The tests scores are in. Results of the New Hampshire Educational Improvement and Assessment Program, or NHEIAP, administered last year to 10th-graders in our schools, show students making what appears to be some small progress in some subjects at some schools.

Officials pretty much say the same thing every year. They’re pleased with their progress or they see they have work to do. Oh, and it’s not relevant to compare this year’s scores to past years or their school to other schools in the state.

So what is relevant? These tests supposedly help districts see where the curriculum needs shoring up, so they can adjust accordingly. Yes, there must be an accounting to prove students are learning and teachers are teaching. These kinds of measurements are par for the course for any public institution.

We have no problem with testing. What we do have a problem with are unfunded federal mandates that force schools to perform at some artificially set level to retain federal funds.

The No Child Left Behind Act has become the bane of school officials and teachers everywhere. Threatening a school with the loss of funds if students don’t make or exceed the nebulous standards set by some disembodied government agency is a bad idea bordering on ridiculous.

We’re not soldering Jeeps on an assembly line here, we’re teaching human beings, with all the stops and starts, progress and falling back, different rates and variations on a theme that encompass human learning.

To hold money in front of a school district like a carrot on a stick, forcing it to teach to a test just to be able to keep going financially is doing students a great disservice.

And to demand it without giving schools the means with which to accomplish it is unconscionable.

No one wins under this kind of control. All it does is foster mediocrity in the name of progress, without considering the real meaning of success in education.

It’s time to drop the No Child Left Behind program, and work on getting our schools adequately funded, our teachers adequately compensated, and our children adequately educated for their future, not for a standardized test.

Editorials published by Neighborhood News Inc. are written by an editorial board. The board is composed of Publisher and President Amy J. Vellucci, Executive Editor Ginger Kozlowski and Managing Editor Christine Heiser.

To the Editor:
I would like to thank The Goffstown News for your professional kindness in allowing this citizen of Weare to voice my dismay with actions of our board of selectmen recently. We don’t enjoy professional journalism, in my opinion, by our Weare Free Press. In America, we are allowed to criticize our elected officials and the press. Some of are deemed as political troublemakers for doing just that in Weare. The editor of that paper actually insulted your paper for allowing me to voice my opinion, not yours. He then decried my statements and compared my time as selectman to the Spanish Inquisition. Nice human being here, comparing three years and hundreds of hours away from family to serve my community to a time when Jewish folks were burned at the stake for not being good Christians. That is a terrible thing to say about anybody, but that is par for his course.

When The Goffstown News disagreed with any action I took as a selectman, you folks did a novel thing – called for my opinion before publicly stating what my opinion was. Please explain such things to this fellow. In the dozens of negative articles or comments about my motives or actions, he has not done that. I wish I was making that up, but it is sad but true.

I have heard many people in my community state they will never run for elected office because of such mean spirited articles from this coward – that is a shame.

They see me coaching their children in sports, attending meetings, digging holds for a playground and speaking up, only to be ridiculed by this little man. My friends need not worry about me. This bully with a pen will not make me go away.

Being active in one’s community should not make you a target. My many e-mails, phone calls and handshakes tell me I am not alone in the concerns I mentioned a few weeks ago. Selectwoman Kurk responded with a nice letter to the editor. She may have forgotten I did not resign my rights as a citizen just because I serve my community in a couple volunteer positions.

The old everything-is-fine-and-I-was-simply-making-everything-up is untrue. Politics have nothing to do with it either. Having differing views is what makes this system work. I have several Right to Know requests, copies of e-mails and have discussed the topics with those people involved. I am more than happy to share these with Selectwoman Kurk.

My friend George Boucher was denied access to the Parks and Recreation Committee – that is a fact. Only Selectman Fiala voted for his appointment to a volunteer committee – that is a fact. Sorry for painting you with a wide brush in my last letter, Mr. Fiala.

What a terrible precedent the other selectmen have set – question us and no appointment for you. Yet Selectwoman Kurk and The Weare Free Press skimmed right over that fact.

Selectwoman Osborne’s husband works for the Highway Department – fact. The selectmen paid $3,270 to do a background check on an elected police chief – fact; and on and on.

Speaking of appointments, the mean-spirited fellow I discussed above now got appointed to the town administrator search committee and planning board capitol improvement committee. What, you didn’t know such positions were available either? Don’t worry, the selectmen will make up their own committees and the public be damned.

Yes, the planning board appointed their subcommittee, but the selectmen appoint the planning board and Selectwoman Kurk serves on that subcommittee. I am sure you can see the problem here.

I mentioned my ethical dismay in my past letter, if you recall. How do you figure appointing this editor will play out ethically? He is on the committees that will hire our next town administrator and decide what department’s capitol budget will be cut or not. Now, how is our future town administrator going to say no to information from one of the people who hired him? How is a department head going to say no to an interview because I am too busy to someone who has a vote on their capitol budget?

If any of the selectmen want to reply, please explain their actions so we can understand their motives. Don’t simply send a form letter with no information – it insults those of us who want real answers.

Thanks again to The Goffstown News for doing your civic duty of allowing people to be heard.

Please remember, ethics is what you do, not what you say.
Brian McDonald
Weare

To the Editor:
Just a short note relative to two of your recent news items.

First, the vacancy in our state representative ranks. Bob Wheeler believes that we should fill the vacancy, while the Weare selectmen apparently don’t want to fund an election.

The answer is simple; have the two boards of selectmen get together and appoint someone. There is a list of losers from the last election; starting with the one with the most votes, move down the list until you find someone willing to serve out the term, or until the next election. By running, they have all expressed a willingness to serve, and they have some public backing in the votes received.

The other matter is that of expansion space at Roy Park. The master plan points out that there is a wooded area adjacent to Roy Park, owned by St. Anselm College. Surely, the college would listen to the need for an area no one uses. Has the idea ever been pursued? Why not now?
Charles Carr
Goffstown

To the Editor:
Life is better when you laugh. Whether you’re 9 or 79, whether you’re rich or poor, whether you have an incurable disease or not, you should laugh as often as possible.

I’m convinced that laughter heals much of what goes wrong with us. I’ve been a comedian since I was 5 years old, so I’ve seen a lot of healing.

That’s why I’ve spent the last 10 years doing laughter and healing seminars at medical centers across the country.

A few years ago, my doctors told me I had a serious disease that could take my life. I could hardly breathe from this disease that was destroying my lungs. But I kept laughing.

I laughed even when I was on a drug that made me look like a blimp, even when I didn’t know whether I would wake up the next morning. And I kept other people laughing.

I’m much better now, and I’m still laughing – especially at the doctors who told me I might not live this long.

Laughter is healing because it makes you feel better. No one knows that better than the kids and adults we help at the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

I know a guy with ALS – Lou Gehrig’s disease – who carries a page of jokes with him wherever he goes. He can’t walk or talk but he can communicate and smile!

Children with neuromuscular diseases who spend a week at an MDA summer camp laugh almost around the clock.

People zipping around in their first power wheelchairs, obtained with help from MDA, can’t stop grinning over the new freedom those chairs represent.

I wish laughter could heal people completely, but it can’t. “My kids” need doctors to give them the right medicines and therapies. We need the MDA-funded scientists who are figuring out the mysteries that cause neuromuscular diseases and are very close to being able to stop them.

And, when I see a child’s strength ebbing away or a young parent’s life ending too soon, I need to cry.

But, on our telethon, we quickly get back to the laughter and let it lighten our worries. Our show is loaded with comedians, singers, dancers, favorite personalities and other great entertainers to delight you.

One of these days – and it won’t be that long – muscular dystrophy will fall victim to hope and determination. We’ll have the last laugh, and it will be the best one ever.

So, whatever your plans are for Labor Day weekend, if they don’t include the Telethon, cancel ’em. Get back on that couch. You’ll learn, you’ll think, you’ll be amazed. You’ll laugh – and you’ll feel better.
Jerry Lewis
Comedian