Michael Kitch: Equality of opportunity is certainly the NH and American way

To The Daily Sun,

Once again Rep. Norm Silber has loosed both barrels at point-blank range only to shoot wide of his mark, only missing his foot because it was in his mouth.

In his letter trashing the work of the Commission to Study School Funding as “pure Marxism” he virtually admits and clearly confirms that at most he undertook a “cursory examination” of its report. Silber writes that the commission concluded that “our public schools should emphasize equality of outcomes rather than of opportunities.”

In fact, the Commission recommended just the opposite, namely that all children should be afforded the opportunity to reach a level of educational achievement matching the average attained by students statewide.To provide equal opportunity for every child, as the New Hampshire Supreme Court — hardly a Marxist cabal — ruled three decades ago, the Commission proposed a more equitable distribution of state funds among school districts. Significantly, the Commission did not so much as suggest increasing expenditures for public schools.

“Pure Marxism,” whatever the hell that means, may not be, as Silber blusters “the American way” or the “the New Hampshire way,” but equality of opportunity is most assuredly both.

Michael Kitch

Penacook