Posted on 06/12/2020 9:20:51 AM PDT by Red Badger
Working-class parents without college degrees aren’t capable of overseeing their own children’s education, according to comments State Sen. Jeanne Dietsch (D-Peterborough) made during a House Education Committee hearing on Tuesday.
Dietsch was speaking on behalf of a Senate bill that would repeal a law allowing the state Board of Education to create an alternative program for granting graduation credits, which became Learn Everywhere.
“This idea of parental choice, that’s great if the parent is well-educated. There are some families that’s perfect for. But to make it available to everyone? No. I think you’re asking for a huge amount of trouble,” Dietsch said.
“Is it your belief that only well-educated parents can make proper decisions for what’s in the best interest of their children?” asked a dumbfounded Rep. Glenn Cordelli (R-Tuftonboro).
Rather than saying “no,” Dietsch instead repeated her view that parents without college degrees are less capable of overseeing their children’s education.
“In a democracy, and particularly in the United States, public education has been the means for people to move up to greater opportunities, for each generation to be able to succeed more than their parents have. My father didn’t graduate from high school, so it was really important that I went to college,” Dietsch said.
‘When it gets into the details, would my father have known what courses I should be taking? I don’t think so.”
When committee vice-chairman David Luneau tried to inject that Dietsch was not, in fact, saying parents without college were less fit to oversee their children’s education, Dietsch interrupted to reaffirm her position.
“If the dad’s a carpenter, and you want to become a carpenter, then yes — listen to your dad.”
One person less than impressed by the senator’s comments is Tim Hawes, owner of Perfection In Restoration in Candia, N.H.
“With all due respect to the senator, I am a carpenter, and the idea that she, or any other government official, knows what’s best for me or any member of my family is preposterous,” he told NHJournal. “The senator says she would be for allowing well-educated parents to choose, but that choice wouldn’t be for ‘everyone?’ I would ask the senator what her definition of well-educated is?
“I may not have a degree, but I can guarantee that when it comes to decisions regarding my family’s interest I am far more educated and capable than any government official will ever be,” Hawes said.
Bert Durand, communications director for the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, also took issue with Dietsch’s views.
“We’d suggest that anyone who really does think carpenters and well-educated people belong in different categories hasn’t tried to build anything more complicated than a birdhouse or found their way around a job with a set of prints,” he told NHJournal.
“We think Senator Dietsch simply misspoke. While it’s true that most New Hampshire parents are not education policy wonks, we’re sure she’d agree that carpenters are ultimately as capable as any other New Hampshire parents of understanding what’s necessary to make decisions on their children’s education,” Durand said.
Dietsch’s elitist argument comes at a time when her party is struggling to bring working-class voters back into the fold.
Enough of them abandoned the Democrats in 2016 to hand Donald Trump an improbable win, picking up traditional trade union strongholds like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. She also bolsters the belief that Democratic opposition to education choice is based in a dismissive attitude toward average Americans.
Asked for a comment, N.H. Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut said: “I believe all New Hampshire parents want the best education possible for their children, and should be empowered with choice and options to make that possible.”
State Sen. Jeanne Dietsch (D-Peterborough)
Yikes! Guess I have one more thing to feel guilty about. My wheelbarrow is getting pretty full. NOT! But, New Hampsha.
is that another she-male? I hope so, cuz she ugly!
“State Sen. Jeanne Dietsch (D-Peterborough)”
Thanks for the picture. We really shouldn’t have lesbians in positions of power over parents.
Better average or slightly lower intelligence is vastly preferable to malicious leftism.
And they call us elitists.................
She looks like a sinister version of Mary Elizabeth Mastroantonio.
This is what happens when dems get in power.
They tried to ram through a state income tax and gun control bill, both of which Governor Sununu vetoed.
My son, who is active in politics in NH, says that sentiment is turning away from the democrats and is hoping for the state to shift back towards Republican.
It is the *Live Free or Die* state and people like ti that way and are not receptive to others trying to tell them what to do.
Honestly, any parent who feels incompetent to teach their own children has options without the government mandating it.
And they still elected her.....................
Parents are just not qualified to provide proper approved Indoctrination..
err.. education..
Yow. Never post with a paranoid schizophrenic yammering about her delusions and hallucinations in your ear.
I meant to say something like, “Average or slightly lower intelligence is vastly preferable to malicious leftism in a teacher.”
“And they still elected her.”
She’s a demonrat, isn’t she? Fraud was certainly involved.
Peterborough is a snake nest of off the wall leftist. Total joke!
BS.
Only Democrats know better, just ask the Black Population
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