Jonathan Daley

I am thrilled to hear about this bill, as our school district has been threatening to remove my children (or charge) from the band and chorus classes that they have been taking. Our children excel at the musical programs, and are generally the only ones from our district to attend NH All-State music programs, and I believe my son is the only recent student to go to All New England. Other districts in our state are charging thousands of dollars (I just heard from a parent who is being charged drastically more than the entire EFA grant) to attend classes, I believe in retaliation for those students choosing the EFA pathway. In our case, our superintendent brought up the question of whether to charge us because we asked to have one of our children moved up a grade, which the district refused to do so, and said that we were lucky enough that we were allowed to be here at all, and that the school board would be considering whether to charge us to continue attending. I am disappointed that the school districts need laws to force them to educate children, but that is apparently where we are. Under the prior administration, home-schoolers were welcomed, but that is no longer the case so I urge you to pass this law so school districts will be forced to educate all children, regardless of their income and ability to pay for that education. Thank you.