Concord
State Rep. Jim Grenier, R-Lempster, helped write a bill that would allow children in districts without schools for their grade to attend private school elsewhere at public expense — as four students now are doing in Croydon.
Grenier’s bill passed the House last month and now is before the Senate Education Committee. In a committee hearing Tuesday morning, Grenier proposed an amendment that would require private schools receiving public school students to meet state adequacy standards and participate in state assessments.
Grenier and the school choice advocates on the Croydon School Board say they hope to clarify a law that is the subject of a legal dispute and to give parents more choice in their children’s education.
As elected representatives pursue a legislative solution, Croydon is defending itself in Superior Court, where the Department of Education is seeking to stop the district from using tax money to send students to a private school.
For state officials, the bill and the court battle raise the same worry: when school districts send children to private schools using public money, it is difficult to verify those students are receiving an adequate education, which the state is constitutionally required to provide all students in public schools.
Attorney Erin McIntyre, who is representing the state in its case against Croydon, raised that concern before the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday morning.
“Private or nonpublic schools are not required to abide by these rules,” she told the committee, referring to the so-called Claremont rulings in the 1990s. Claremont and four other property-poor school districts challenged the state’s dependence on local property taxes as the primary revenue source for schools. The state Supreme Court ruled that the state has a constitutional obligation to define what constitutes an adequate education and ensure that local school districts have the means to provide it.
McIntyre also warned of potential legal repercussions if the state sent adequacy funds to schools whose standards could not be verified.
Some — but not all — of the committee members appeared to share her point of view.
“The bill before us is trying to fix a particular situation in a particular school in a particular part of the state,” Sen. Molly Kelly, D-Harrisville, said to McIntyre.
Kelly expressed concern that such a narrowly focused bill could set a precedent leading to unintended statewide consequences.
“Your testimony leads me to believe it is not as simple as it is being presented to us in this legislation,” Kelly said to McIntyre.
A few minutes later, Grenier introduced his amendment, which would require that private schools receiving students from public districts offer an “adequate public education” and “comply with the statewide assessment requirements.”
The bill did not pass the House without dissent — the vote was 208-143 — and Grenier said in an interview after the hearing that his amendment also was meant to give the legislation a better chance in the Senate.
Grenier also said he had been working on his bill since before the Croydon dispute. The court case had accelerated the discussion, he said, putting pressure on lawmakers to avoid being superseded by the judiciary.
“Legislators do not want the Supreme Court setting policy on this,” he said. “There’s a lot more interest in getting something done than in the past.”
As she did in the House, Croydon School Board Chairwoman Jody Underwood testified before the Senate committee on Tuesday, outlining her board’s reasons for its school choice policy. She criticized the state officials who oppose the practice, calling them “bureaucrats” with an “agenda.”
Above all, Underwood said, she wanted to help school districts provide an education tailored to each individual student.
“There should not be just one approach to learning,” she said, “because in education, one size does not fit all.”
In an interview after the hearing, Underwood said Grenier’s amendment was not a deal-breaker, provided that private schools could pick which assessment to use — and that they would not have to take the state’s current test, the Smarter Balanced Assessment, which she said was too expensive and, after only two years’ use, “not proven.”
“A standardized test is fine — just let them choose,” she said.
In a separate interview, Grenier said he could support Underwood’s conditions. He and other lawmakers are working on his amendment and another proposed revision to reach a compromise that could pass the Legislature.
Outside the committee room after the hearing, lawmakers crowded around McIntyre to ask her whether Grenier’s proposal would be acceptable. She expressed cautious optimism, but said she needed to review existing statute and case law to see whether it could work.
“I think it’s a good starting point,” she said.
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com.