Education is the cornerstone of democracy. A person must learn to read before they can vote, but in recent years, we’ve seen attacks on all forms of education, knowledge and the transference thereof. Whether it be artificial intelligence actively making us dumber or New Hampshire cutting higher education funding by 15 percent, education is taking a beating. This is especially upsetting because N.H. Representative Michael Granger (R-Milton) recently proposed a constitutional amendment that would codify a parent’s right to homeschool their kids.
On the surface, this sounds like a decent request, nothing objectionable. It’s a cosmetic addition to the constitution of N.H. but place it in the larger context.
On March 25 of this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
According to a BBC article on the topic, the U.S. Department of Education has several functions, including oversight of student loans and Pell grants that help low-income students attend college, funding of programs to support disabled students and students in poverty, enforcing civil rights law, conducting educational research and administering about 10 percent of school’s total funding. It does not set curriculum for students, despite popular conception; that is left up to the states.
Central to the Republican strategy in regards to schooling is choice, arguing that a parent should be able to have the choice to enroll their kids in private schools, homeschool their kids or put their kids in a religious school. This can be seen in Trump’s voucher for private education plan — where a parent who wanted their child in a private or religious school could donate to a Scholarship Granting Organization and get a scholarship, so that their kid could go to a private school, according to National Public Radio (NPR). This is expected to balloon the federal government’s school budget due to its permanence and uncapped nature, and it could trigger funding cuts elsewhere, in addition to leading to school budget issues down the road if public schools are not being attended.
Also, on July 1 of this year, Trump withheld over $6 billion in education grants for schools, according to another article from NPR. Schools cannot plan activities for students when they do not have access to reliable funding. These grants go toward a wide range of programs for schools, including before and after school programs for those whose first language is not English, migrant education and professional development.
That is the context with which we must look at the N.H. House Republicans’ newest proposal for a constitutional amendment. It demands to be seen as a small part of the movement against public education.
Do we really need an amendment upholding the right of parents to homeschool? What would that do for the Granite State?
This is nothing but kowtowing to the current administration and trying to gain favor with them. It is a cowardly gesture but, above all else, a stupid one. This is not coming out of any genuine desire to make N.H. better. It is virtue signaling in its truest definition: Virtue signaling to people in power that N.H. Republicans stand with the Trump administration’s plans for education.
Dexter Keegan can be contacted at
dkeegan@kscequinox.com
