Also on today’s menu:
School Drug Culture
Federal Funds For Schools To Expire
Another Defeat For Student Loan Forgiveness
Faced with a lack of company support for its old elementary school reading curriculum, the Newfound Area School District adopted Amplify CKLA’s reading program at the beginning of the school year, winning praise from some parents and disparagement from others. Acknowledging that some of the concerns might be valid, the Newfound Area School Board agreed to form a curriculum committee that will review what is being in taught in district schools.
“We chose CKLA because it was evidence-based: They had the data to show that it was effective at improving reading,” Superintendent Pierre Couture said. “We have heard many positive comments from students and parents. They like the fact that they are learning so much content knowledge about history and science while they learn to read.”
Not all parents are on board with the program, however, saying the curriculum contains inappropriate content and language that “grooms” young students for exploitation by pedophiles. It also makes reference to killings and oppression in other countries that parents say should not be part of a young child’s education.
Others who have reviewed the literature say “it’s not that bad,” and teachers say students are eager to learn, “more than they were with the old curriculum.”
School Drug Culture
Mika Austin, the student representative to the Newfound Area School Board, said at the board’s November 28 meeting that drug use is part of the culture at Newfound Regional High School. “It’s everywhere,” she said. “And the most upsetting part is it’s normal for us to joke about it, kind of like it’s just part of our culture.”
School nurse Lisa Hodsdon persuaded the school board to allow her to pursue standing orders from physicians to keep Narcan in stock to deal with the potential of a student overdose. “We’ve all heard that there is fentanyl out there,” Hodsdon said.
She also advocated for essential training, not only in the administration of Narcan, but to protect the person attempting to help. “All you have to do is touch somebody else’s paraphernalia and you absorb it,” she said. “You can get an opioid in your system through touching and absorption. You can get it through ingestion.”
Federal Funds For Schools To Expire
Studies have revealed the toll that pandemic safety measures have taken on students in terms of learning loss. While New Hampshire received more than $500 million in federal school COVID-19 money to hire staff to address the gaps, many schools still faced staffing challenges. Next year, that federal money is set to expire.
New Hampshire statewide assessment scores fell 10 percent in English and 18 percent in math between 2019 and 2022, but state officials say the interventions are working. Results from the 2022 New Hampshire Statewide Assessment indicate that, while student performance dropped in every tested grade level between 2020 to 2021, some scores — particularly in math among younger grades — have rebounded slightly.
New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut said he remained “committed to providing New Hampshire students with ongoing, evidence-based supports, and interventions. … It is more important now, as it has always been, to support all students so that they can thrive and achieve their aspirations.”
Another Defeat For Student Loan Forgiveness
A federal appeals court has ruled against President Joe Biden's $400 billion student loan forgiveness program, so the controversial debt relief effort is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court. The New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit let stand a lower court ruling that had blocked the program's implementation. The Biden administration already extended a pause on student loan payments until as late as June 30, 2023, in anticipation of the ruling.
The Supreme Court, already is considering a ruling about the loan forgiveness program from the St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. The high court may decide to combine the two cases.
Under the president’s plan, borrowers would be eligible for as much as $10,000 or $20,000 in debt relief, depending on their income and whether they received a Pell Grant in college. To qualify, borrowers must earn less than $125,000 a year or reside in households that make no more than $250,000. As many as 40 million people would qualify for Biden’s plan, and some would see their entire balance erased.
Cafe Chatter
On ‘Compromise Or Not’ (“Shutting Down The Farms” and “What About The Pets?”
What is wrong with our world/society?
The Netherland’s want to close down 3,000 farms and the article does not state how many acres this it but it’s got to be thousands. Folks, last I checked we need food to survive and if we do not stop this non-sense that we are destroying our planet, well we will destroy ourselves by starvation. You got to watch the Planet of the Human’s by Michael Moore, here is the link
. This documentary explains the misconception of climate change and things we are trying and failing at to reduce it.
Regarding out pets, they want us to put them on a diet, come on, really? Again, if you do not start standing up and demanding change you will may eventually not have a cat or dog at all. And you who have goats, sheep, cattle or horses you will not be far behind.
Then there is “Chevron To Resume Oil Pumping in Venezuela”. We were oil independent and now we plan to buy oil from Chevron which is actually Venezuela and support that socialist regime? What is the difference buying from them verses buying from Russia? Why can’t we just “resume limited natural resource extraction operations in USA for the American people” but no, our president is more concerned about the “suffering of the Venezuelan people”.
You need to speak up now to anyone who will listen, otherwise the hand writing is on the wall, the USA will be no different than China, Russia or bankrupt Venezuela.
My opinion, what’s yours?
— John Sellers
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