Governor Hassan has recommended Bill Duncan for the NH Board of Education. PLEASE take a moment to write to YOUR Exec. Counselor and tell them to vote NO on this nomination. Mr. Duncan’s confirmation could come as early as this Thursday making it imperative that we act quickly and alert the public and contact our Executive Councilors.
Mr. Duncan has been leading the charge FOR COMMON CORE in NH as a political activist. He also filed a lawsuit against the State of NH to stop the School Choice program that gives low income families scholarships in order to help them find a school (public or private) that is best for their children.
Mr. Duncan also opposed the recent law that allows parents the ability to select alternative material for their child, at their own expense. He also opposes homeschooling and anything that would empower parents in their children’s education. Mr. Duncan was also highly critical of HB 435 that sought to increase funding for New Hampshire’s public charter schools.
Find your Executive Councilor here: https://www.nh.gov/council/
Mr. Duncan is a self described “political activist”, with a history of alarming rhetoric regarding public charter schools and the education tax credit scholarships.
Samples of his rhetoric:
“Charter schools are a political statement not an educational improvement”. http://anhpe.org/2013/07/05/charter-schools-are-a-political-statement-not-and-educational-improvement/
“I always consider policy discussions about privatization – proposals to dismantle public education and replace it with charters, vouchers and home schools – a distraction…” http://nhlabornews.com/tag/bill-duncan/
“End the pointless private school voucher program – Bill Duncan in the Portsmouth Herald”
http://anhpe.org/2013/06/23/end-the-pointless-private-school-voucher-program-bill-duncan-in-the-portsmouth-herald/
“The education tax credit is an embarrassment to the state, and the Senate should vote repeal the program before it begins to do real damage.”
http://anhpe.org/2013/03/28/education-tax-credit-is-an-embarrassment-for-state-bill-duncan-letter-to-the-portsmouth-herald/
From Greg Hill –>
Bill Duncan is the plaintiff (meaning he engaged attorneys and filed suit against the State of NH) in the on-going lawsuit AGAINST the education tax credit scholarships claiming that underprivileged children should NOT be allowed to attend any other school but the one assigned to them by zip code.
“Bad Choice for Board of Education,” a Letter to the Editor by Greg Hill
Governor Hassan has chosen the most extreme person she could to nominate for the NH Board of EDUCATION. Bill Duncan, a self-proclaimed expert whose only credentials in education are that he created a blog where he regularly misinforms his readers by providing heavily redacted snippets of sentences of his opponents and then comments on them. He is far from an expert on education or children. In point of fact he can be accurately labeled as the biggest current enemy to a particular class of NH children. That class of children are the most vulnerable ……the children who come from families whose income falls below 3 times the federal poverty line.
Bill Duncan is the plaintiff (meaning he personally engaged attorneys and filed suit against the state of NH) in an on-going lawsuit AGAINST these very children claiming that they should not be allowed to attend any other school but the one assigned to them by zip code. His attorneys have fought hard to stop these children from accepting donated money that would allow them to attend a school better suited to them (even if that school is a different public school believe it or not).
THIS is the kind of man Maggie Hassan says NH children need as their advocate on the Board of Education? Are you kidding me? Governor Hassan couldn’t possibly have made a worse choice than nominating a man currently suing the State of NH to prevent parents of modest means from helping their children escape a school setting that is not meeting their needs. An awful choice, Ms. Hassan. Just awful. Let your executive councilor know. Stop this nomination.
Greg Hill
Northfield, NH
