Beth Fox: New Hampshire advantage needs a broader reach

To The Daily Sun,

Does the New Hampshire Advantage reach our young people? A recent report put one NH property poor school district in national news last week, when despite stellar efforts and keeping students in-person, students lost significantly in math and reading scores. The town has a high poverty rate.

The data show many children need significant intervention, and advocates and researchers say the U.S. isn’t doing enough. Since NH state government helps towns the least, New Hampshire is definitely not doing enough.

There are 18,000 youngsters living below the poverty level in NH ($26,500), and 60,000 students live with housing-challenged families (US Census, 2019). That is too many neglected, and the cost to society will come later. We need to do more.

Commissioner Frank Edelblut misspoke when he said of the new voucher program that half of the children enrolled are living below the poverty level. He may have meant the low-income families ($53,000 for a family of four) that received $14.5 million this school year for private education. Families may make up to $81,000 to qualify for vouchers.

This duplication of effort leaves the poorest children in the state to town efforts, rather than helping school districts properly serve all students.

The bottom line is this: State leadership can do more to spread the New Hampshire Advantage across the spectrum. Students will be the NH workforce of tomorrow. Businesses and retirees will benefit — we all will benefit — from a healthy, educated workforce. Whoever represents us in Concord needs this message. The last go around, that leadership failed. Redistricting increases the likelihood this trend will continue, despite not representing the majority of voters. Either way, taxpayers need to speak loudly and often, so legislators hear of the need to spread the NH Advantage to all Granite Staters.

Beth Fox

Wolfeboro