(Hour 2b) Rich is concerned about the State of NH renewing it’s No Child Left Behind waiver next year. There are no guarantees that the US Department of Education will grant them.
What will happen if they don’t?
More and more states are bucking the system when it comes to Common Core. And paying the Federal price.
What will the educational landscape in Manchester and NH look like here if those waivers aren’t granted? Will it lead to a boom for Public Charter Schools like The Founders Academy? Read more in the On Air News Read. For the “technical letter” from the state referenced in this archive, click here.
Charter Schools can be approved by the State or the local district. It’s my understanding that all of the charter schools in NH have State approval. Windham is trying to approve a charter school locally in lieu of building a new school. If you listen to the tapes of some of the recent State Board of Education meetings, you will discover that the BoE is not exactly interested in approving additional charter schools. They want to run with the ones they currently have. By the way, this was the climate of the Board before Bill Duncan was approved as the BoE’s latest member. So I wouldn’t hold your breath on the State approval of more charter schools in NH.
As to the waiver, the Commissioner of Education promised Londonderry for over two years now that they could apply for a waiver from Smarter Balanced assessments. She’s setting the stage to make the federal government play the heavy based on the NCLB waiver extension, when she rejects the appeals for a waiver from Londonderry, Dover, Alton, Wakefield, Manchester, Nashua and many other districts that are questioning the Common Core aligned assessments as “inappropriate” for their students.
The NH BoE meetings are video taped and can be found here: http://www.nhboardofeducation.com/