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NH Dem on House Education Committee: “F*** Private and Religious Schools”
Tamara Meyer Le, a New Hampshire State Representative who serves on the House Education Committee, posted in a recent (and now deleted) public Facebook post, “[Expletive] private and religious schools.” Le deleted the post after Ricochet’s friend Michael Graham of New Hampshire Journal publicized her post. Michael writes that he has made multiple requests to Le for comment but she has not responded to him.
In an October 20th Facebook post, the Seacoast progressive and member of the House Education Committee used the profanity in a diatribe on her public FB page regarding her 8th-grade daughter’s friends applying to private high schools. “And then it happened. The Sunday afternoon my 8th grade daughter who is getting A-/B+s in 8th grade had to learn – while her friends were applying to private high schools – we would not be,” Le wrote. “Private and religious schools do not have anti-discrimination policies that protect students with disabilities.”
“[Expletive] private and religious schools,” Le concluded. Several of her fellow House Democrats ‘liked’ her comment, including Reps. Casey Conley and Heidi Hamer.
My own New Hampshire state representative, Glenn Cordelli (R-Tuftonboro), serves on the Education Committee with Rep. Le and tells me that “her comments reflect her views about private schools.” He also says that Le has in the past “introduced legislation to include private schools in anti-discrimination statutes” because “she believes they discriminate against kids with disabilities because they do not accept all kids.”
Glenn doesn’t think Le’s argument holds water. “If [private or religious schools] cannot provide the services for a specific disability, they are not going to enroll them just for the enrollment tuition. Private schools cannot just raise taxes like public schools [to pay for the increased cost of a disabled student].”
So what’s behind Le’s animus? “She’s an angry person,” says Glenn.
There are about 30,000 NH kids attending private/religious schools — around 7,000 of them in @RepTamaraLe‘s own Rockingham County.
What are they supposed to make of her “F*** your schools” comment?https://t.co/3Z5zARrexs@NHGOP @NHDems @NHHouseDems @NHHouseGOP— NH Journal (@NewHampJournal) November 4, 2019
After deleting her profane post, Le reposted it without the swear word and then doubled down on her attack on private and religious schools in comments she made on the new post, as quoted by Michael and New Hampshire Journal:
“92% of private and religious K-12 schools in NH have admission policies that DO NOT have anti-discrimination protections for students with disabilities,” Le posted on both Facebook and Twitter after removing her original message. “Institutional discrimination is often so embedded you don’t see it.”
The Republican House leader, Rep. Dick Hinch (D-Merrimack), is calling on the Democrat Speaker of the House,Steve Shurtleff, to remove Rep. Le from the Education Committee (and to condemn her behavior) and the Democrat chairman of the Education Committee, Rep. Mel Myler (D-Contoocook), has tried to distance himself and the committee from her comments.
Michael notes that Rep. Le has endorsed Elizabeth Warren (D-Pocahontas) for president, even though Warren sent her son to private school in Texas.
Rockingham County (where Rep. Le is located) is something of an exception to your comment. It has traditionally had above-average public schools, yet one of the most prestigious private schools in the country (Phillips Exeter) is only a 15-min drive away. Based on my experience growing up in the area, that’s the main (if not only) private school these kids are applying to.
So this is one situation in which applying to private schools is not necessarily a knock on the local public school system.
I think that is the most mind-boggling piece of mis-education I have ever heard.
A Catholic friend has found similar issues while sending her children to Catholic schools in our area. When I asked about religious education on one Catholic school tour, the high school student/tour guide immediately distanced herself from it even though she attended the school since kindergarten. So what if was looking for a Catholic education and viewed it as a plus! Obviously the Episcopal was even worse and emphasized learning about world religions like Buddhism. While learning about other religions is great, it’s disappointing that the school acts like it has to apologize for being Christian.
On the abortion issue, I still love the story my middle schooler told me about how her friend changed another friend’s mind about abortion. What were the magic words that were so effective? “Don’t kill your kids.”