Linda Burnap: An education policy or possible business opportunity?

To The Daily Sun,

Hurricane Katrina’s destruction in 2005 created a rare opportunity to rebuild New Orleans’ schools. With massive federal funding and urgent needs to reopen classrooms, city leaders converted district schools to charters — independently run schools managed largely by private business operators rather than local districts. Early results looked promising: schools reopened quickly and some test scores rose.

The transition was deeply disruptive. Entire school administrations, educators and support staff were fired, and many schools permanently closed.

As federal recovery funds dwindled, teacher and principal turnover increased, and oversight of operators weakened, raising concerns about accountability and transparency. Services for vulnerable students were inadequate. Communities pushed for public schools to reopen.

Michigan and Arizona also tried rapidly expanding charter schools but failed, facing oversight problems, equity concerns and funding issues.

Public schools have educated nearly all Americans since the first taxpayer-funded school opened in Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1644. Think about that…

What does all this have to do with New Hampshire? School budgets and property taxes. Legislative tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy shifted most of the budget burden onto property owners. That’s not a failing school system — it’s Republican policy choices for most of the past decade.

Yet the Republican House continues advancing anti-public-school legislation. While SB 101 was tabled, HB 751 persists, expanding open enrollment and siphoning public funds.

Now HB 1358 — introduced by Majority Leader Jason Osborne alongside Reps. Katy Peternel and John MacDonald and allies linked to the Free State Project — would create a commission to convert all New Hampshire public schools into charters.

Is this education policy — or expanding lucrative business opportunities? The Concord Monitor reported April 15, 2025, that seven private or Christian schools in New Hampshire have each siphoned millions from the Public School Trust Fund through vouchers.

We mustn’t confuse experimentation — or profit opportunities — with progress.

Linda Burnap

Wolfeboro