Also on today’s menu:
Nikki Haley ‘Smokes’ Republican Debate
Biden Proposes Lower Limits On Overdraft Fees
Senator Tim Lang (R-Sanbornton) has sponsored Senate Bill 341, which would require school staff to answer parents’ written requests for information about their children within 10 days; or, if they are worried that the information “would put that student at risk of endangerment of physical harm, abuse, or neglect”, they could file a report with the Division for Children, Youth, and Families within 48 hours.
Lang sees the bill as being similar to the state’s right-to-know law, RSA 91-A, that requires public officials to produce documents and information requested by a member of the public, with exceptions for confidentiality. “This bill extends that to the school setting,” Lang said. “The school is obligated to respond in an honest and complete answer, and not hide any information from the parent.”
Aubrey Freedman of Bridgewater characterized the bill as “all about honesty” during a January 3 hearing. “Nobody’s outing anybody, [but] if the parents want to ask the school personnel a question, they should be honest. I don’t think that’s a big deal.”
Any parent who is not satisfied by the school board’s disciplinary action against a staff member who violates the policy would be able to appeal to the New Hampshire Board of Education, which could make a final decision. Barrett Christina, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, objected to such a provision, saying that members of the Board of Education are “unelected bureaucrats” appointed by the governor and Executive Council.
Megan Tuttle, president of the National Education Association of New Hampshire, argued that the bill would “fracture” the relationship between schools and parents and that the disclosure requirements would override the chain of command within schools and could interfere with collective bargaining agreements. A climate of fear has already driven teachers from the profession, she said.
Discussion: Parents have a right to information about children in their care. Much of the opposition to parental notification is based on the fear that parents would physically or mentally abuse a child who has expressed a sexual orientation that offends them. Lang’s bill addresses that concern by providing for the notification of a protective agency versed in family conflicts if such a possibility exists. The wisdom of the bill is less clear when it comes to a student who may not be emotionally prepared for the parent to know. It also is troubling that a staff member’s job could be in jeopardy by failing to adhere to the requirements. Any bill must have some form of enforcement, but there should be limits when the transgression could be a matter of conscience. Before the bill reaches the floor for passage, all those factors need to be addressed.
Nikki Haley ‘Smokes’ Republican Debate
Nikki Haley, who Chris Christie famously said would get “smoked” in a contest with former president Donald Trump, announced that she would not participate in the next Republican presidential debate unless Trump also takes part. Her announcement led ABC News to cancel the debate that had been scheduled for January 18.
“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign,” Haley said. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”
Her statement came after Trump won in the Iowa caucuses by a wide margin over Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy, the latter of whom dropped out of the race as a result. The Associated Press said her decision not to debate “could be a result of the last debate which featured only Haley and DeSantis, in which Haley didn’t perform as well as expected, and DeSantis ultimately ended up beating her for second place in Iowa.”
Discussion: Haley knows how vulnerable she is in the race, and it’s likely that her support in New Hampshire is only as strong as it is because of Governor Chris Sununu’s endorsement of her candidacy. At the same time, Trump’s lead is somewhat illusory: As Robert Hubbell has noted, turnout for the Iowa Caucuses was low — 97 percent of Iowa voters did not participate, and only 19 percent of the “active” registered Republicans voted. “[O]nly 51% of those who showed up voted for Trump (or 52,260),” he writes. “Thus, Trump's victory in Iowa was achieved with support from 7% of Iowa Republicans—or 3% of Iowa’s 1,518,280 active voters.”
Biden Proposes Lower Limits On Overdraft Fees
President Joe Biden Jr. has been looking to eliminate “junk fees” — hidden charges that boost the cost of concert tickets, hotel rooms, and utilities. The latest proposal from the White House would reduce the cost of an overdrawn bank account to as little as $3, potentially eliminating billions of dollars in fee revenue collected by the nation’s biggest banks.
Banks charge customers an overdraft fee if their bank account balance falls below zero. Originally offered as a courtesy when paper checks took several days to clear, overdrafts increased with the growing popularity of debit cards. The average overdraft fee is $26.61, and some banks charge as much as $39. The nation’s biggest banks collect roughly $8 billion a year in overdraft fees.
“For too long, some banks have charged exorbitant overdraft fees — sometimes $30 or more — that often hit the most vulnerable Americans the hardest, all while banks pad their bottom lines,” Biden said. “Banks call it a service — I call it exploitation.”
Discussion: The proposed change would affect only those banks with more than $10 billion in assets, so smaller banks that offer overdraft protection would still be able to collect their current fees. Still, with consumers becoming more aware of how little it really costs to provide the service, the fees are likely to drop for all banks, and that is good news for consumers.