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Christopher Prost wrote to the Valley News (“Speak out about proposed changes to education in NH,” May 25), highlighting the under-the-radar efforts to change radically rules for approving public schools. He was talking about draft ED 306 rules, prepared by a task force contracted by the Department of Education. After a series of “listening sessions,” the DOE and the State Board of Education will send the draft to the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (JLCAR) — whose only role is to confirm that draft rules conform to existing state laws. Then the rules go into effect. The DOE and State Board are not required to take into account feedback they have received (see below).
So why should you care? The draft rules have the potential to deconstruct public education. They would reduce minimum standards and learning content required. They would authorize programs sold by private companies, such as Prenda Pods or Learn Everywhere. They would reduce the role of educators in determining whether private sector offerings meet standards. They would reduce accountability for learning. They would drain resources from district public schools, which serve 86% of NH students and knit together communities.
Draft rules do reinforce commitment to competency-based learning in New Hampshire schools — most of us want learning that produces competence. But fine words about competency-based learning are empty rhetoric until they are implemented. The draft rules ignore a basic management principle that change needs the enthusiastic support of those responsible for implementation — local school boards, school administrators and teachers. Few of those charged with implementation seem to have been included in the DOE process. Testimony of teachers and school administrators at the listening session in New London on May 25 suggests that these people, critical to implementation, are skeptical about the content and the process of redrafting ED 306 rules.
This draft and the flawed process should be discarded. The best choice for New Hampshire is to start again with an independent task force that includes teachers, administrators, education experts and specialists in implementation and management. The new commission’s first task is to develop a transparent, inclusive process.
Susan Holcombe
Hanover
To build on Randall Balmer’s piece in the Sunday Valley News (“Suppose they held a schism and nobody left,” Page C1, June 18) about the ubiquitous nature of schisms in Christian churches, and as commentary on the upheaval in the Southern Baptist Convention about women pastors, I’d like to point out that many denominations allow women to be spiritual leaders.
Here in the Upper Valley, Enfield to be exact, is a perfect example in the form of the Shakers. From the walking tour guide of the Enfield Shaker Museum: “The Shakers are a communal, celibate, Protestant Christian sect whose members first came to America from England in 1774 and eventually established communities throughout New England, New York, Ohio and Kentucky. They practice celibacy, communal ownership of property, equality of the sexes and races, pacifism and public confession of sin.” Diligent study of the Bible is where they get their tenets.
These two sentences essentially undo the SBC’s claim that scripture commands only men to lead the faith. They also undo pretty much all of the nonsense spewed by the Christian nationalists of today.
Leslie S. MacGregor
Grantham
