2018 Candidate Report Card UPDATE - Granite State Home Educators (GSHE)

Updated for the General Election

Granite Staters care about educational issues that impact our children’s lives and academic outcomes. To that end, School Choice for NH invites all state representative and senate candidates the opportunity to share their positions on various education policy issues.

As concerned and engaged citizens, we encourage NH residents to ask state candidates about their views on educational opportunities, and to request that they take our survey. If any candidate did not receive a postcard with a unique login number, they can email us at info@schoolchoicenh.org to access our online survey. It is also available on our website if any state candidate prefers to submit a paper version.

There are no trick questions, but some require careful reading. We want to make sure that candidates take time to consider each question and give a thoughtful answer.

Compiled results are below; we will update the list prior to the general election. If a candidate is not listed below, it is because he or she did not complete our survey. That may indicate they may not have received our postcard or do not wish to share their position on school choice issues. We invite all state representative and senate candidates to share their views on educational choices via our survey, either online or using the paper version.

UPDATE 10/29/2018: The survey Report Cards for State Senate and House of Representative candidates are updated below for the General Election. Candidates were removed from the original Report Card if they did not advance to the General.

If a candidate for state office is already a legislator, refer to our 2018 Legislator Report Card that grades them on this session’s school choice roll-call votes.

On a national basis, the forefront of school choice is often politically polarized, although not among constituents. In a January 2018 poll, 63% of likely voters support educational opportunities. Many Democratic voters support school choice and are working to depoliticize the issue. A poll by Education Next released in August 2018 shows broad support of “wider choice” for public-school families to access private options. Families concentrate on their children and want the best for them; political affiliation and agendas are irrelevant in this context.

School Choice for New Hampshire is a 501c4 non-profit that believes every child deserves an opportunity for an education that fits his or her unique needs. We inform, engage, and empower families, community leaders, and concerned citizens with educational opportunities that benefit children in our state as well as efforts that may expand or restrict these options. We are non-partisan and not affiliated with any political party. We also do not endorse candidates, but hope our Report Card is an informative tool for evaluating candidates and holding them accountable.

Methodology

School-choice issues are not limited to only those that involve where a child may be educated; that is the narrowest definition of school choice. It also pertains to the funding mechanisms that empower choice, who has the authority make those decisions, and other issues that impact educational opportunities, diversity, and innovation. School choice also encourages accountability to families and empowers them to direct their children’s education. Our survey reflects this broader view of educational opportunities.

We use a traditional grading scale where 97% and higher is an A+, 93-96% is an A, 90-92% is an A-, and so on. Candidates that received a B or higher are generally those that support educational opportunities, empowering families, accountability to families, and educational diversity. Those that received a C are fickle or support only some school-choice issues. Those that received a D or lower are opposed to school choice, seek to restrict educational options, and want to give more authority to the state.

This mirrors the same grading scale we use on our annual legislators’ Report Cards; the 2018 Legislator Report Card is available here. This allows for as much of an apples-to-apples comparison of new candidates and incumbents. However, it is important to note that a survey does not reflect actual votes. It is an indication of the candidate’s position on issues and only as good as the candidate is honest in his/her answers. That said, we will refer back to these surveys if the candidate is elected to office and hope he/she will make good on intentions to support educational opportunities for NH children.