New Hampshire Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut’s position is that he is against political indoctrination in our public schools. Who can argue, because no one is actually in favor of this? The fact is that our public schools in New Hampshire do not politically indoctrinate its students. Edelblut offers no proof that indoctrination is a problem. The divisive concepts law in New Hampshire is designed to solve a problem that does not exist; however, this law is not benign, it has put doubt in the minds of New Hampshire residents regarding the credibility of our public school system.

This is exactly what right-wing extremists wanted. This law, by the way, was actually written by the out-of-state organization ALEC in a nation-wide campaign to attack public education. Gov. Chris Sununu and the right-wing extremist legislators have deliberately undermined the longstanding trust that parents have had for professional educators in New Hampshire by passing such a law. This trust, which goes back many generations, is based on the long-standing overall success of public schools, and has been earned over many decades through the hard work and caring dedication of our public school teachers in New Hampshire.

Our public school education system was built by local Republican and Democratic politicians as well as Independents. All of this history has been disgracefully thrown by the wayside through the deception and propaganda of political hacks like Edelblut and right-wing extremists in Concord, not to mention the political scheming of Gov. Sununu, who is more likely to do the politically cynical thing than what is right for the people and students of New Hampshire. They would be hard pressed to come up with legitimate examples of New Hampshire teachers imposing political indoctrination on students, let alone prove that this is a wide-spread phenomenon. Edelblut, in his April 23 column speaks in general terms about supposed educators doing harm nationally, but no real specifics, and nothing about what is going on in public schools in New Hampshire. It is a shameful hit job on public education not grounded in reality, but its intent is to scare parents.

It is no surprise that we now see for-profit micro-school advertisements in New Hampshire. These schools are not required to have accredited, professional teachers. This is an untried and unproven system of education and represents a tremendous change in the way our children are educated. This is experimental and they are experimenting (and profiteering) on the academic future and well-being of our children. Currently, our public schools answer directly to the people through elected school boards, but if Sununu has his way, our schools will be replaced by private and charter schools who answer only to their owners and private boards. There is no time like now to vote out right-wing hacks like Sununu (as well as those in the so-called “freedom” caucus, free state right-wingers) who have deliberately undermined our public education system in order that out-of-state corporations can swoop in and profit off the taxpayer.

Raymond Guarino is a former member of the Nashua Board of Education.