Pappas: Believes leopards can remove their spots
Well it appears as if “nomination bed conversions” are convincing, at least for those who want to be convinced, as the Executive Council voted along party lines to approve Governor Margaret Wood Hassan’s nomination of leftist education radical Bill Duncan to the Board of Education. In an form email forwarded by listeners of this show, District Four Executive Councilor Christopher Pappas, Democrat from Manchester, wrote he voted for Duncan because he said he quote “unequivocally would be an ally…and would support the missions” end quote for the existing charter schools in the district. For those of you who can’t believe Pappas would take Duncan’s word on the eve of his nomination vote given his long history of anti-charter school rhetoric, don’t worry. Pappas said he plans “to hold him to that commitment.” We note that Pappas commented on providing support for existing charter schools, buy the way, not being open to the establishment of new ones. We also note that Pappas, who has yet to reply to our request for comment on his vote, also failed to address Duncan’s lawsuit to overturn the program that enables tax credits for those who donate funds to privately run, non profit scholarship funds that assist low income families with K through Twelve education. Councilors remarked about the sheer volume of messages they’d received on the nomination. We’re not surprised as listeners of this show emailed us yesterday after hearing an impromptu call from State Rep. JR Hoell, Republican from Dunbarton, to say the voice mail was full at the number Hoell told folks to call for the Executive Council. So, not only does it look like you can convince the willing that all you’ve said in the past about something was something else, or that you didn’t mean it, or whatever, it looks like you can do it in the face of overwhelming opposition from your constituents. Remember, folks, that’s what elections are for and while this travesty can’t be undone, those who did it can be punished at the polls.
NH Senate: A modicum of sanity.
Some good news came out of the N H Senate yesterday. It decided to kill a bill that increased the state’s minimum wage. Not only would House Bill fourteen oh three have jacked up the minimum wage from seven twenty five to eight twenty five over night, it would have indexed it to inflation to provide for an annual increase. The bill would have been especially damaging to restaurant workers and others who rely mostly on tips for their income. Senator Peter Bradgon, Republican from Milford, said the bill ran contrary to three years of work designed to strengthen the state’s economy and create jobs. The bill went down on a party line vote of thirteen to eleven.
The senate also unanimously voted to send House Bill four seventy four to interim study. That was the bill passed by the House that would have given illegal aliens in state tuition for the state’s university system. Interim study means it’s dead, at least for the rest of this session. It had previously passed the house more or less along party lines.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Bedford School District: Permission for Algebra test but not Sex Survey?
People following the salacious student survey situation in Bedford might want to take note of Monday’s meeting of the Bedford School Board. There’s an informational item on the agenda entitled “Survey Update.” Unlike their counterparts in Gilford, the Bedford board has yet to acknowledge any kind of screw up, nor has it taken any action to revise the policies that administrators clearly abused to slip the survey by parents. Oh, and just so you know, we received an email from a Bedford parent two days ago with aconsent form seeking their written consent for the school to test their child for entry into next year’s Algebra class. The parent’s comments to Girard at Large were pretty simple: Quote “See attached. I have to give written consent for my child to do algebra, but not for a sex survey.” End quote. Well, yes, parent. That’s because there’s no such thing as Safe Algebra, don’t you know? Honestly, this makes me sick to my stomach. We’ve posted the photo of the consent form with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com. Somebody needs to get fired in that district and the Bedford School Board needs to step in and get to the bottom of who did what to sneak this garbage past parents to get it into their schools.
The N H State Republican Committee is holding a candidate training tomorrow at Concord campus of New England College. Topic of training include fund raising, becoming a candidate, door knocking and messaging among others. It runs from ten to three tomorrow and we’ve linked to their site with the details for your convenience. To RSVP: http://
Next Saturday, Right to Know N H will meet at the headquarters of the Coalition of N H Taxpayers in Concord to discuss what happened with Right To Know bills in this legislative session and what bills they intend to introduce in the next. They also plan to inform citizens of what they can do to make sure their government complies with the Right to Know Law so that their government properly informs its citizens to keep government open and accountable.
