ICYMI: Deb Nelson: Kelly Ayotte Has Failed Public Education

ICYMI: Deb Nelson: Kelly Ayotte Has Failed Public Education
 

In Case You Missed It, retired public educator Deb Nelson wrote an op-ed slamming Kelly Ayotte for her property-tax-hiking school voucher scheme. Educators are doing “everything possible to prepare [their] students for the future,” but that has become “incredibly difficult” under Kelly Ayotte and New Hampshire Republicans. They have “deliberately chosen to starve public schools.”

Ayotte has been “a loyal shepherd for the GOP school voucher scheme,” after she lifted the income cap, “giving wealthy families millions of taxpayer dollars to send their children to private school.” 

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Valley News: Letter: Kelly Ayotte has failed public education

• As a lifelong educator, I know that some of the most important moments happen between the lessons: when a student asks a question another student answers, or when there is a collective understanding that what is being discussed does not have an easy solution. I take pride in having watched so many of my students carry what they learned in my classroom into their communities and find ways to contribute and make a difference. At the end of the day, our priority as teachers is to ensure we are doing everything possible to best prepare our students for the future

• These days, that goal feels even further out of reach. Kelly Ayotte and New Hampshire Republicans have deliberately chosen to starve our public schools of the resources needed to educate the overwhelming majority of New Hampshire children. Instead, Kelly Ayotte has been a loyal shepherd for the GOP school voucher scheme. She lifted the income gap, opening up the floodgates to pour millions of taxpayer dollars down the drain and give wealthy families handouts to send their children to private school.

• Those consequences reach far beyond the classroom walls. When the state does not adequately support public schools, that burden ultimately falls on local taxpayers through property taxes. I find it difficult to understand why we would ask taxpayers to shoulder more of the cost of maintaining their public schools while simultaneously expanding a program that directs public dollars outside those same schools.

• The bottom line is simple: Kelly Ayotte is making a bad deal even worse. She’s taking taxpayer dollars away from the public schools our children actually attend, handing out bigger and bigger subsidies to the wealthiest, and sticking local taxpayers with the consequences. New Hampshire can, and should, do better.