Jackie Cilley - There When We Need Them

There are many jobs we don’t give much thought to on a day-to-day basis.  The local hospital only surfaces to our conscious mind when we drive by, visit someone we care about there or need it ourselves.  The folks who plow our streets so that we can get up and go to work after a snow storm receive little attention unless a snow bank blocks our driveway.  Public safety fits this frame well.  We simply don’t think of first responders, police or firefighters until we need them.

On a cold, dark February evening last year that was just the case for my son and daughter-in-law.  She had arrived before him to find their modest, well-tended first home had been robbed of its copper piping  -- leaving them without heat or hot water.  After calling my son, the first calls she made were to firefighters and police, one to investigate the lingering odor of gas and the other to try to catch the thieves.

On another cold winter day before the holidays, yet another family member was involved in an accident so horrendous it required cutting him out of the van he was driving.  Having shattered his hip and sustaining other injuries, he was thankful for the loving care the paramedics provided.  It was a lengthy healing process from which he never fully recovered, but they gave him the start he needed to get as far as he did.

These incidents pale in comparison to much more traumatic events such as those on 9/11 in which so many were lost – including hundreds of firefighters and police.  Nonetheless, even the seemingly most innocuous incident can turn deadly.  Our public safety officials are and must always be prepared for that eventuality.

Our state has consistently been rated as one of the safest in the country in which to live.  Our public safety personnel work diligently to keep it that way.  Our citizens expect no less from them.  Business leaders choose a safe state and count on the protections afforded by well-trained and well-equipped public safety employees.  Visitors arrive in the comfort of knowing we are a safe state to visit.

Our safety net, however, is stretching at the seams like a fire hose that’s been dragged along the gravel too many times.  State and local cuts to public safety budgets are placing substantial stress on already thinning ranks.  Recently, Chief Jamie Sullivan of the Hampton Police Department was quoted as saying, “…we have been expected to do more with less and have done so.  Now we are doing less with less.”

Hampton thrives on its tourist industry.  These visitors come, at least in part, because they believe it a safe place to visit.  Yet, Chief Sullivan does not have the budget for a full complement of police for all shifts and locations.  He must depend on back-up from equally stretched Sheriff’s departments and State Police.

Areas of the nation that fail to invest in sound public safety pay the price through higher rates of crime, fewer middle class families who want to live there and fewer visitors who come with their tourist dollars.  That is not the New Hampshire we have had and it is not the New Hampshire we want.

Over these past two years our Free State/Tea Party legislature has maligned public employees, including firefighters, police and first responders, at every opportunity.  The adjectives and labels used to describe these hardworking men and women would have been unthinkable to utter in the halls of our Statehouse not so long ago.  Regardless, these brave men and women have continued to go about their job – sometimes at great personal risk – to keep our citizens safe. 

Protecting those who protect us is a primary motive for my decision to run for Governor. I will always remember that it is our police, firefighters and first responders who make New Hampshire a safe and inviting place for businesses, tourists, and growing families. Together, we'll change the way public employees are valued.  We will preserve the quality of life that well-trained and well-equipped safety forces defend.

This week I was proud to receive the endorsements of the New England Police Benevolent Association and the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire. I am honored that they have seen in me someone who will fight to keep New Hampshire a beautiful and safe state  Together with all of our citizens we will protect the traditions that have made New Hampshire the greatest state in the country in which to live and work.

Carol Shea-Porter - Save Our Schools

Newly arrived immigrants and American citizens with deep roots always have the same message for their children—study and get a good education because that is how to succeed. Knowledge is power and education is the key to prosperity, and everyone knows it. That is why Thomas Jefferson and others advocated for a public school system and Jefferson founded one of the best public universities in America. As Jefferson said, "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. . . . the diffusion of knowledge among the people is to be the instrument by which it is to be effected." Past American leaders understood the role and responsibility of government in education—to make individuals and communities stronger and more successful, businesses competitive and successful, and America safer and able to elevate its citizens' standard of living and quality of life. Do our present leaders share that belief and reflect that vision?

Unfortunately, and rather shockingly, education has become deeply politicized. When I was on the Education and Labor Committee in Congress, some members showed their contempt for public education by saying "government-run” schools, instead of public schools. They worked then, and still do, to discredit educators and dismantle the public school system, or to divert funding to private schools. Schools and teachers have received withering attacks from state legislators across the country who have tried to pass legislation undermining the curriculum, denying science, and trying to force the teaching of creationism.

Some politicians don't take ideological votes against schools; they just find it an easier target when cutting funding, and they don’t fully consider the consequences. Benjamin Franklin's words echo across the ages as a reminder and a warning: "The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Common-wealths. Almost all Governments have therefore made it a principal Object of their Attention, to establish and endow with proper Revenues, such Seminaries of Learning, as might supply the succeeding Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, and to their Country."

Cutting school budgets is a short-term solution that will result in an even greater long-term problem. The US was already lagging behind other countries before the tea-party state and national representatives took over state houses and the US House. While NH is still doing well, a 2010 CBS series found that compared to 30 comparable countries, American students were #25 in Math and #21 in Science. Nationally, only 75% of our students graduate from high school. No lofty words can change the meaning here. We are not number one, and as the Vice President's wife, Dr. Jill Biden says, "Any country that out-educates us will out-compete us."

Money alone won’t solve all of our problems. But to cut funding when we’re already in a very precarious state defies logic and reminds me of the old and wise saying, penny-wise, pound-foolish. 

So, how foolish are we being? The Economic Policy Institute prepared a report showing how we under-pay our children's teachers. Almost half of teachers leave within five years, mainly because they cannot get ahead and care for their own families on the low pay. The New York Times highlighted one teacher in a 3/2/11 article. A high-school science teacher in her second year of teaching in a city was only earning $36,000 a year and had $26,000 of school debt, no car, and no house. She had to move home to keep teaching. Sadly, this is not unusual. We are also cutting essential programs that help children catch up or keep up, and we are not preparing students for today’s high-tech and very competitive world.

After high school, it is now even tougher to pay for a technical school or college. The NH legislature cut funding to the university system a staggering 50%.   New Hampshire’s 2010 college graduates were in debt an average of $31,048 (Union Leader 11/8/2011). Deep cuts are being made at public universities around the nation, and the national average debt for the 2010 graduate is $25,250.

It is time to talk to our families, our communities, and our legislators about the value and necessity of education. It is time to defend investments in education because they are investments in our children's future, our business' future, and our nation's future. It is time to save our schools.

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Former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter represented New Hampshire’s First District from 2007-2011, she is seeking a third term in the November, 2012 election.  She wrote the proposal for and established a non-profit, social service agency, which continues to serve all ages.  She taught politics and history and is a strong supporter of Medicare and Social Security.