HB-2 Committee of Conference State Sentators

TO THE SENATORS OF THE BUDGET COMMITTEE OF CONFERENCE:

I am a resident of New Hampshire, community of _________ and I am supportive of independent public schools emerging in our state, offering choices to our students. I do not support ending this program and certainly in a manner that is not open to citizen discussion or of forcing these schools to continue with such a low amount of funding that the amount is not fair within the available state aid system.

I support:

1. continuation of RSA 194-B: 3-a, the pilot project for charter schools in this state, through no less than its intended term to July 1, 2013.
2. fair sharing of state aid to these schools, in the manner that schools throughout the state receive state aid--whereby schools that cannot raise money through taxation receive a higher amount of state education aid in the distribution system, as was first proposed for RSA 194-B: 3-a upon passage in 2003.

3. facilities funding for the few of these schools that do not have public space available, as is the policy of the state in its budget for almost every other imaginable program and office of government, including state schools and programs,

4. including the charter schools in the state budget as a real state program of schools,

5. supporting the request of the college-driven board of the Academy for Science and Design--a request to recognize the importance of a school for science in this state; their board has requested $50,000 in specific state funding to allow for the school's first dedicated lab for physics and engineering education, which would be shared with other schools and colleges.