Contact Your Senators -- Vote HB 542 Ought To Pass !!!

HB 542 is the first bill in 20 years to pass the House in support of parental rights with regard to education, and the Senate Education Committee just voted it Inexpedient to Legislate (4-1).  This is outrageous!
 
The NH Republican platform states:
 
 We oppose state interference with parental rights and believe:

•  Only parents can be entrusted to control the education of their children and choose schools that best suit their children's needs
• Laws should be implemented to encourage school choice and competition and allow all parents to choose the best public, private, charter or home school program for their children

“Only parents can be entrusted to control the education of their children” except when lobbyists intervene and spread FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and focus the Committee’s attention upon only the most negligent of parents.  There are laws that address negligent parenting and every citizen in the state of New Hampshire is a mandatory reporter of child abuse.  What more do they want!
 
HB 542 upheld a parents right to choose between public and private school, and to choose between district programs and textbooks that correspond to their values or to replace them at their own expense with alternatives of their own choosing.
 
Parents can pull their children completely out of public school, without a problem. But should a parent question a district program or textbook, their rights vanish and are replaced by bureaucratic policies, which include appeals to their school board and even the state school board and may include legal fees. The outcome is problematic and the time frame is frequently useless to serve the needs of parents.  Effectively, districts can curtail the rights of parents without firing a shot.
 
Who are the folks that oppose parental rights?  Might they have a conflict of interest?  Somehow they prevail time and again.  Not only do they prevail, but parents must fund their school districts, which then fund these lobbyists.  So clearly, parents must fund their own opposition.  Brilliant!

HB 542 contains only 41 words:


            No school district shall compel a parent
            to send his or her child to any school or program
            to which he or she may be conscientiously opposed
 
            nor shall a school district approve or disapprove
            a parent’s education program or curriculum.
 
The first section recognizes a parent's inalienable rights of conscience, which can also be found in the NH Constitution Art. 4, Pt. I. The second section is taken directly from the current statute on the regulation of private schools, RSA 186:11 XXIX.  These are not new concepts.

However, HB 542 is extremely useful to place these parental rights prominently in statute. It places a flag in the ground, which recognizes parents’ constitutional rights and will prevent parents from back sliding down a slippery slope each year, arguing against the same issues in their districts and against the same proposed increases in state regulation in Concord.   
 
Please support parental rights and ask your state senator to vote HB 542 OUGHT TO PASS!