Moments after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation in August to help save the jobs of 161,000 educators who had received pink slips, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter wrote on her Facebook page: ‘I am proud to have just voted for the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. This legislation will prevent thousands of New Hampshire kids from losing their teachers.’
With her vote, Congresswoman Shea-Porter stood up against the naysayers yet again. Whether it was her high school counselor recommending that she go to secretarial school, or Washington-D.C. big shots from her own party betting against her in her first run for Congress or a local newspaper calling her a ‘smart-alecky social worker,’ Congresswoman Shea-Porter has a history of defying expectations.
Representing New Hampshire’s First District since 2006, Congresswoman Shea-Porter prefers to steer clear of partisan gridlock and critics. A one-time community college instructor who worked her way through college and graduate school, Congresswoman Shea-Porter generated national attention during the health care debate with an observation born of frustration with the overheated political rhetoric. Republican and Democratic women in Congress, she said, ‘just roll our eyes at some of the things being said out there. . . And the Republican women said when we were fighting over the health care bill, ‘˜If we sent the men home, we could get this done in a week.’ You know why? I’m not trying to diss the men, but I’m telling you that every single woman there has been responsible for taking care of her mother, her husband’s mother, her children, her sister’s children, her brother’s children, and so we think we can find a common ground there.”
Her common-sense approach to problem-solving applies to matters big (health care) and not so big.
Two years ago, Congresswoman Shea-Porter learned that a teen center in her district was cutting back to three days a week and switching to partial staffing by interns because of a budget shortfall. Together with the town’s police chief, she found funds to keep the center open full time. Her motivation? “It’s very different for kids today. They need to have a safe place to go and have role models.’
A member of the House Education Committee, Congresswoman Shea-Porter is an advocate for students of all ages. Last fall she helped pass a landmark law making college loans more affordable and increasing Pell Grants for low-income students, as well expanding pre-Kindergarten programs.
When it comes to No Child Left Behind, Congresswoman Shea-Porter has shown she’s willing to stand up to her party’s leaders. She was a member of a group of first-year members that in 2007 helped kill a proposal that would have worsened some of the more troubling elements of the law.
‘We are crippling the teachers and kids with this ‘˜teach to the test’ mentality,’ said Congresswoman Shea-Porter.
If it is true that past is prologue, Congresswoman Shea-Porter will make her mark when Congress changes No Child Left Behind next year. Educators and parents, who have lived with the destructive consequences of the law for nine years, will reach out to her every step of the way.
Community Commentary response
“Yes we can save America’s middle class” are the words from a woman that lives of the backs of what others do. Carol Shea-porter will tell you that she understands the military because her husband served in the Air Force for twenty-one years. Carol has a policy of taxing other people to give away to democratic wishes for political gain. Carol once had me arrested because in her first term I wrote a letter that questioned her policies. The Dover police dropped the charges because they were bogus. Carol uses other people but as a favored person of the editors biased news is funneled to her credit. What ever happen to response letters and the other view?
Carol does not have to like what I say or believe. When an elected official such as Carol uses her political power to harm a voter that is public information that the news can never be allowed to censor. Carol did not serve in the military. I am a 100% disabled US Military Veteran. I was injured four times. Three of my four disabilities are combat related. I participated in two Vietnam offensives and did eight convoys as American Advisor. I lived to earn my right to exist in the USA as a citizen protected by our Constitution from people like Carol Shea-Porter. I am part of the American Middle Class that Carol is trying to use once again for her own gain.
Everyone has a view. Should a disabled veterans view be censored as the newspapers scare the public using what I did in the military as a weapon? Carol claims to help US Military veterans for she understands what they went through. Carol wrote a letter to the VA using my disabilities to have me locked up. Carol cannot dispute the truth only hope that the newspapers censor the facts to protect her image.
I have been there Carol while you were home safe living of the back of our Military. It is to bad that you feel your life has more meaning than mine. An elected official must represent all the citizens equally even if you find my service-connected disabilities a burden on where you can spend our tax dollars. To save the middle class in the USA tax and spend: for that is the worst damage done to the middle class.
Peter Macdonald Sgt USMC Semper Fi
[ed note: comment edited to remove personally identifying information]