A disastrous day in the New Hampshire Senate yesterday as only five senators voted against the expansion of the state’s Medicaid program and the implementation of Obamacare. District Nine Senator Andy Sanborn, Republican from Bedford, District Fourteen Senator Sharon Carson, Republican from Londonderry, District Seventeen Senator John Reagan Republican from Deerfield, District Twenty Three Senator Russell Prescott, Republican from Kingston and District Six Senator Sam Cataldo, Republican of Farmington were the lone hold outs against Senate Bill four thirteen, which we’ve posted with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com. In an interview with Girard at Large on Wednesday, Sanborn said the program contained no caps on the numbers of potential participants or costs incurred by the expansion. He asserted it implemented the President’s health care plan before obtaining any waivers that would allegedly make it better. He noted the increased usage of, and wait times in, the emergency rooms of states that have already expanded their Medicaid program and asked why we’d want to do that in New Hampshire. He hammered the bill as a disincentive to able bodied workers between the ages of eighteen and sixty four noting that if they worked full time at minimum wage, they wouldn’t qualify for free healthcare paid for by the government. We understand that an identical bill has already been introduced into the House which, given its Democratic majority, is likely to pass. Governor Margaret Wood Hassan, who has been in pursuit of Medicaid expansion since taking office, will certainly sign it if it passes. The odds notwithstanding, Republican House Leader Gene Chandler of Bartlett vowed to fight the matter. He called out a number of the bill’s shortcomings and said Republicans will try to amend in the house. He also said there are a number of Republican members who won’t vote for any program tied to the failed Obamacare law and cited the likely and significant budget problems that awaited the state down the road if this bill becomes law.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Interim S A U Nineteen Superintendent Brian Balke has been named as the district’s new Superintendent of Schools. The district is comprised of the towns of Goffstown, New Boston and Dunbarton. Prior to taking the helm on an interim basis, Balke, who was recently a finalist for the superintendent position in the Hollis Brookline Cooperative School District, spent five years as the district’s Assistant Superintendent for Student Services. Balke expects to complete his doctorate degree in Education in two thousand seventeen. The district’s release did not disclose his salary, which we’ve requested. Balke will oversee a shrinking enterprise as Dunbarton transitions its students from Goffstown’s middle and high schools to Bow’s following votes in Dunbarton with overwhelming margins last March.
A proposed policy change for the Manchester schools has roiled many parents and at least one school board member. Ward Ten’s John Avard is urging parents with a strong position on a proposed policy change that would allow children with head lice to remain in school to attend Monday’s meeting of the School Board to express their opinions during public participation. Current policy requires the child to be removed from school until such time as the school nurse can verify that the infestation has been eliminated. The current policy mandates inspections of students heads periodically to discover any infestation. Under the proposed policy, a child would be sent to the nurse if suspected of having head lice and if found to have it would be sent home only if the child was uncomfortable with it or if administrators deemed it necessary. The nurse would be required to provide the child’s parents with information on how to treat and prevent lice and monitor any infected students as necessary, presumably while still being allowed to attend school. Avard, is opposed to the change.
No Child Lottery. No Ninety Percent Minimum. Vote No on Question Three. Those are the news signs popping up around Hooksett as opponents of the Pinkerton tuition contract ramp up their efforts for the final weekend before this Tuesday’s election. Leading the charge is Whack a Mole School Board Member John Lyscars who said the time for change in Hooksett is now. Lyscars decried pro-Pinkerton signs claiming a vote for the contract was a vote for school choice as intentionally misleading and reprehensible. And, in light of yesterday’s report highlighting the six A M start time for the buses headed to Pinkerton, Lyscars asked what happens when a kid misses the bus and also asked what happens when the route times are adjusted for reality. In a statement released this morning, Lyscars reminded everybody that it wasn’t all that long ago when the administration projected start times of five forty five for the Pinkerton buses and asked what’s changed saying it’s much more likely to be the original five forty five, not the revised six o’clock.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is just moments away!
