Category: Jessica Arriens
Home Sweet (Affordable) Home: Reforms Proposed for Section 8
SECTION8
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
24 April 2007
WASHINGTON, April 24—Since 1937, the pursuit of affordable homes for low-income families has been a continually evolving federal policy, fraught with both complaints and compliments.
New legislation, recently introduced in the House, aims at delivering the next evolutionary step by reforming the nation’s largest low-income housing assistance program, commonly called Section 8. It is a program deemed especially vital in New Hampshire—a state mired in an affordable housing crisis.
Established in the 1970s, Section 8 provides vouchers to more than 2 million families annually, which they can use to assist with the rental of privately owned houses or apartments. Eligible families are required to pay about 30 percent of their monthly income for rent and utilities. The difference between what each family pays for rent and the actual cost is covered by the Section 8 voucher.
The program is praised for its ability to lift families out of homelessness, to provide economic security, to give families a choice in housing—allowing them to live near better jobs or schools—and the way it prevents low-income residents from being shunted to one area of a community.
But the program has had its share of problems, too. Housing agencies, advocacy groups, members of Congress and even the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have grumbled about the inflexibility of its regulations, its convoluted formula for calculating funding and, not least of all, its need for more money.
More than 9,000 Section 8 vouchers are used in New Hampshire, and many thousands more families linger on waiting lists, according to Dean Christon, deputy director of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, the statewide agency that implements Section 8. But the program is just one solution to the affordable housing problem the state faces.
“Section 8 is very needed,” said Jane Law, communications director for the New Hampshire Workforce Housing Council. “It is a program that can have almost never enough money thrown at it. But we also need additional affordable subsidized housing units.”
“There’s a lot of answers,” she said. “It’s a complex problem.”
Granite State Housing Crisis
New Hampshire’s affordable housing problem is rooted deeply in a variety of issues—zoning restrictions, population changes, rising rents. And the problem does not just affect low-income families.
The price of real estate is “out of the range of most people,” said Susan Thielen, coordinator of Heading for Home, the Monadnock region’s workforce housing coalition. “I’m talking about any range of income.”
With the federal guidelines saying that a family should pay no more than 30 percent of its income for rent, finding affordable housing is impossible for many people. According to Thielen, the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the region is $1,048, which means a person would have to earn more than $42,000 a year to afford the rent.
“Firemen, policemen, teachers—the real core of the community, the people we depend on—are just not earning that kind of money,” Thielen said.
The effects of a housing shortage add up in a multitude of ways.. Workers may be forced to commute long distances, neglecting community activities while harming roads and the environment. Others may leave the state if they are forced to turn down jobs in areas where rents are not affordable.
“New Hampshire needs another good 20,000-30,000 of almost any kind of housing, split between lower-income housing and housing for anyone,” said James Stitham, housing compliance officer with Southwestern Community Services, a Monadnock region organization that provides a variety of social services.
Without enough growth in the housing market, rents on the few available units rise far above what working families can afford, especially for those in entry-level positions, Stitham said. Thielen also attributed rising prices to increases in required minimum lot sizes and high land costs.
In this competitive market, Stitham and others agree, Section 8 is a vital asset for low-income families.
For a rental unit to qualify for Section 8 it must meet safety and hygiene standards and its rent must not be more than the government-set maximum allowed for a property with that number of bedrooms. Maximum rents vary from area to area based on the rental market in the area.
Vouchers are targeted to the neediest families—those whose incomes are 50 to 80 percent of an area’s median income. But because of intense demand and limited funds, eligibility does not guarantee that a family will receive a voucher. The New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority has more than 5,000 families on its waiting list, and most will wait three to four years before something opens up, Christon said.
In some parts of the country, where the wait stretches to 10 years, housing authorities have closed their waiting lists. In New Hampshire, Christon said, “we always keep ours open. But frankly, it’s a very long wait.”
In the meantime, families are forced to live in poor-quality housing, pay more than half their income for rent, apply for local welfare or even become homeless.
The Section 8 lament
The waiting lists are one manifestation of a widely repeated problem with Section 8—the shortage of funds, which prevent all eligible families from receiving vouchers.
According to Donna White, a Department of Housing and Urban Development spokeswoman, Section 8 has a $15.9 billion budget for fiscal 2007, consuming nearly half of HUD’s total $33.5 billion budget. The department’s budget request for 2008 is $36 billion, including $16 billion for Section 8, which White said would allow more vouchers to be used by more people.
The other oft-cited criticism of the Section 8 program is that it is inflexible and confusing, which even the department admits. “It has become very bureaucratic, very complex,” White said.
An abundance of regulations and formulas sprout from Section 8, but this is to be expected from such an enormous program, said Barbara Sard, director of housing policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute.
What has been a convoluted mess, Sard said, is the way Section 8 has been funded because of “arbitrary, ill-considered changes that HUD and Congress made in the program since 2004.”
In 2004, HUD announced that it was allocating Section 8 funds to housing agencies based on the amount they spent during May, June and July of the previous year. Since then, a year’s worth of funding has been based off a single snapshot, causing some agencies to receive “more funding than they need, more funding then they could use,” while others lack adequate funds, Sard said.
To fix this funding method and streamline the program, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., introduced in late March the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act, currently awaiting debate in the House Financial Services Committee.
“[The bill] is a very good first step,” said Christon of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority. “It makes [Section 8] a little more rational, more efficient.”
The bill would base Section 8 funding on a year’s worth of spending, as well as improve portability of Section 8 vouchers and give more flexibility to local housing authorities in allocating their vouchers and conducting safety inspections of housing units.
Both Waters and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the legislation would clean up Section 8 and has a strong chance of passing.
The Housing Balance
According to Sard, an efficient housing program needs construction and preservation components, plus rent and operating subsidies—a balance unseen in current federal policy.
“Right now, we have an uncoordinated, sort of crazy-quilt pattern,” she said.
The low-income housing tax credit, which directly subsidizes housing development costs, is currently the only housing construction program the federal government pays for. But because money is allocated to states based on population, Sard said, in places like New Hampshire, “where there’s a pretty small population but a real cost crunch,” the program is under-funded and therefore ineffective.
Another proposal being talked about in Congress is the creation of a national housing trust fund, which would provide money for construction of new housing and rehabilitation of existing housing.
Frank introduced legislation on March 9, currently in committee, that would use funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, congressionally chartered mortgage finance companies, to add close to $1 billion to the proposed trust fund.
“We also need some programs that construct affordable housing,” Frank said, since using Section 8 alone merely drives up prices by increasing demand for housing without adding to supply.
HUD spokeswoman White said that the department is not heading in the direction of funding housing construction programs and that the additional costs of these programs makes them unlikely.
So local housing authorities are left to find a desired balance on their own, while continuing to implement the contentious Section 8.
“We do wish HUD would renew its efforts to create new units of housing,” said Southwestern Community Services’ Stitham. “With, of course, Section 8 on the side.”
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New Regulations Ease Restrictions on Special Education Testing
DISABILITIES
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
4 April 2007
WASHINGTON, April 4 —The Bush administration announced Wednesday that it wants to increase the number of special-education students qualified to take easier disability tests, creating more flexible regulations for assessing students than those set under the original No Child Left Behind Act.
Currently, around 1 percent of the students tested under No Child Left Behind are allowed to take an easier alternative test because of significant disabilities. The new regulations would allow another 2 percent of the students—those with less significant disabilities, such as some forms of dyslexia—to take an easier test.
“We’re talking about a small group of kids where time is basically the determining factor,” Deputy Education Secretary Raymond Simon said in a telephone press briefing. “The regular grade level assessment is too difficult, yet the alternate grade level assessment is too easy.”
The new test would be easier than the test regular students take but would be harder than the standard alternative test. For example, a multiple-choice question might have only two possible answers instead of three or more.
“The achievement standards can be less challenging,” Simon said. “The regulations don’t permit content standards to be modified.”
Under No Child Left Behind, test results from special-education students are included in the determination of a school’s yearly progress. Schools may face sanctions if yearly goals are not met. Some states have called for increased flexibility in special-education testing in order for schools to maintain meeting their yearly goals
Catherine Reeves, director of special education for school administrative unit 29, said that while special-education scores could bring down a school’s overall grade, their test scores may also rate at “proficient,” aiding a school’s grade.
“Schools have always been attuned to students with disabilities,” she said. “We’ve always had to be aware of the progress they’re making and doing, but we now have to do it in a different way.”
According to Reeves, there always has been some flexibility for teaching students with disabilities, though she said more accommodations for students, such has having a teacher read a test to a reading-disabled student, are needed.
Reeves also recommended permitting out-of-level testing—such as allowing fourth grade students who are reading at a second grade level to have access to fourth grade curriculum while testing at second-grade level.
Reeves said the danger lies in applying blanket standards and tests to all special-education students, and requiring teachers to sacrifice their time compiling detailed portfolios of special-education student’s progress.
She also cautioned against classifying special-education standards as “dumbed down” versions of normal requirements. “If we are designing the curriculum to asses and meet the child’s needs, then that is appropriate assessment,” she said
To determine whether a student can be tested under the modified achievement standards, states would be required to create an individualized education program team, which would include a student’s parents and teachers and would ensure that disabled students are appropriately assessed.
Simon said the administration plans to provide $21.1 million in competitive grants to
help states develop new guidelines required by the individualized education programs. Monthly teleconferences and a nationwide meeting planned for July would provide further assistance to states implementing the new regulations.
No Child Left Behind, originally passed in 2002, is up for reauthorization this year. The new disability regulations were included in the reauthorization blueprint the administration sent to Congress.
“[The regulations] are very appropriate,” Simon said. “They strike a very good balance between students, teachers, parents, kids.”
“Special ed kids get tested all the time,” Reeves said, who also said there is a risk of setting the standards too low for special education students. “It’s hardly fair.”
According to Simon, if the regulations are correctly implemented, they will provide unprecedented information to teachers and parents to “make sure these children are taught and tested, truly, to their ability.”
“They will give the teachers and the parents the information they need to really guide instruction,” he said.
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Life After Congress is ‘Not at all Bad’ for Charlie Bass
BASS
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
3/28/07
WASHINGTON, March 28—Former congressmen rarely fade into oblivion—and Charlie Bass is no exception.
The New Hampshire Republican, who lost his 2nd District seat to Paul Hodes in November, is eager to show off the impressive offices of the Republican Main Street Partnership, where he is now president and CEO.
He points to a circular conference room with views of the Washington Monument and National Mall, a back stairwell (“My own personal stairway to Starbucks”) and a roof exit (“In case I ever need to jump”).
“Much to my surprise, I discovered that there is life after Congress,” Bass said. “And it’s not at all bad.”
Bass’s ties to Congress are still strong, however, largely through his work at the partnership—an organization that promotes what it calls centrist Republican values like limited government, fiscal responsibility, lower taxes and strong national security.
The group started in the immediate aftermath of the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994, when Bass was first elected. A group of moderate Republicans, concerned with the party’s conservative shift, met to discuss ways to promote a moderate, bi-partisan agenda.
Warren Rudman, former New Hampshire senator and a board member of Republican Main Street Partnership, called the group an alliance of moderate Republicans, worried their party is drifting too far right, “who want to bring the party back to the center.”
Rudman said it is “too early to say” if the group will be successful. “It takes years and years for this kind of organization to have any kind of real impact.” But he predicted Republicans may be more willing to listen to moderate viewpoints, now that they are in the minority in Congress.
“We are fortunate to have Charlie Bass at the helm of Main Street,” said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., also a member of the partnership. “His energy and commitment to the moderate cause will strengthen the organization and help us rebuild the center.”
Bass said he provides a weekly report on the issues the organization works on to the Republican congressional leadership and plans to work closely with moderates from both parties to promote a moderate Republican agenda.
Bass took over the partnership in late December, after being approached by founder Amo Houghton, a former New York congressman, and the partnership’s former CEO Sarah Chamberlain Resnick.
“They basically persuaded me that at this critical juncture it is important to have a congressman who could improve, or really create good contacts with the current members of Congress,” Bass said.
Bass said the group will be “actively supporting candidates that fit the rough parameters that we’ve established as the mission for this organization.”
The Republican Main Street Partnership Political Action Committee, which is not part of the non-profit partnership that Bass heads, has a goal of raising $1 million for moderate candidates. The two groups have “essentially the same mission,” said Bass, but because of legal reasons they are run as separate organizations.
“My job is to make sure that as a group we’re strong, we’re viable, and we make a difference in what happens to Congress over the next two years,” Bass said.
Though there are no more midnight floor sessions, or Saturdays spent on Capitol Hill, Bass’s post-congressional life has been busy. In addition to the partnership, he serves as a senior advisor to the Manchester law firm Devine Millimet, is on the board of the alternative energy company New England Wood Pellet, and was recently named a trustee at Franklin Pierce College.
“Just because I’m not a sitting member of Congress doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to offer the community,” he said, bristling at a remark about how his full schedule seems surprising.
“I’m only 54,” he said. “I’m not retired. I don’t qualify for Social Security.”
His work schedule is still much the same as when he was in Congress. Bass travels to D.C. Tuesday morning and leaves Thursday afternoon, renting the same apartment, running the same five-mile loop, and commuting on the same subways he did while in office. But that’s about where the similarities end.
“I don’t have to come every week anymore,” he said. “And I can make my own reservations and decide when I’m going to come and when I’m going to leave. Being able to control my own schedule is like being liberated.”
But Bass’s congressional influence is still strong, according to former legislative director John Billings. “I see members interact with Charlie still,” said Billings, who now works as a policy advisor for Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill. “They respect his global view of things.”
That respect may be rooted in Bass’s 12 years of experience, or simply his affable personality. Another former staffer, Kathleen Amacio, who now works as scheduler for Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., said that speaking with Bass made people feel like “you were back in New Hampshire with your next-door neighbor.”
But Bass’s own political leanings, what Billings classifies as a “quintessential centrist Republican,” also merit respect on Capitol Hill.
“That’s what a New Hampshire Republican is,” Billings said. “Down here [in Washington] we’re known as moderates. Up in New Hampshire, we’re just Republicans.”
Bass’s moderate Republicanism manifests itself in his association with Main Street. The group does not support a social agenda, believing that issues such as gay marriage or abortion should be decided by state legislatures, and stresses the need for strong environmental policy and increased stem cell research.
“I’ve always prided myself on being bipartisan, on being willing to listen to other points of view, be they Democrats or Republicans who disagreed with me,” Bass said. “And I will continue to be that way.”
Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center and associate professor of political science at the school, calls Bass a typical New England “Rockefeller Republican.” Moderate to liberal on social issues, and conservative on fiscal issues, it is a breed of Republicanism that stood in good standing with New Hampshire voters for a long time.
Then came November 2006, where Bass “was a non-ideological candidate in an ideological election,” Smith said. “He didn’t have any loyal core of supporters to fall back on.”
According to Smith, moderate Republicans are out of step with the national Republican Party, which has moved far to the right, fueled by socially conservative voters in the South and Midwest.
Groups like the Christian Coalition, a political organization that promotes a conservative social and economic agenda, have thrived off these voters. Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition, said that to separate social issues from the Republican Party agenda would “split the party right down the middle. That doesn’t even make any sense.” To lose socially conservative voters would be disastrous. “Republicans cannot get elected without that block vote,” she said.
But Smith argues that the growth of social conservative power has come at moderates’ expense, a notion that Bass himself admits. “I come to the Republican Main Street Partnership, I think, at a crucial moment in its brief history,” Bass said. “We are now a minority of a minority in the Congress. The crucial issue is, do we matter? And the answer, obviously, is yes.”
But while the Republican Party itself is turning increasingly conservative, New Hampshire is leaning the other way. Smith predicts that within 10 years, the state will be solidly Democratic, because of a large influx of people from the mid-Atlantic region moving to New Hampshire for jobs, who tend to vote Democratic. If Bass decides to challenge Democratic Rep. Hodes in the 2008 election, Smith said he could have a hard time winning back the seat.
Smith said Bass would have a better chance of winning the governorship or a seat in the state Senate—but this all hinges on whether Bass himself decides to run another race.
Bass chuckles and smiles wryly as he answers questions about his political future. “I intend to keep my political options open,” he said. “I am making no plans at this point to run for any office, or rule out running for any office. And I really can’t say anything more than that because that’s the truth.”
Bass said he plans to remain active in politics, working on issues he has a “personal interest” in—telecommunications, energy and the environment. And while he does miss having the ability to vote in the House, and the initiatives he had to drop because of his defeat, Bass said those regrets are “tempered by the realization, or the understanding, that Republicans are no longer in charge, so therefore life for me would be much more frustrating and difficult.”
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Report Says National Guard ‘Not Ready,’ says N.H. Troops Continue to Serve
NATIONALGUARD
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
3/8/07
WASHINGTON, March 8—Nearly four years ago, on March 20, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq.
Over two months ago, on Jan. 10, President Bush announced his troop surge—21,500 additional forces to help secure western Iraq and Baghdad.
Before, in between and after those days—and all the other important dates that have shaped this war and public discourse about it—the New Hampshire National Guard has been “always ready, always there,” just as the national force’s motto says.
But “ready” may be the wrong word to describe the Guard today. The Commission on the National Guard and Reserves issued a preliminary report on March 1 that rated nearly 90 percent of the Army National Guard and 45 percent of the Air National Guard as “not ready,” largely because of deficits in equipment and troops.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 70 percent of the state’s National Guard have been mobilized in Iraq and Afghanistan and for Hurricane Katrina, according to 1st Sgt. Mike Daigle of the New Hampshire Army National Guard.
Currently, the Concord-based 3643rd Maintenance Company, about 150 soldiers who were deployed last summer, is serving at Camp Victory in Iraq. About 40 additional soldiers and Air Guards have been mobilized individually or in small groups, which brings the state total currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to approximately 190, according to Daigle.
A mentor team of 16 soldiers will depart for Afghanistan in the coming months—they left for Ft. Riley, Kan., in early February for several months of theater-specific training. And sometime later this year, 27 additional Guard soldiers will deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I don’t think that anybody foresaw that when we went into Afghanistan, five years later we would still be there,” said John Grady, director of communications for the Association of the U.S. Army, a private, non-profit organization that supports both active and reserve components of the Army.
And this continued U.S. presence in the Middle East has manifested itself in continued reliance on the National Guard—forging hefty problems within the force, according to the report by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, a 13-member independent review group Congress created in 2005.
Grady called the commission’s report a “pretty damming indictment of the situation.”
The report said that while the National Guard makes up more than one-third of the total U.S. military, it receives only 3 percent of equipment funds and 8 percent of the total Defense Department budget.
The commission also highlighted a practice known as cross-leveling, which Grady said has been one of the biggest problems in the National Guard today.
It involves filling a Guard unit with soldiers appropriately trained for the unique situation in Iraq by drawing troops and equipment from other units.
The practice has “degraded unit cohesion, and, therefore, overall military effectiveness,” the report said.
According to Maj. Gen. Kenneth Clark, adjutant general of New Hampshire Army National Guard, “The kind of forces we needed were not conventional forces like we had built our army around,” which is why, he said, cross-leveling was considered necessary during the Iraq War.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently outlawed cross-leveling, a decision Clark said he was “very pleased” with. Gates also established a new deployment cycle, limited to one year at a stretch and no more often than every five years, not including activations for state emergencies. Before Gates acted, “one- year” deployments actually took 18 months, including pre-deployment training and post-deployment administrative requirements.
But some troops, who may have been sliced from their original units to fulfill cross-leveling requirements and may have already been deployed for 18 months will be forced to serve longer terms if their original unit is now mobilized.
So completely eradicating cross-leveling will be a process in itself. “You can’t snap your fingers and do that,” Clark said.
According to Daigle, cross-leveling has been a common practice throughout the. National Guard, not just in New Hampshire.
“Cross-leveling impacts us,” he said. “It has a negative impact.” Daigle said the practice has not prevented the state’s forces from “meeting every tasking that is required. But yes, it has been a challenge.”
Increased troop levels in Iraq, resulting from Bush’s troop surge and subsequent accelerated unit call-ups, are likely to be another challenge to the National Guard.
For the past 50 years, the Guard has been considered a force generally held in reserve, Clark said. But that concept has now changed, and the proof is in the numbers—an increase of almost 90,000 activated Army National Guard members from 2001 to 2004, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
The National Security Advisory Group, created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to advise Democrats on national security issues, found that about 95 percent of Army National Guard combat battalions and special operations units have been mobilized since 9/11.
“Clearly there has been more usage of the National Guard,” Clark said.
And do ordinary New Hampshire citizens know of all this changing history, which has lead to such heavy use of Granite States forces, a use unlikely to ease anytime soon?
“Depends on who you’re talking to,” Clark said. “[Some people] couldn’t tell me a thing. They don’t have a clue. But then I’m approached by people on a daily basis who do have a clue.”
He added, “I’ve got more people reaching out to be supportive than I have ever imagined.”
Ron Bushey, president of the New Hampshire chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army, said New Hampshire citizens have a “profound understanding” of what their Guard members are doing. The association runs education and family outreach programs, fundraisers and events in the state.
“Most people truly appreciate what these young men and women are sacrificing,” he said.
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Pork Barrel Spending Declines, Says Washington Watchdog Group
PORK
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
3/7/07
WASHINGTON, March 7 —There are many different ways to enjoy pork. In Washington, lawmakers have devised their own way—pork-barrel spending. This year’s examples include $5 million for Army alcohol breath testers, nearly $1.7 million to improve the shelf life of vegetables and $1 million to fund a California telescope that searches for alien life.
“This is the Chinese year of the pig,” said Tom Schatz, president of the non-profit, non-partisan group Citizens Against Government Waste, which tracks pork-barrel spending from year to year. “But luckily for taxpayers it’s a much smaller pig.”
The group released its Congressional Pig Book—an annual compilation of all pork in the federal budget—at a press conference Wednesday.
The Pig Book defines pork as spending that meets at least one of seven criteria: requested by only one chamber of Congress, not specifically authorized, not competitively awarded, not requested by the President, greatly exceeds the President’s budget request not the subject of congressional hearings or serves only a local or special interest.
The 2007 Pig Book focused only on defense and homeland security spending. Appropriations bills for these two departments were the only ones Congress passed last year. Money for all other agencies and programs were included in an omnibus spending bill enacted this year after congressional leaders imposed a moratorium on earmarks.
Schatz credited the lesser amount of pork to the moratorium on earmarks, new rules in the House and Senate that require greater transparency when requesting earmarks and the fact that only the two appropriations bills were reviewed.
But Congress will soon begin considering the 2008 fiscal year budget, and that may once again increase pork-barrel spending.
“The House has rules, the Senate has a bill,” Schatz said. “But there are no permanent fixes to the earmark problem.”
The group identified 2,658 pork projects, and of those identified as benefiting a specific state, New Hampshire received 21. They range from $3.9 million for Marine Corps flight-line security acceleration to $1.3 million for a new Army combat helmet.
“There is no way we could undergo the research and development costs that are acquired on our own,” said Jay Lustig, a business developer and program manager at Scientific Solutions, a company located in Nashua that received $1.8 million to fund a marine mammal monitoring and protection system for the Navy. “It’s just too expensive.”
The program is basically a steel-encased sonar system, submerged under water to detect marine mammals and therefore protect them from potentially hazardous Navy tests or from colliding with ships. The company developed the system with help from Cornell University, then went to Congress and discussed funding.
“The New Hampshire Senate delegation was always very cautious about not taking on the full burden,” Lustig said, describing the money as an initial burst of funding.
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., said in a statement that Scientific Solutions “allows the Navy to achieve its national security objectives while at the same time protecting wildlife such as marine mammals.”
Sununu is a member of the Senate Fiscal Watch Team, a group created in 2005 that focuses on reducing government spending, and said he remains “committed to shining a bright light on spending bills and dramatically reducing earmarks.”
“Special interest, big spending provisions that aren’t in the best interest of the taxpayers serve only to break the budget and increase the deficit,” he said.
“I understand where these people are coming from,” Lustig said of Citizens Against Government Waste. “But it’s just kind of frustrating when you’ve dedicated so many years developing a good system that works. You know, it’s not the way we run our business, it’s just research that a small company could not afford to do on our own.”
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State’s Education System Average, Says U.S. Chamber of Commerce
REPORTCARD
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
2/28/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28—The country’s education systems are in a state of emergency, according to a state-by-state report on education effectiveness released Wednesday, with New Hampshire receiving grades typical of the nation overall.
New Hampshire schools demonstrated excellent student achievement but low academic standards, according to the report, which was conducted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in association with two think tanks, the liberal Center for American Progress and the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
“This is a matter of national urgency,” said to Thomas Donohue, the chamber’s president.
“[States] are failing our children miserably and threatening America’s economic future,” he said. “Much of that failure is not intended, it’s not malfeasance. It’s a system that developed over a long period of time that is not flexible, is not innovative and is not making the grade.”
The report recommended applying business goals—more innovation, effective management and better data collection—to overhaul education, with the goal of increasing America’s global competitiveness, and allowing “our children to lead successful lives in the 21st century,” Donohue said.
“For far too long, the business community has been willing to leave education to the politicians and the educators,” he said. “They’ve done it by standing aside and contenting themselves with offers of money and support.”
Results from the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, the only national measure of student achievement, were used to compile each state’s ranking. The study collected no new information, simply analyzing and combining existing data.
New Hampshire received an A in academic achievement, one of only 10 states in the nation to do so, and earned B’s in postsecondary and workforce readiness, teacher workforce policies and return on investment, or student achievement relative to state education spending.
The state received C’s in the amount of freedom and flexibility given to schools and principals and also in efforts to collect and report education data. The lowest grade, a D, came from the state’s academic standards.
According to the study, New Hampshire has not matched high school graduation requirements to college or workplace expectations, and has not instituted a rigorous graduation exit exam.
“We want to set higher standards for all students,” said Mary Heath, deputy commissioner for the New Hampshire Department of Education. “But it needs to be a gradual process.”
Heath said that the state has instituted the New England Common Assessment Program, a common set of grade-level expectations and test specifications, and will began testing 11th-graders in the fall of 2007, although passing the test will not be required for graduation.
New Hampshire was also recently chosen for the State Scholars Initiative, a national program that encourages more rigorous high school standards, and six school districts have agreed to adjust their curriculum.
Heath said that the process is ongoing, partially because of the costs associated with raising academic standards. “We’re encouraging schools and local districts to adopt those on their own,” she said.
The study also drew comparisons between student educational achievement and business success.
“Too many of our schools are turning out kids who lack the basic skills and technology to enter college or compete economically,” said John Podesta, a White House chief of staff under President Clinton who now runs the Center for American Progress. He pointed to a 2003 UNICEF study, where the United States was ranked 18th out of 24 nations in the overall effectiveness of national education systems.
“It’s clear that we need fundamental structural reform if we are to change this pattern,” he said.
Tom Dowling, president of the Keene Chamber of Commerce, agreed that education is directly linked to economic achievement. “Without a well-educated work force, businesses cannot thrive,” he said.
Dowling said the relationship between the Keene Chamber of Commerce and local education institutions, including the New Hampshire Community Technical College, Antioch University New England and Keene State College and the local high schools, is a “very, very good one.”
“We see the value of a well-educated work force,” he said. “We take that very seriously.”
The study recommended smaller class sizes, greater transparency in school staffing and spending, expanding learning time and offering more opportunities for outside learning, such as apprenticeships or online classes.
The report also recommended increasing starting salaries and providing financial rewards for teachers with high student achievement — “proven methods of motivating employees in any profession,” Podesta said.
The study did not, however, recommend national education standards. “In the context of No Child Left Behind, we think it could be a distraction to the reauthorization,” said Arthur Rothkopf, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“This should generate on the nation’s conscience,” Donohue said of the report’s findings. “This is a challenge for our time.”
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Sen. Sununu Already Feeling the Sting of the Opposition
08ELECTION
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
2/22/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 —While there are nearly two years until the November 2008 election, U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, R-N.H., is already facing attacks from Democratic challengers and campaign groups.
“We are going to hold the Republicans’ feet to the fire when they put their blind allegiance to George Bush ahead of our national security,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Matthew Miller said last week in a statement announcing newspaper ads the group began running against Sununu.
One of the first of the ads features a photo of two gun-wielding soldiers standing amidst sand and palm trees, under the heading “They have to follow Bush’s orders.” Below them is a picture of a smiling Sununu, with the tagline, “Sen. Sununu doesn’t.”
The ad refers to Sununu’s recent vote to prevent the Senate from debating a non-binding resolution condemning Bush’s call for additional troops in Iraq.
The Democrats also have a version featuring Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), another senator who voted to block debate on the Iraq resolution.
“Since [Sununu] was elected, he has voted against the interests of New Hampshire,” Miller said. “It’s just important that people in New Hampshire know where he stands.”
Miller said that it is “too early to say” if Sununu’s apparent vulnerability will crowd the race with Democratic challengers. “But at the end of the day, whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee will have a very strong chance of beating him.”
Whispers about Sununu’s potential Democratic challengers have been circulating for months, and include State Sen. Peter Burling (D-Cornish), Stonyfield Farm Chairman, President and CEO Gary Hirshberg and former congressional candidate Katrina Swett.
“The Democrats need a real candidate who can raise a lot of money and who can raise their profile,” said Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, a non-partisan analysis of U.S. politics and elections. “New Hampshire voters are not going to throw out Sununu for anybody with a pulse. Sununu is a well-respected name in New Hampshire.”
The senator’s father, John H. Sununu, was governor of New Hampshire from 1983-89, and White House chief of staff under President George H.W. Bush.
Portsmouth mayor Steve Marchand is the first Democrat to definitively declare his candidacy for the 2008 race. “Sununu is representing President Bush more accurately than he is representing the people of New Hampshire,” Marchand said. “He is out of touch, and he is running away from the people of New Hampshire.”
Marchand says that Sununu’s vulnerability largely stems from his continued support of the Iraq War—a sentiment echoed by Kathleen Strand, communications director of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
“[Sununu] is possibly the most vulnerable senator for the 2008 elections,” she said, citing his “staunch support of failed policies in Iraq. He has continued to stall the much-needed debate of the most important issue facing our country right now.”
Gonzales said the war is likely to remain in the national spotlight and will be a critical issue for candidates in the 2008 race. Sweeping victories in last year’s election—nowhere more apparent than in New Hampshire’s newly Democratic state house or two Democratic representatives in Washington—have also boosted Democratic confidence, according to Gonzales.
“We fully expect it will be a nationally targeted campaign,” said Fergus Cullen, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. But Sununu is both a “battle-tested candidate” and an “outstanding senator,” he said.
“When the dust settles, we expect him to be standing,” he said.
In a statement, Sununu vowed to run an aggressive campaign, a “town-to- town, person-to-person effort—strong on grassroots organization and focused on the issues that matter most to New Hampshire citizens.”
“It is going to be a nationally targeted Senate race because it’s a Republican running for reelection in New England,” said Gonzales. “That doesn’t mean that [Sununu] is going to lose. But he knows it’s going to be a tough race.”
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New Hampshire Awarded $5.2 Million to Combat Homelessness
HUD
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
2/22/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 —New Hampshire will receive nearly $5.2 million in federal funding to support homeless programs throughout the state, as part of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development grants announced Tuesday.
The grants, which total $1.4 billion nationwide, support both emergency shelters and permanent and transitional housing, also known as “continuum of care” programs—a combination of different services, from outreach organizations to permanent housing.
“It’s a recognition of just how complicated homelessness is,” said HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan, of the variety of organizations that combat homelessness. “They’re getting people of the street. But that’s just the first part.”
Street outreach, which focuses on getting people to shelters, is usually followed by transitional housing—living up to two years in a shelter and identifying the cause of the individual’s homelessness, be it domestic violence, alcohol abuse, or not being able to secure childcare or job training, Sullivan said..
This process is aimed at moving individuals toward more permanent supportive homes, and away from homelessness.
“[The money is] very important to these programs,” said Laurie Jewett, director of homeless services at Southwestern Community Services, one of the New Hampshire organizations that received a federal grant. “It would take a lot of time and a lot of staff effort to raise this money privately.”
Southwestern Community Services received three different grants, two for transitional housing programs in Sullivan County and in Keene, serving around 56 people a year, and for a permanent housing program, which features eight housing units. The federal grants provide about 50 percent of Southwestern Community Services budget, according to Jewett.
States act as the grantee when applying for federal funding, and are then able to funnel the money to local programs. In New Hampshire, a ranking committee comprised of the variety of homeless programs determines who receives the federal funding.
“It’s a really complicated competition,” said Sullivan. “And it’s really competitive.”
New Hampshire’s funding remained around the same level as last year: Manchester programs received nearly $723,000, and Nashua/Hillsborough County programs received $1.63 million. Programs scattered throughout the rest of New Hampshire received around $2.3 million.
Homelessness remains a big problem in New Hampshire, according to Patrick Herlihy, director of the Office of Homeless, Housing and Transportation Services in the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. The state has around 20,000 homeless persons, with 6,500 living in state funded shelters.
Of those, 1,300 are children. That number is the alarming one, said Herlihy. “We see that as an increase in the problem,” he added.
“New Hampshire is a really wealthy state,” said Keith Kuenning, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness . “A lot of people don’t even realize we have homelessness.”
Kuenning said that while the federal grants are great, more money needs to be given to create permanent shelters for the chronically homeless. Although they only account for 10 to 15 percent of the homeless population, the chronically homeless use around 50 to 60 percent of resources, according to Kuenning.
Permanent shelters would not only aid the chronically homeless, said Kuenning, but also save the state money and open emergency shelters for people who really need them.
“Everybody always wants more funding,” he said. “The difference is we know more money would solve the chronically homeless problem.”
Jewett said that homelessness in the state is largely due to persons not being able to afford the cost of living and housing – a problem so great, emergency shelters simply are not enough.
Herlihy said that the funding will be enough to “maintain the services that we have,” but according to Jewett, that may not be enough.
“There could always be more,” she said. “There definitely could always be more, to build more housing.”
According to Sullivan, $1.4 billion is nearly a record for the housing department, “and we’re seeking another record for the 2008 fiscal year. But we could have five times the amount of funding, and it’d still be finite.”
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Monadnock School Briefs Department of Education
SchoolChoice
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
2/15/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 —Emissaries from Monadnock Community Connections School briefed U.S. Department of Education employees Thursday about their alternative high school.
“We can get feedback, share experiences and hopefully spread some of the practices,” Kim Carter, director of the school, said. “It’s also an affirmation for our students and our parents. They have been so invested in this school, and are somewhat beleaguered by the constant criticism.”
Since the school opened in 2002, funded by a five-year grant through the federal Voluntary Public School Choice program, controversy about what it would cost taxpayers when federal funds ran dry generated “mixed press,” according to Carter. She said that the only reason the school originally received publicity was because of the grant.
“Having that federal support made a huge difference,” she said. “We’ve just began educating people about the value of choice.”
Voluntary Public School Choice, first authorized under No Child Left Behind, allows children attending low performing schools to switch to other public schools within their district or to magnet or charter schools. The five-year grant, awarded to 10 school districts and three states, allowed schools to establish or expand a public school choice program.
Carter said the school has filed a letter of intent to apply for another five-year federal grant.
According to Iris Lane, director of the Voluntary Public School Choice program in the education department’s Office of Innovation and Improvement, having public school choice is an important aspect of education because of the opportunities it offers both students and parents. “It really empowers parents, so they can make informed choices.”
The briefing was designed to “share information about the program, and to educate employees about what programs we’re funding,” said Lane.
In addition to Carter, Cassandra Carland, a 19-year-old student at Monadnock, and Elizabeth Cardine, a teacher at the school, spoke at the briefing.
“It’s a tough choice to stay at our school,” said Cardine, citing the standards placed on students. “Just because you got accepted, it doesn’t mean you won’t wrestle with the decision…at least once a month sometimes.”
Classes are designed with “a la carte dining in mind,” said Cardine, allowing students to focus their studies on career paths. The school combines internships with community and parent partnerships to provide individualized teaching for each student, she said.
Out of all schools receiving federal funds from the Public School Choice program, Monadnock Community Connections is the only rural school, with students traveling from four school districts and 14 towns. The Voluntary Public School Choice program, Lane said, is “a range of all types of districts. It’s not just for one type of school.”
Carter said the reason many people are wary about the school’s funding once the federal grant runs out is because they only look at “bottom line appropriations, and don’t see the revenues.”
“I think we’re doing some really great things,” Carter said of Monadnock Community Connections. “If we can make a difference in students’ lives, then we make a difference in all our lives.”
“People worry about the cost per student,” Carter said. “That’s about scale.” Carter said until the school, which now has 42 students, meets its goal of 100 students the true cost of the school cannot be determined. “The school needs to operate within the same cost per student as other high schools.”
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Individuals key to Hodes Victory
HodesFEC
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
2/14/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 —If winning a congressional election were like winning an Oscar, Paul Hodes would have had to make “thanking all the little people” the highlight of his acceptance speech.
Thousands of individual donations, plus some help from Democratic congressmen, propelled Hodes to a seat on Capitol Hill and marked the first time in 12 years that any New Hampshire Democrat was elected to the House of Representatives.
Recently released Federal Election Commission reports, which record how much money Hodes raised, where it all came from and where it was spent, show that Hodes, as of Dec. 31, 2006, received nearly 70 percent of his total campaign funds from individual contributions—1,249 of them—while his opponent, Charlie Bass, received only 39 percent of his funds from individuals.
Normally, candidates’ election coffers are heavy with money from political action committees—fundraising groups that represent specific interests, such as a labor union or an industry, and funnel money to candidates who support those interests.
“They’re the mutual funds of politics,” said Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit, non-partisan group that tracks money’s effect on elections and public policy “You as an investor pay in, but you don’t get to direct where the money goes.”
Challengers usually receive less PAC money than incumbents because they are not yet firmly established as supporters of certain issues or industries. “[PACs] want to go on the sure bet, and that’s the person who’s in the job,” Ritsch said.
In New Hampshire, that sure bet was six-term incumbent Bass, who received 60 percent of his election money—a total of $741,666—from PACs during the 2006 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ money-tracking Web site, opensecrets.org.
“PACs kind of assumed Bass was part of the dynasty,” said Charles Weed (D-Cheshire County), a New Hampshire state representative and Keene State College political science professor. “They were betting on the incumbent. They bet wrong.”
Hodes’ PAC contributions, coming predominately from labor unions, totaled $372,035—a small sum compared to the nearly $1.07 million he raised through individual contributions.
“We had far more individual contributions than any New Hampshire candidate ever had,” said Dana Houle, Hodes’ former campaign manager and current chief of staff. “The most anybody had ever raised.”
Money also flowed into Hodes’ campaign from fellow Democratic congressmen, totaling nearly $140,000 and coming from such big-name politicians as Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, whose $10,000 donation was the highest of all Hodes’ individual contributions.
Houle said these donations served as a vote of confidence for Hodes. “These members are very careful in how they distribute their money—they make sure the candidate has an actual chance of winning.”
The political climate didn’t hurt Hodes chances either, Weed said. “I think it was just a very good year for Democrats. If you can raise money, then there’s support.”
National issues were a driving force in campaigns across the country, as voters expressed disillusionment with an unfinished war and an unpopular President.
Houle said that although Hodes’ election was “a reflection of people’s desire for change,” he was not elected simply because of national opinion.
“People were upset about certain issues,” Houle said. “[Hodes] presented a clear contrast with the opposition.” Hodes’ promise to take people in a new direction not only spoke to New Hampshire voters, but was also an actual legislative goal, according to Houle. “And I think you’re seeing that in some of his early actions in Congress.”
For Weed, this national malaise meant that Hodes probably could have trimmed his election budget. “I think that he could have saved $500,000 at least,” he said. “Look at Carol Shea-Porter.”
Shea-Porter, riding the wave of anti-war sentiment, spent more than $750,000 less than her opponent, two-term incumbent Jeb Bradley, yet still won 51.3 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire 1st District House race.
Houle, however, said that Hodes’ campaign knew from the beginning that it needed to raise about $1.5 million to “do what we needed to do.”
“We set our goals around the campaign plan, not around what Mr. Bass raised,” he said. “[Hodes] was very focused on winning, and he was very disciplined about doing that.
“There was a lot of excitement generated about the race. It took some time for people to realize that [Hodes] had a chance, but once they did, people started giving money.”
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