Oppose CACR 14 --- Protect Local Control !

A public hearing on CACR 14 was held on Tuesday, March 22 in front of the Senate Internal Affairs Committee, where it was voted Ought To Pass / as Amended (3-1).  It now goes to the Senate floor for a vote by all 24 Senators.  Please contact your state Senator and ask him to vote CACR 14 Inexpedient To Legislate.  Contact information is below.

The People never gave the Legislature the power to control public instruction in 1784. It was reserved to the People in their communities under Pt. 1, Art. 6.  Public instruction was intermingled with religious instruction at that time.  

Repeated efforts were made to separate religious and secular public instruction.  All proposed constitutional amendment failed.  Why?  Because those efforts undermined the constitutional guarantee of political independence of the towns from the state; this right of the towns is equivalent to that of the parishes and religious societies.  The People cherish local control of education.  Without local control, parents would be at the mercy of the state and vulnerable to whatever indoctrination the state Legislature wishes to impose upon their children.

Nevertheless, the Legislature has encroached upon this local prerogative of the people from the onset. Such is the nature of power to draw to itself more and more control.  

This power was not taken from the people in 1968 when Pt. 1, Art. 6 was amended.  Look at the Report to the Fifteenth Constitutional Convention and the state published Voters' Guide to the Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire on November 5, 1968. [These documents can be found in this month's NHFFE newsletter in the "NH Constitutional Review of Article 6]. These documents are used by the Court to establish the intent of a constitutional change.  The stated intent of the amendment to Art 6, on the ballot and elsewhere, was "non-substantive," merely housekeeping.  That means that in spite of the amendment, the original meaning is intact. Not a likely interpretation by the current activist Court, but normative nonetheless.

If the Article is not clear, then the solution is to restore Part 1. Art 6, not pass an amendment that negates local control once and for all.  Also, note that the NH Supreme Court ruled in Hale v. Everett in 1868 that the right to control the education of children is an inalienable right of the people.  It is the People's right for all time as it should be. 

CACR 14 accelerates the move to centralize education.  It is not a gain in any sense for those who value liberty.  CACR 14 drives the final nail in the coffin of local control which was begun in 1968 with mis-labelled amendment of Art. 6, Pt. I.

Worst of all in this debate, the legislature continues to implicitly suggest that the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over both the Executive and Legislature.  It cannot, because if it does, then we might as well all go home and get used to living under an appointed oligarchy: any legislative process is a complete waste of time and energy.

In summary, the Executive and Legislature are under no obligation whatsoever to comply with or abet any Supreme Court attempt to make affirmative law.  The Court has no police force and no power to tax.  This Legislature, with its super-majority of Republicans, whose party platform supports local control of education, could repeal the Claremont enabling statues tomorrow. Ironically, it lacks the courage to do so.  

This Legislature is not so starved of power that it must go hat in hand to the People for more. It has power enough already, more than enough, but will not use it and would not use it even if CACR 14 passes.  What it would use CACR 14 for is the age-old game of "punish your enemies and reward your friends."  There would be no "local control" ever again under CACR 14.