Steven JP Dionne: Rep. Littlefield avoids the core question in defense of EFA program

To The Daily Sun,

Is it not quizzical, bigoted politicians and/or greedy developers attempt to change the face of our local ski area and the community goes into apoplectic shock. Conversely, New Hampshire's GOP continues to choke the life out of our public school system and not a single road sign saying "Take back our schools."

Seems the Laconia Daily Sun enjoys pampering Rep. Richard Littlefield. Anyone criticizes his record in 300 words or less, Littlefield is granted the privilege of spewing well over the word limit. Typical to a pattern, Mr. Common Sense's remarks amount to nothing more than counterintuitive propaganda.

Recall a few weeks ago, Rep. Littlefield warned against the use of statistical data in formulating our opinion on topics. Seems he thinks the raw data "doesn’t tell the real story."

In his latest rant of excuses, Littlefield walked back the advice, listing percentages indicating how poorly Laconia students are doing. An excuse for his fiduciary malfeasance in supporting what the financial behemoth NH EFA Program has become. Typical to his mangling of the truth, Littlefield avoids the core questions:

• If the Laconia Schools are failing, why support the defunding of public education?

• How does one justify spending $22 million to educate less than 2% of NH’s student body? [P.S. Don’t use special-needs kids as an excuse; of the 3,000 currently enrolled approximately 88 (2.93%) are "special needs" children]

• By what right does the NH GOP redirect public dollars to support non-public entities?

• Remember private and parochial schools operate as nonprofits paying little to no taxes.

• Littlefield supports a multimillion-dollar defunding of public education in NH, where the state government ranks dead last nationally, in funding public education.

Seems Littlefield and the NH GOP think some forms of socialism are OK, just depends on who receives your money free of charge.

Steven JP Dionne

Laconia