date however this program has been used primarily by families whose students were already in alternative programs and has spent well beyond expectations.
All of these efforts require time at the state, local and parent/student level and involve varying expenses at the state, local and family level.
This has been happening while the state has yet to meet its obligation to fund an adequate education for New Hampshire’s students in its public schools. As we keep developing new alternatives for some students we are not fully addressing our obligation to the 86% of students attending our public schools.
While some say the state funding has increased, virtually everyone agrees it is still way below what is required to actually the cover the cost of an adequate education as required by our state constitution. Some even say we are so far behind, with no present capacity to raise the funding required, so what difference does it make when we use education funds and limited resources for other purposes.
NH should be doing more to meet our constitutional obligation to the 86% of our students attending our public schools.
Karen Burnett-Kurie
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