Educational Test Scores In Milford Continue To Stifle The BOE

Brian Mcready of the NH Register asked a question on Facebook. He said: "Milford's 10th graders rank last in math, second to last in science, and reading, and 20th out of 24 in writing on the CAPT, but the city spends the 4th highest for education compared to 24 comparable sized communities, and is dead last in instructional hours. What do you think about that?" Since not all of you have Facebook, I thought it proper to share my answer here so Parents, Kids, and Taxpayers know where my thoughts on education are.
My answer to Brian....

The last two Superintendents did a terrible job, things started to go down hill when the Republicans cut funding to our schools to keep up with the demands made by the local teachers unions. Right now, there seems to be a disconnect between Republican conservatives and the Teachers unions. Until this stalemate is broken we can expect more vindictive cuts to education. Because of our leadership crisis in Milford, the kids suffer while the adults argue and fight with one another. The solution is simple to me, but my opponents have their own bizarre view.

My approach to solving our education problems is to first get the finances of the schools in order. Right now, teachers want to keep their jobs, parents and kids want a quality education and taxpayers do not want more taxes. One approach would be to call an educational crisis meeting, whereby the Teachers Representatives, Taxpayer Advocates and the PTA decide on a mutually agreeable course of action. Reaching a compromise that we can all live with is essential if we are going to put an end to the Bickering and vindictiveness of the Republicans, and many Democrats I am sorry to say. The failures are clearly embarrassing and rather than start a blame game we should be addressing the root causes of these problems and working with the very talented teachers that we have, who get results, to share in their secrets. It may even be in this schools best interest to hold after school workshops and contests to help and encourage our kids to be successful. The city has the money, they just chose to waste it in every way but the correct way. To elaborate on some of this waste, 1.5 Million for a police substation we do not need, Four Million for a Firehouse that could have been built for 1.0 Million, 500K in fee waivers, Money for trash a museum, Veterans exemptions from interest and penalties on their delinquent taxes.. etc.. etc.. This issue is more to do with immaturity and spite by those in charge. It is very sad to see.