4,341 research outputs found
Brief Amicus Curiae of the Honorable Margaret W. Hassan Governor of the State of New Hampshire in Support of the Plaintiffs/Cross-Appellants
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT
The Governor confines her argument in this amicus brief to whether the superior court correctly concluded that the education tax credit program enacted under RSA § 77-G violates Article 83 insofar as it permits organizations authorized to receive donations subsidized by the credit to use those donations to fund student scholarships to religious, non-public schools. In the Governorâs view, the superior courtâs finding of unconstitutionality was correct.
In its text, structure, and history (including its interpretive history), the New Hampshire Constitution significantly differs from the First Amendmentâs Establishment Clause with respect to the question whether revenue generated through taxationâi.e., public fundsâmay be used to subsidize student scholarships to religious, non-public schools. Accordingly, more permissive federal court precedents interpreting the Establishment Clause should have little bearing on this question. Under the New Hampshire Constitution, the answer to the question is ânoâ; public funds may not be used to subsidize student scholarships to religious, non-public schools. Public financial support of religious schools would not only violate the constitutional rights of New Hampshire taxpayers who do not wish their tax dollars to subsidize the operation of such schools, but it also would necessitate additional public regulation of the affairs of religious schools. Either way, the result would be a dangerous state entanglement in religion that is inconsistent with New Hampshireâs Constitution and traditions.
The question therefore becomes whether the superior court correctly concluded that revenue raised and appropriated through the tax credit program enacted pursuant to RSA § 77-G constitutes âmoney raised by taxationâ within the meaning of Article 83. The superior courtâs conclusion was correct. The monies made available to schools through RSA § 77-G are monies raised by taxation. The legislature has appropriated a portion of New Hampshireâs tax dollars to pay for scholarships to religious schools through the tax credit program. Any other conclusion would require this Court to bless a formalistic and functionally meaningless distinction between tax dollars appropriated directly by the State, and tax dollars directed to religious schools through the tax credit program legislation. Such a crabbed reading of the Article 83 guarantee would jeopardize both the hallowed underpinnings of religious tolerance and freedom, and the prohibition against entanglement made sacred by our New Hampshire Constitution. This Court should not vindicate a formalism that would enable an easy end-run around a basic constitutional limit on the power of the State with respect to taxpayer funds.
Finally, the violation of Article 83 occasioned by RSA § 77-G is no mere technical breach of the wall of separation between church and state. The Governor views tax incentives as appropriate tools of public policy when revenues are allocated to constitutional uses. Moreover, nothing prevented individuals or businesses from contributing to private religious schools of choiceâand from enjoying the federal tax benefits of such contributionsâ before RSA § 77-G was adopted, and nothing prevents them from doing so now. Yet § 77-G creates a vehicle by which substantial sums of public revenue raised through the taxation of New Hampshire citizens would be diverted to religious, non-public institutions. Such a financially imprudent diversion of scarce tax dollars would undermine the Stateâs ability to meet its other obligations in the coming years, including the provision of an adequate education for all New Hampshire children; providing New Hampshireâs civil and criminal justice systems with adequate resources to ensure the delivery of justice in New Hampshire; and maintaining the health, safety and wellbeing of New Hampshireâs citizens.
The superior courtâs order should be affirmed
Molded composite pyrogen igniter for rocket motors
A lightweight pyrogen igniter assembly including an elongated molded plastic tube adapted to contain a pyrogen charge was designed for insertion into a rocket motor casing for ignition of the rocket motor charge. A molded plastic closure cap provided for the elongated tube includes an ignition charge for igniting the pyrogen charge and an electrically actuated ignition squib for igniting the ignition charge. The ignition charge is contained within a portion of the closure cap, and it is retained therein by a noncorrosive ignition pellet retainer or screen which is adapted to rest on a shoulder of the elongated tube when the closure cap and tube are assembled together. A circumferentially disposed metal ring is provided along the external circumference of the closure cap and is molded or captured within the plastic cap in the molding process to provide, along with O-ring seals, a leakproof rotary joint
Open Futures: an enquiry- and skills- based educational programme developed for primary education and its use in tertiary education
Open Futures is a transforming enquiry-based and skills-based system for education that is central to the curriculum, linking learning and life. It was developed to help children discover and develop practical skills, personal interests and values, which will contribute to their education and help to enhance their adult lives. Open Futures works in partnership with groups of schools in local clusters to develop a bespoke training programme, which extends the existing curriculum and nurtures independent learning through pupil-led approaches to personal learning. Schools benefit from the experience, knowledge and support of like-minded education professionals locally, nationally and internationally. Working with schools and their communities in the UK and India, Open Futures has been running with widespread success for 9 years. It now reaches more than 30,000 children in the UK. There is a body of independent evidence from primary and secondary education showing that both individual strands, as well as the complete Open Futures programme, significantly improve learner outcomes. We now wished to move Open Futures into the tertiary education sector. It was felt that an Open Futures approach to learning and teaching, particularly involving askit, would be beneficial to the community of learners at Central Bedfordshire Further Education College, rated Grade 2 by Ofsted in October 2013. Training has been in three areas so far: Construction, Public Services and Pathways (i.e. Learners with learning difficulties and disabilities). In all cases, there were significant positive impacts for learners and for teachers. As experience with Open Futures develops in the College, it should become clear how such a central enquiry-based and skills-based approach will help learners, and provide evidence for the use of Open Futures in tertiary education that could be used in other tertiary educational institutions
The Binary Black Hole Model for Mrk 231 Bites the Dust
Mrk 231 is a nearby quasar with an unusually red near-UV-to-optical
continuum, generally explained as heavy reddening by dust (e.g., Leighly et al.
2014). Yan et al. 2015 proposed that Mrk~231 is a milli-parsec black-hole
binary with little intrinsic reddening. We show that if the observed FUV
continuum is intrinsic, as assumed by Yan et al. 2015, it fails by a factor of
about 100 in powering the observed strength of the near-infrared emission
lines, and the thermal near and mid-infrared continuum. In contrast, the line
and continuum strengths are typical for a reddened AGN spectral energy
distribution. We find that the HeI*/Pbeta ratio is sensitive to the spectral
energy distribution for a one-zone model. If this sensitivity is maintained in
general broad-line region models, then this ratio may prove a useful diagnostic
for heavily reddened quasars. Analysis of archival HST STIS and FOC data
revealed evidence that the far-UV continuum emission is resolved on size scales
of ~40 parsecs. The lack of broad absorption lines in the far-UV continuum
might be explained if it were not coincident with the central engine. One
possibility is that it is the central engine continuum reflected from the
receding wind on the far side of the quasar.Comment: Consistent with the accepted ApJ pape
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