This was so informative. Scary how much “politics” matters to them, and it is always about their future careers, and not us. Thanks for all you do, Andy ❤️
I found it thoroughly disheartening to watch the recent election cycle in NH be yet again filled with Republican pledges to lower taxes while ignoring the regressive structures their choices impose. Not only do they downshift costs, they effectively downshift the burden of explaining the complex mechanisms they've put in place along with their burdensome effects.
I'm a school board rep in the ConVal district. Even here, in a district that has sued the state for inadequate funding, it is supremely difficult to convey to our residents the hierarchy of taxation and funding that places such heavy costs on our towns and their people. So many of our disaffected residents look no further than our district when ascribing the source of their high property tax bills. How can I compete with a simple "I'll lower taxes," when my explanation will be 20 minutes long? I can be clear as a bell, but I've yet to master an explanation that also pierces the underlying anger people rightly feel and simultaneously shifts their perspective. I'll add to your "We ought to start talking about them" with we ought not stop talking about them until something changes. Perhaps as I keep practicing and reading your work I'll get up the chops to change some minds.
Insightful note to end on. In my district, there is a relationship between the elementary schools that offer Pre-K and steadier enrollment in those small schools in the years that follow. Providing these early education services brings families into the public school ecosystem. Conversely, the state's choice to not fund Pre-K amounts to a major barrier, perhaps intentionally so, between young families and public schools at a pivotal point in their development. As your transition to the fact that the state has lost some 12,000 students over the prior Gov's service would indicate, this barrier to early childhood ed is likely a contributing cause to declining enrollment. Residents in our towns clamor for wider access to Pre-K. It will be extremely helpful to remind them that perhaps access could be expanded should it be accordingly funded.
Very informative, especially hearing that New Hampshire college students carry the most educational debt of any in the country!
It makes it easy to understand why there has been little progress when these numbers have counterintuitive names and complex relationships to everyday experience.
Only suggestion is to edit out the occasional sniff, cough, and clink of the wine glass. L O L.
This was so informative. Scary how much “politics” matters to them, and it is always about their future careers, and not us. Thanks for all you do, Andy ❤️
I found it thoroughly disheartening to watch the recent election cycle in NH be yet again filled with Republican pledges to lower taxes while ignoring the regressive structures their choices impose. Not only do they downshift costs, they effectively downshift the burden of explaining the complex mechanisms they've put in place along with their burdensome effects.
I'm a school board rep in the ConVal district. Even here, in a district that has sued the state for inadequate funding, it is supremely difficult to convey to our residents the hierarchy of taxation and funding that places such heavy costs on our towns and their people. So many of our disaffected residents look no further than our district when ascribing the source of their high property tax bills. How can I compete with a simple "I'll lower taxes," when my explanation will be 20 minutes long? I can be clear as a bell, but I've yet to master an explanation that also pierces the underlying anger people rightly feel and simultaneously shifts their perspective. I'll add to your "We ought to start talking about them" with we ought not stop talking about them until something changes. Perhaps as I keep practicing and reading your work I'll get up the chops to change some minds.
Insightful note to end on. In my district, there is a relationship between the elementary schools that offer Pre-K and steadier enrollment in those small schools in the years that follow. Providing these early education services brings families into the public school ecosystem. Conversely, the state's choice to not fund Pre-K amounts to a major barrier, perhaps intentionally so, between young families and public schools at a pivotal point in their development. As your transition to the fact that the state has lost some 12,000 students over the prior Gov's service would indicate, this barrier to early childhood ed is likely a contributing cause to declining enrollment. Residents in our towns clamor for wider access to Pre-K. It will be extremely helpful to remind them that perhaps access could be expanded should it be accordingly funded.
My thanks for all of your work.
~Curtis Hamilton
Very informative, especially hearing that New Hampshire college students carry the most educational debt of any in the country!
It makes it easy to understand why there has been little progress when these numbers have counterintuitive names and complex relationships to everyday experience.
Only suggestion is to edit out the occasional sniff, cough, and clink of the wine glass. L O L.