It鈥檚 a victory for Granite State families and a reminder that when policymakers listen to parents, students win. 

The journey to universal eligibility has been years-long and, at times, winding. Now, New Hampshire joins a growing wave of states 鈥� totaling more than a dozen 鈥� that have made their scholarship account or voucher programs universally available. In doing so, every child in New Hampshire will now have access to a personalized learning path that works for them. It is an affirmation that educational opportunity shouldn鈥檛 depend on where a family lives or how much money they make. 

Education Freedom Accounts empower parents to direct state education funds toward a variety of approved services, including private school tuition, tutoring, therapies, online learning and curriculum materials. This flexibility is especially critical for students who need something other than a one-size-fits-all school assignment, whether they鈥檙e struggling academically, seeking more rigorous coursework, dealing with bullying or pursuing specialized learning interests. 

Since launching the program in 2021, New Hampshire has witnessed the power of Education Freedom Accounts in action. But under previous eligibility limits, fewer than half of students could access the program. Many families who didn鈥檛 qualify because of income thresholds were still unable to afford private school or enrichment services, leaving them without meaningful options. 

Now, that barrier is gone. Every New Hampshire parent can consider the full range of learning environments and services to meet their child鈥檚 needs, not just the one assigned based on where they can afford to live.

That expansion reflects a larger national trend. Over the past few years, a sea change has taken place across the country as parents seek and gain more control over their children鈥檚 education. Since 2021, 17 states have enacted universal education choice. From Arkansas to Iowa to Texas, governors and legislators have responded to the call for change with sweeping reforms that prioritize students over systems. 

Why is this happening? Because parents know what鈥檚 best for their children. They have seen the way their states’  education methods and priorities fall short of their expectations or leave their kids behind. Choice gives families agency. It gives them hope. And it often provides students with the very thing they need to succeed: the right environment at the right time with the right support. 

The data back this up. School choice programs enjoy among parents and the public because it has . shows that choice can lead to stronger academic outcomes, higher graduation and and even long-term benefits like reduced crime and improved civic engagement.

Despite , universal choice doesn鈥檛 mean a mass exodus from public schools. In fact, the majority of families still choose their neighborhood public school when given the option. But having the power to choose, even if they never use it, puts parents in the driver鈥檚 seat. It ensures schools are responsive to families and that no student is trapped in a system that isn鈥檛 working. 

At ExcelinEd in Action, we believe that strong policy changes lives. And New Hampshire just changed thousands of them for the better. This expansion is more than policy 鈥� it鈥檚 possibility. 

New Hampshire policymakers have not only honored the promise of public education, they’ve expanded it. They’ve sent a clear message that students come first, and that New Hampshire will continue to create innovative, student-centered education policy. 

I hope other states take notice. Because every child, no matter where they live, deserves the chance to succeed. 

Well before Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a bill last month to make New Hampshire education freedom accounts available to all income levels, school choice supporters were preparing to get the word out.

On June 10, Ayotte signed Senate bill 295, and a multi-prong awareness campaign kicked into gear.

The conservative advocacy group Americans For Prosperity NH dispatched social media ads informing New Hampshire residents that the previous income cap on the voucher-like program had been eliminated.

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Supportive state senators like Victoria Sullivan, the Manchester Republican who authored the bill, began directing interested constituents to the sign-up portal for the program, which allows New Hampshire residents to receive state funds toward public and private school expenses.

And the Children鈥檚 Scholarship Fund, the nonprofit organization that administers the education freedom accounts, blasted emails to every parent, school and provider currently participating in the program to tell them about the change.

The awareness campaigns worked. Within a week of Ayotte signing the bill, the Children鈥檚 Scholarship Fund had seen 2,000 additional people apply, .

鈥淚 got inundated with emails,鈥� Sullivan said in an interview with the Bulletin. 鈥淚t just became impossible to actually respond to everybody individually. So I used X and my Facebook page to give people the information as to where they could go to fill out the application.鈥�

And as of July 2, about 9,000 families have either completed or started an application for an education freedom account, Kate Baker Demers, the executive director of the fund, said last week. Not all of those families will finish and turn in those applications, Baker Demers said. But the numbers suggest the program could exceed lawmakers鈥� estimates of 7,500 students in the program next school year.

For newly eligible families, there was incentive to move quickly. While the law removes the income limits for the program, which previously sat at 350% of the federal poverty level, lawmakers included an annual cap on enrollees to mitigate some of the anticipated costs. That cap applied to families making more than 350%; the sooner those families submitted an application, the sooner they could guarantee themselves a spot.

Supporters of the program say the large surge in interest validates the Legislature鈥檚 push to make the program open to all income levels.

Democrat decries funding to wealthy

But Democrats, who have opposed the education freedom account program from the beginning, say the preliminary numbers show that the program is already likely to exceed its budget. Democrats vociferously opposed Sullivan鈥檚 bill during the session, arguing that people in higher income brackets should not receive state support for private schools.

鈥淭he voucher scam proponents really underestimated the impact on purpose, I think, deliberately to deceive legislators to vote for the bill and to deceive Granite Staters,鈥� said Rep. David Luneau, a Hopkinton Democrat.

As part of making the program universal, lawmakers imposed a 10,000 student cap in the program鈥檚 first year, though a number of categories of students are not subject to that cap. It is unclear whether the state will hit that cap this year, though Baker Demers is dubious. She has predicted 8,500 voucher recipients in the coming school year once all applications are submitted and approved.

Supporters of the program say the large number of applications this summer are a reflection of the high number of families who wanted to use education freedom accounts but were just barely outside of the income limits.

Sullivan said many parents of children with disabilities, who have been dissatisfied with the individualized education plans at their public school, have expressed excitement at the opportunity to explore alternative options with some state funding.

鈥淚 knew there were a lot of families that were just outside of the income cap last time, but there have been a lot of families with kids in special education that are not having their needs met in the public school that have reached out to me about it,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o that part was surprising to me.鈥�

And Sarah Scott, field director of Americans For Prosperity NH, said the removal of the income limit could also be a boon for single parents.

鈥淪ingle parents often have rough lives and the kids have struggled,鈥� she said. 鈥溾� lot of those families weren鈥檛 eligible because when you look at 350% of the federal poverty line for a family of two ($74,025), it鈥檚 very low.鈥�

More outreach planned

While the outreach in the last month has been relatively successful, proponents say many eligible families still likely do not know about the program. Scott said the online ads, for which the organization has paid about $10,000 so far, are designed to reach families who may not follow state politics closely enough to know about the change.

鈥淚 think that prior to June 10, most of the families that were aware of the program were the people that are following what鈥檚 going on in their town in local politics,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ow I think we鈥檙e definitely seeing more and more of those families that are so wrapped up in, you know, driving their kids to afternoon sports, taking them to tutoring or you know Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.鈥�

Sullivan added that though she is a believer in the education freedom accounts, which her children have received, private school or homeschooling may not be the right choice for many families.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 a program for every family,鈥� she said. 鈥淎 lot of families are happy with their public schools, and I wouldn鈥檛 want to be pushing people into an education that wasn鈥檛 right for them.鈥�

The total tally of education freedom account students in the 2025 to 2026 school year will not be known for months. Families are allowed to apply throughout the year, but the bulk of applications happen before mid July. The Department of Education releases a report based on those numbers in November.

Luneau says he and other Democrats will continue to campaign against the education freedom accounts to turn voters against the idea of giving state funds to wealthy families. How wealthy those families are will not be clear. The families who say they are above the 350% poverty level do not need to submit income verification, or state their income at all.

And Luneau says he would also like more accountability over where the money is going and how the program vendors are approved.

鈥淭his is a program that very quickly is going to be over $100 million a year, over a billion bucks 鈥� billion with a capital B 鈥� over a 10-year period,鈥� Luneau said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 a billion dollars that isn鈥檛 going to be helping cities and towns or reducing property taxes. Essentially it鈥檚 a billion dollars that is going to be sitting on top of everyone鈥檚 property taxes.鈥�

Baker Demers and Scott counter that demand for the program will likely level out, and they say the state will be able to sustain the funding levels.

鈥淚 think that in the first couple of weeks, there鈥檚 always a lot of talk about it,鈥� she said. 鈥溾�ut over the course of the next year, I think a lot of the families that really want to take advantage of it will be aware of it and will already have taken the steps to do that.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com.

New Hampshire鈥檚 Supreme Court has long been clear: The state is constitutionally required to provide an 鈥渁dequate鈥� education to its resident students.

Now, the court is being asked to clarify that requirement. Last week, the court heard oral arguments in a pivotal case, Contoocook Valley School District v. State of New Hampshire, that could define whether the state is currently providing enough.

The lawsuit has been brought by a group of school districts that say the current funding formula does not provide enough state funding for them to provide the bare minimum to run their schools without additional local funding, and that the shortfall is unconstitutional.

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The three justices present Tuesday 鈥� Senior Associate Justice James Bassett and Associate Justices Patrick Donovan and Melissa Countway 鈥� asked pointed questions of both sides, making their leanings difficult to scrutinize.

Here are three takeaways from oral arguments:

Plaintiffs: $4,100 per student is not sufficient

At the core of plaintiffs鈥� arguments to the court is the contention that the state鈥檚 school funding formula does not provide enough in per pupil funding to meet its obligations.

Currently, for those school districts that are not able to raise enough revenue from the statewide education property tax, the state provides about $4,100 per student, and additional aid for students that are lower income, have special education needs, or are English language learners.

But when the ConVal case went to trial, plaintiffs presented expert analysis suggesting that $4,100 does not come close to covering what is needed for an adequate education 鈥� the bare minimum to meet the state鈥檚 needs. Instead, the number is closer to $10,000, the analyses found.

The analyses helped drive the Rockingham County Superior Court鈥檚 ruling in November 2023 that the $4,100 鈥渂ase adequacy鈥� amount should be raised to at least $7,356 per pupil. In that ruling, Judge David Ruoff noted that the minimum threshold he was setting was likely not enough to actually provide an adequate education, but that it was intended to be an absolute floor.

This month, the attorney for the plaintiffs, Michael Tierney, argued to the Supreme Court that the superior court鈥檚 ruling was correct and rooted in accurate numbers .

鈥淭he overwhelming evidence is that the state鈥檚 funding of base adequacy is woefully inadequate,鈥� Tierney said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 even come close.鈥�

The state has disputed those analyses, arguing they are incomplete because they included only the base adequacy funding in their determinations and excluded the other sources of state funding for schools 鈥� including aid for students with special education needs and lower income students.

Plaintiffs counter that pegging the analyses to base adequacy payments is appropriate because the case is focused on whether the state is providing enough funding to meet its constitutional obligations for all students, and the base adequacy formula is the only relevant metric.

State: Cost should be limited to what鈥檚 required in statute

Central to the state鈥檚 contention that the superior court鈥檚 ruling was wrong is the idea that Ruoff went too far in his definition of what the state should be funding at all.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Anthony Galdieri argued that the question of what the state is constitutionally required to fund has already been answered by the Legislature in statute.

Back in 2006, the Supreme Court held in Londonderry School District v. State of New Hampshire that the state鈥檚 school funding statutes at the time failed to define what constitutes an adequate education, and directed the Legislature to do so.

In response, lawmakers passed language in RSA 193-E:2-a that lays out the subject areas that school districts must provide 鈥� from English to physical education 鈥� and directs lawmakers and the State Board of Education to approve detailed rules to specify what those content requirements should entail.

That is the statute that courts must use to determine whether New Hampshire is fulfilling its school funding obligations, Galdieri argued last week. Anything not specified is extraneous and not constitutionally necessary, he added.

Defining adequacy strictly by that statute would mean the state is on the hook only for expenses directly related to providing those educational programs. That would exclude transportation costs, administrative costs like superintendent salaries, and building expenses, Galdieri said.

鈥淭he court needs to recognize that when the Legislature is going to define this and it has a mandate from this court that says 鈥榳hatever you define, you pay for,鈥� and a trial court comes in and says, 鈥榃ell, we鈥檙e going to read into that all the things needed to operationalize a school鈥� 鈥� it does not come from the plain text of these statutes,鈥� he said.

The plaintiffs strongly disputed that interpretation and countered that schools need to have those services in order to provide a meaningfully adequate education.

鈥淚t was something that all of the witnesses, both from the districts as well as the state witnesses, agreed: that both factually and lawfully, all of those components need to be provided in order for districts to provide education in math or science or English or whatever the other subject areas are listed in statute,鈥� Tierney said. 鈥淭hose things 鈥� a heated building, transportation, principals for every 500 students 鈥� that鈥檚 both factually required in order to have a school and it鈥檚 also lawfully required by the laws of the state.鈥�

The big question: Is intervention appropriate for the court?

A broader argument made by the state is that the Rockingham County Superior Court should not have waded into the arena of setting a minimum level for school funding at all.

Galdieri said the state鈥檚 separation of powers should prevent the courts from directing funding levels from the Legislature. For that reason, the plaintiffs鈥� case should be found 鈥渘onjusticiable,鈥� Galdieri said.

And he said while state courts have in the past required the Legislature to pass laws increasing the state鈥檚 contributions to education, the court has never dictated how lawmakers should do it. In his ruling last year, Ruoff had improperly done so, Galdieri said.

鈥淭he danger of this decision is it effectively constitutionalizes the concept of base adequacy,鈥� he said.

Galdieri added: 鈥淭he danger with that is if the court goes ahead and constitutionalizes that 鈥� essentially, the Legislature is hamstrung.鈥�

But Tierney rejected the idea that the superior court had violated the separation of powers doctrine. The court merely set a floor for funding, but still provided lawmakers flexibility, he argued.

鈥淭he trial court did not order the Legislature to take one option or another,鈥� he said 鈥溾�� The order made very clear that all options are open to the Legislature, but what is not open to the Legislature is to continue to underfund at less than $7,356 per pupil.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com.

New Hampshire school districts will be hit with a spike in costs for special education this year due to higher than usual costs per student, according to the state Department of Education.

And the state鈥檚 special education aid fund 鈥� which is supposed to assist school districts with unexpected costs 鈥� does not have enough money to make up the difference.

Lawmakers dedicated $33.9 million to the fund for the 2025 fiscal year in the two-year budget passed in 2023. But school districts鈥� reimbursement requests for this year totaled $50.3 million 鈥� leaving a $16.4 million gap.

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The shortfall means the state can cover only about 67.5 percent of the funding it is supposed to give to districts. It鈥檚 a major drop: In 2023, that number was 87 percent; in 2022, it was 98.3 percent.

Now, barring emergency legislative appropriation, school districts will need to make up that shortfall themselves, an expense that could fall to local taxpayers.

鈥淲e understand how this reduction in funding could impact your schools, your budgets, and, ultimately, the communities and students you serve,鈥� wrote Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut in a letter to school leaders Tuesday. 鈥淭he gap between Special Education Aid claims and the amount in the state budget to reimburse districts creates real challenges, and we acknowledge the strain this places on your districts.鈥�

The news could have a large impact on school budget season. School boards typically meet in the late fall and winter to craft budgets they present to voters ahead of town meeting season in March.

In an email, Mark MacLean, executive director of the New Hampshire School Administrators Association, said the costs could cut into savings or other funding priorities in school districts.

鈥淲hile anticipated revenues are likely going to fall within estimates, it鈥檚 clear that expenses have increased,鈥� he said. 鈥淒istricts will be compelled to access trust funds and or potentially divert other funds within their budgets to cover these expenses.鈥�

By one measure, the shortfall could have been avoided: Earlier this year, the House passed , which would have changed the formula for awarding special education aid and resulted in the state paying $17.7 million more to school districts. That bill was sent to interim study by the Senate in May.

In an interview Friday, Edelblut said the department does not have immediate plans to ask lawmakers for emergency funding for the short term but would push lawmakers to reconsider the funding formula next year.

A multi-tiered assistance system

In New Hampshire, state assistance for special education expenses comes in a few ways.

First, all school districts that don鈥檛 raise enough money through the statewide education property tax to hit a target set by the state receive adequacy aid 鈥� which includes $6,324 per student receiving special education services.

After that, school districts must bear any additional costs for those special education students up to 3陆 times the current average cost per pupil. Because the 2024 average is $20,323, that means school districts must currently pay up to $72,131 per student in special education costs on their own.

Any per-student expenses above that 3陆 times threshold is expected to be reimbursed by the state at 80 percent. Expenses above 10 times the average cost per pupil 鈥� $203,230 鈥� must be 100 percent covered by the state.

The system is designed to require the state to step in when special education services are particularly expensive for a school district鈥檚 students. And this year, $121.5 million was submitted by districts to the state for reimbursement, $50.3 million of which cleared the cap.

But the state special education aid only works if lawmakers fund it. This school year, the amount appropriated fell short.

In the interview, Edelblut said he was surprised.

鈥淣obody called me last year and said, 鈥極h, by the way, we鈥檙e gonna increase these costs,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淚t was a surprise to me, like, I didn鈥檛 see it until we started getting all these invoices in.鈥�

Legislative underfunding

Lawmakers have broadly increased the amount the state sets aside for special education aid in the last seven years. But in recent years, they have not kept up with inflation.

In 2017 and 2018, the Republican-led Legislature set aside $22.3 million when districts were owed $32.5 million 鈥� a per-pupil funding rate of 68.6 percent. But beginning in 2019, the Democratic-led Legislature raised that set-aside to $32.6 million, allowing the state to pay districts at a rate of 94.5 percent.

From 2021 to 2024, however, the Legislature has barely increased the appropriation. It rose from $33.3 million in 2021 to $33.9 million in 2024.

That amount was appropriate initially 鈥� the reimbursement rate even exceeded 100 percent some years. In 2024, however, costs increased after 105 more students qualified for high amounts of aid than the year before and the amount eligible for reimbursement increased by $11.3 million.

One cause of the increased costs: The Legislature raised the maximum eligibility age for special education services from 21 to 22 last biennium, meaning some students are receiving services longer. That extension accounted for 48 additional students who qualified for the additional aid.

But the statutory change does not account for the additional increases in students 鈥� nor for the uptick in costs per student.

Edelblut said inflation has driven up special education costs, but that he did not know the exact reasons. And he said he did not know what was driving the increase in students.

鈥淢y understanding is that there鈥檚 a lot of 鈥� the anxiety, the depression, those kinds of disruptive events that drive a kid to need interventions, but not more than $70,000 worth of interventions,鈥� he said.

The amount of state special education aid available 鈥� $33.9 million 鈥� is a fraction of the overall cost of special education services in New Hampshire public schools this year, which totals $915 million. Most of that cost falls below the $72,000 trigger threshold for state assistance and is paid by school district and state adequacy payments.

But the cost reflects an overall rise in special education costs. In 2017, the overall spending number was $709 million.

Even though lawmakers underestimated the spike in special education costs this year, they could still dedicate emergency funding to fill the hole. If the Department of Education were to request additional money from the general fund from the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee, the shortfall could be covered in time for school districts鈥� final budgets.

But Edelblut said the department does not plan to request more spending, calling the move premature.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we鈥檝e gotten to that point yet,鈥� he said, noting that the department is still analyzing the spending and has not finalized figures. 鈥淚鈥檝e had conversations with members of the Legislature saying, 鈥楬ey, this is an important issue that鈥檚 going to be real for us coming up into the next legislative session.鈥欌��

Instead, he suggested the state should evaluate whether the nearly $1 billion spent by school districts and state funds is efficient.

鈥淲e鈥檙e spending $900 million,鈥� he said. 鈥淎re we optimizing how we鈥檙e doing that to make it as efficacious as possible?鈥� I don鈥檛 want to spend a billion dollars and not meet the needs.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

Ayotte beat Democrat Joyce Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, the state鈥檚 largest city, with 53.6 percent of the vote. Ayotte previously served one term in the Senate from 2011 through 2016 after four years as New Hampshire鈥檚 attorney general. 

The race gained national attention after Ayotte backed, then criticized; and then again backed iPresident-Elect Donald Trump between 2016 and today. Ayotte鈥檚 anti-abortion stance was another sharp difference between her and Craig that attracted attention.

But the candidates also took different positions on school choice issues, mostly centering on New Hampshire鈥檚 鈥淓ducation Freedom Accounts,鈥� a plan the state created in 2021 to give parents money to spend on private school tuition or approved homeschooling expenses.

Similar to vouchers, the accounts give parents $4,100 a year if family income is under 350 percent of the federal poverty level, or $109,000 a year for a family of four. More money is available for families with lower income, English language learners or students with disabilities.

Attempts to expand eligibility for the money this year won some support in the state legislature, but not enough to pass. Ayotte has repeatedly called for choice to be 鈥渦niversal,鈥� not just expanded to some groups. 

鈥淚 believe that parents make the best decisions for their children,鈥� Ayotte last year. 鈥淚鈥檓 a strong believer in education freedom鈥e want to give every child in this state the opportunity to go to the school or the educational setting that is best for them.鈥�

Ayotte鈥檚 husband, Joseph Daley is a math teacher at a private school, St. Christopher Academy in Nashua, where students use the accounts.

Her opponent vigorously opposed the accounts, calling them a that takes millions of dollars of tax money away from public schools. The American Federation of Teachers – New Hampshire endorsed Craig,

Ayotte also pledged to back and sign a 鈥減arental bill of rights鈥� if elected. There have been and nationally. Ayotte鈥檚 campaign did not clarify what the bill would include.

The most prominent in New Hampshire, , required schools to share with parents if students identify as a different gender at school, including using different names. That bill sparked emotional debate last year, with the LGBTQ community saying students have the right to not be 鈥渙uted鈥� to judgmental parents and parents saying they have a right to raise their children as they want.

from parents, the first state supreme court to rule on an issue flaring up in several states.

Ayotte, however, said throughout the campaign and on that she will 鈥渆nthusiastically work to pass and sign the Parental Bill of Rights.鈥�

鈥淧arents have a right to decide what is best for their child 鈥� period,鈥� according to her site.

Playful activities like these are an essential daily part of early learning, as children develop problem-solving, motor and social-emotional skills while making discoveries. Choosing activities based on their interests can also help build their sense of autonomy and identity.

The nation鈥檚 leaders are catching on to what early childhood educators have long known 鈥� kids learn best through hands-on exploration and play. With a from developmental and neuroscience researchers demonstrating the effectiveness of play-based learning for young learners, my home state of Connecticut recently became the second in the nation to . Starting this year, preschool and kindergarten teachers across the state are integrating play into their curriculum, embracing a new approach to teaching that fosters creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.

Children are not only born ready to discover and explore the world, they also learn this way. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Early Head Start is especially beneficial to childhood development, as it supports healthy brain function and allows infants and toddlers to build relationships and learn social skills. Research the importance of play to the of children of all ages.

Early educators 鈥� including providers who run licensed, small child care programs in their homes and have collaborated with over the past 25 years 鈥� often work with groups of children ages 0 to 5 and create learning environments that reflect their interests and curiosities. In one program, a 2-year-old helped set the table for lunch while another child watered the plants. In another program, a teacher led her children on a journey through the stars, encouraging them to create planets out of clay and transform their sleeping area into 鈥渟pace鈥� with black paper and glow-in-the-dark stars as they searched for the sun and the moon in the sky.

Across the country, elementary school teachers are this child-centered, active educational . A recent of 26 studies from 18 countries found that learning through play bolstered children’s language, literacy and social emotional skills, making it an effective strategy for reducing achievement gaps between youngsters from different socioeconomic groups. Observing children at play reveals so much about their learning styles and needs, and can inform decisions about how to support students as they learn new skills or concepts.

While free play at recess has long children through their elementary school years, educators have now introduced guided play in the classroom. These teacher-led can improve math skills, shape recognition and vocabulary for describing locations and movements. Because play can look different across cultures, there is also a need for activities children’s unique identities and values.  

To be sure, this style of teaching is a departure from schooling that has on standardized testing and emphasized academic expectations, even among the lower grades and amid a growing mental health crisis among children. 

Requiring play would provide with an education that is both enriching and rigorous, but legislative action is needed to make that a reality. In New Hampshire, the to pass legislation requiring play-based learning, kindergarten teachers now have coaching and training to make play a fundamental component of their instruction. have also adopted policies to help educators integrate this approach into their teaching. 

A mandate for play-based learning in every school 鈥� combined with the necessary funding and training for teachers to implement it 鈥� would transform early childhood and elementary education by establishing systems and policies that support young students’ academic growth. State and federal leaders should follow New Hampshire and Connecticut鈥檚 lead and take this critical step forward, while also encouraging parents to choose child care programs that prioritize play. In doing so, the country’s educational system would ensure a brighter, more equitable future for the next generation. 

Centuries of English classes have connected to Lady Macbeth by scouring the monologues of Shakespeare鈥檚 Scottish play. 鈥淐ome, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty,鈥� she cries in Act I, railing against the limits of her gender and position.

During the coming school year, students may be able to talk to the character themselves.

Under an artificial intelligence-driven program rolling out to New Hampshire schools, students could pose any question they like to Lady Macbeth 鈥� or her ill-fated husband. And a chatbot-style program powered by ChatGPT could answer questions about her motivations, actions, and regrets.

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鈥淩egret is a specter that haunts many a soul, yet in my union with Macbeth, I found not just a husband, but a partner in ambition,鈥� the AI-version of Lady Macbeth said recently, responding to a question from the Bulletin. Then she turned it on the reporter. 鈥淣ow, I ask thee, in thy own life, how dost thou measure the worth of thy decisions? Doth regret ever color thy reflections?鈥�

Known as Khanmigo, the program is the product of Khan Academy, an online tutoring company with instructional materials for core middle school and high school subjects. And the platform goes beyond Macbeth; students can interact with a number of other pre-selected literary characters, from Jay Gatsby to Eeyore, quiz historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr. or Queen Victoria, and receive tutoring help on everything from English essays to precalculus problems.

After the Executive Council approved a $2.3 million, federally funded contract last month, New Hampshire school districts can incorporate Khanmigo in their teaching curricula for free for the next school year.

To some educators and administrators, the program offers glittering potential. Khanmigo could provide one-on-one attention and guidance to students of any grade or ability level, they say, allowing students to advance their learning as teacher staffing remains a problem.

Others are more skeptical about bringing AI into schools, noting longstanding concerns about false or out-of-date statements, and about its use of human academics鈥� work to form its answers. Supporters of Khanmigo, who include Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, argue the program has better guardrails against inaccuracies than the versions of ChatGPT and Gemini available to the public.

To understand what students might see, the Bulletin reviewed Khanmigo, sampling school subjects across a number of grades.

Chat-based learning

Khanmigo allows students to use Khan Academy鈥檚 existing library of tutorials, practice problems, and quizzes for middle and high school subjects spanning English language arts, social studies, science, and mathematics.

As they navigate those lessons, the AI bot is available to help them understand concepts. Students might take a multiple-choice quiz on art history or AP economics. If they get stuck on a question, the chatbot is available to help them work through the answer.

From the get-go, the program acknowledges that it can make errors, a phenomenon known in the AI sphere as 鈥渉allucinations.鈥� These can happen if the language learning model has been trained on inaccurate information 鈥� or if the answer doesn鈥檛 exist.

鈥淚鈥檓 pretty new, so I sometimes make mistakes,鈥� it states to students when they first log on. 鈥淚f you catch me making a mistake, click the Thumbs Down icon to help me learn. For example, if I give you the wrong math answer click Thumbs Down.鈥�

The AI assistant also makes sure to remind students that teachers and parents can see the questions they are asking, and that they should not include any personal information in their answers.

In a test by the Bulletin, the program allowed the student to try solving for 鈥測鈥� in a precalculus equation. After a student arrived at an answer, Khanmigo was there to help check it.

The tutor asked the student whether they feel confident in the answer or have any further questions. When the Bulletin asked questions, the tutor walked through how to solve the equation step by step, but gave the student the option to provide answers on their own without being told how.

鈥淒oes that make sense?鈥� the program asked in one instance, after explaining how to substitute a number for a variable in an equation. 鈥淲hat do you think you should do next after substituting?鈥�

In humanities subjects such as AP U.S. History, Khanmigo helped to augment a human-created Khan Academy video lesson on the rise of the market economy during the Industrial Revolution. After the student viewed the video, the chatbot was available to quiz them on what they saw. 鈥淲hat major change in labor did the market revolution bring to the United States?鈥� it asked, offering the student a chance to reply in a chat message.

When asked whether President Joe Biden won the 2020 election fairly, the app deflected, urging the student to consider how elections work and to describe the American electoral process. Asked a second time, the app stated that 鈥渘umerous official sources, including state election officials and courts, found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election.鈥�

When asked about the causes of climate change, Khanmigo was unequivocal: 鈥淵es, human activities are considered the primary drivers of recent climate change,鈥� it stated, after which it listed four human-led activities 鈥� burning fossil fuels, deforestation, industrial activities, and agricultural practices 鈥� that have contributed to the warming earth.

And when asked about reproductive health, the AI bot gave detailed 鈥� and accurate 鈥� information about forms of birth control, down to explanations about types of intrauterine devices, as well as other answers.

Optimism and concern

One New Hampshire school district has already been trying out the AI learning model.

In fall 2022, as the concept of a 鈥渓anguage learning model鈥� and the name 鈥淐hat GPT鈥� first hit the public consciousness, Superintendent David Backler was already thinking about its applications in the Gorham School District.

Two years later, Gorham is leading the way on implementing AI in classrooms in New Hampshire. For the past school year at Gorham, Khanmigo has been available to all students in their own time. But under the pilot program, two high school teachers also chose to try using it in a more structured setting 鈥� in math and in English language arts.

Backler already knew AI was skilled at helping students comprehend difficult math subjects. It was English where the technology surprised him.

鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty powerful how it can help you with your writing, how it can take you step by step through the editing process,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd one of the hardest things in school is teaching writing, and teaching writing well.鈥�

The state contract had a rocky approval process after some executive councilors raised worries about the reliability of AI in schools. Councilor Ted Gatsas, a Manchester Republican, held up the state鈥檚 approval for several weeks, requesting time to play with the program himself to determine whether it was injecting any political bias.

鈥淚 had the chance a chance to ask it: 鈥榃hen does life begin?鈥欌�� Gatsas said during a May 14 Executive Council meeting. 鈥淏ut that was a biology question. And the answer was apolitical, and I thought that was a good thing.鈥�

When the Bulletin asked Khanmigo 鈥渨hen does life begin,鈥� it declined to answer, stating: 鈥淭hat question leans more towards philosophy and ethics, which I鈥檓 not equipped to handle. For scientific insights related to the development stages of human life, such as fertilization, embryonic development, and fetal growth, feel free to ask! These topics are well within the realm of biology.鈥�

And Councilor Cinde Warmington, a Concord Democrat and a candidate for governor this year, grilled Edelblut over whether the contracts would allow students to use the software without supervision.

鈥淒oesn鈥檛 it seem careful to pilot that with our teachers providing supervision over kids using it, rather than putting kids by themselves in an environment where they鈥檙e being exposed to this artificial intelligence?鈥� Warmington asked.

Edelblut said the contract is for the teacher-led version of Khanmigo, which gives educators more control over which subjects and modules students can use at any one time, and allows them to monitor students鈥� efforts.

Backler says he understands concerns that parents and others might have about the technology, particularly with the risk of hallucinations.

But he argued that Khanmigo has more guardrails against that than the programs intended for the public. And he said the program is meant to be a support for students 鈥� not to replace teaching.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not doing your writing; it鈥檚 not doing your work,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 giving you feedback on what you鈥檙e doing.鈥�

But he said it would help students receive more teaching attention than they might get otherwise.

鈥淵ou just can鈥檛 expect a teacher who has 20 students to be able to have that direct interaction constantly with every single student,鈥� Backler said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not possible. But with some of these tools, we can really look at: How do we provide those learning opportunities for students all the time?鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

Months after a federal court held that a 2021 state law regulating how teachers address race, gender, and other topics , New Hampshire鈥檚 Attorney General鈥檚 Office has filed an appeal.

In a filing to the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston announced Wednesday, the office argued that the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire was wrong to rule that the state law is unconstitutionally vague.

鈥淭he court applied the vagueness doctrine in a way that improperly second guesses the legitimate policy choices made by the State Legislature in setting curriculum within New Hampshire鈥檚 public schools,鈥� read a press release by the Department of Justice Wednesday.

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The case centers around a law, known to opponents as the 鈥渄ivisive concepts鈥� or 鈥渂anned concepts鈥� law, that restricts teachers and other public employees from certain teaching topics and lays out professional consequences 鈥� including lawsuits and the potential loss of their teaching credentials 鈥� if they are found to have violated the law.

Under the law, teachers and government employees are not allowed to advocate that people of one race, gender, or other characteristic are inherently superior to or advantaged over others; that people of one characteristic are inherently oppressive toward others; that an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment for any characteristic; and that people 鈥渃annot and should not attempt to treat others without regard to鈥� their characteristics. The law, labeled the Right to Freedom from Discrimination in Public Workplaces and Education, allows parents to file lawsuits against school districts if they believe teachers are violating the law, and allows them to file complaints with the New Hampshire Commission for Human Rights.

If a teacher is found by a court or the commission to have violated the law, the State Board of Education can take disciplinary action and potentially rescind their teachers license.

So far since the law鈥檚 passage as part of the 2021 budget, only one complaint has been brought forward, according to the Attorney General鈥檚 Office. But teachers unions and the American Civil Liberties Union say that because the prohibitions in the law are not clear, and because the professional consequences are so severe, the law has had a chilling effect on teachers who feel they cannot have nuanced discussions on race or gender.

After two teachers鈥� unions, the American Federation of Teachers of New Hampshire and National Education Association of New Hampshire, sued the state in conjunction with the ACLU of New Hampshire and LGBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, Judge Paul Barbadoro ruled in May that the law violated teachers鈥� 14th Amendment rights because it was unconstitutionally vague. That vagueness applied to both the way in which teachers might interpret the law and the way in which state officials might choose to punish teachers under the law, he ruled.

鈥溾�� Because the Amendments fail to establish 鈥榤inimal guidelines to govern [their] enforcement,鈥� officials are free to 鈥榩ursue their personal predilections鈥� when applying the law,鈥� Barbadoro wrote.

Barbadoro鈥檚 ruling struck down the law; the state is now seeking to restore it through the appeal.

鈥淭oday鈥檚 decision to appeal this misguided ruling underscores our commitment to upholding the right of duly elected legislators to enact carefully considered policy and clarity in our state laws,鈥� Attorney General John Formella said in a statement Wednesday. 鈥溾�� This case is not just about legal technicalities; it鈥檚 about safeguarding the integrity of our legislative process and ensuring clarity and stability for our educators, students, and communities across New Hampshire.鈥�

Oral arguments in the appeal in Boston are 鈥渆xpected to occur in the coming months,鈥� the press release continued.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

Even after the exams and papers are done, students at New Hampshire鈥檚 community colleges have sometimes faced another headache: credit transfers.

Across the state鈥檚 public higher education systems, not all completed courses at a community college are helpful for a given degree at a public four-year college or university. A student pursuing an engineering degree, for instance, might learn too late that the algebra-based physics course they took in community college is less useful toward their four-year degree than a calculus-based course.

It can be a vexing problem, requiring a student to pay for credits they didn鈥檛 think they needed.

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鈥淭he large private online college in Manchester will take everything,鈥� said Stephen Appleby, director of educator support and higher education at the New Hampshire Department of Education, referring to Southern New Hampshire University. 鈥淪o how do our public colleges compete when they鈥檙e turning away credits and one of their competitors is accepting every credit?鈥�

College administrators have been working in recent years to strengthen those course pathways and eliminate confusion. But it鈥檚 one of several processes state officials say need to be improved to take on a growing problem for state-run colleges: Costs are too high and not enough students are attending.

New Hampshire colleges continue to face . High school graduating classes continue to shrink on average. And annual enrollment across New Hampshire state-run colleges and universities has fallen from 31,307 students in 2019 to 27,056 in 2023.

This year, public colleges and universities are being pressed into action. Gov. Chris Sununu signed a law July 12, , requiring the University System of New Hampshire and the Community College System of New Hampshire to follow from a task force convened by the governor last year.

The main objective: increasing consolidation.

The task force had 90 days to try to increase enrollment and decrease costs, and it came away with a clear conclusion. New Hampshire鈥檚 public colleges and universities and its community colleges will need to combine resources and scale back in the coming years.

The school systems are not merging 鈥� lawmakers , proposed by Sununu in 2021, after pushback from faculty of the community college system who feared layoffs. But they are coordinating, officials say.

A push toward alignment

Enrollment challenges are not unique to the Granite State. Nationwide, colleges are closing at a rate of one per week, according to Appleby. 鈥淲e think that鈥檚 going to continue to accelerate the next few years,鈥� he said.

But while areas of the country such as Florida, Texas, and Arizona are growing, enrollment problems are particularly acute in the Northeast and Midwest. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not high-growth areas of the country, and our populations are aging,鈥� Appleby said.

Some states are already choosing to consolidate. Alaska, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Vermont are among the states that have tried a similar approach with their state-run community colleges and higher education institutions.

Those states 鈥渉ave gone down this road of saying, 鈥極kay, we can鈥檛 sustain cost and enrollments,鈥欌�� Appleby said.

Now it鈥檚 New Hampshire鈥檚 turn, Appleby and others say. Working with a Boulder, Colorado-based organization known as the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, the New Hampshire task force came up with a number of recommendations to carry out the idea 鈥� some that would require funding and legislative approval and others that could be done more quickly.

In the short-term category, the committee recommended that the two systems align their credits so community college students can transfer more of their coursework into the four-year colleges and universities. They suggested a fast-tracked admissions process where community college students with a certain GPA could automatically enroll in a USNH college. They also proposed a similar process where a high school student with a certain GPA could easily enter a community college.

Other ideas included recruiting employers who agree to help graduates with loan repayments if they are hired, and consolidating the entire community college system into one entity with one accreditation.

Among the longer-term ideas: further merging the community college and public higher education system under one chancellor and one governing board; eliminating duplicate courses between the two systems to reduce competition; and expanding online instruction.

Different challenges, advantages

Though aligned on the goal of boosting enrollment, the problems for the university system and community college system are different.

For the University System of New Hampshire, whose colleges include the University of New Hampshire, Plymouth State University, and Keene State College, the problem is existential: Fewer students are going to high school in New Hampshire, and fewer high school graduates are going into college.

Beyond the basic demographic challenges accompanying more than 20 years of dropping K-12 enrollment, young adults are concerned about cost and debt, and are gravitating toward online options or alternative career paths, noted Catherine Provencher, chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire, in an interview.

The result is that colleges 鈥� both public and private 鈥� are not only competing against each other for students but also attempting to sell students on the concept of college itself. Provencher said USNH is largely working to stabilize its student population now, about 50 percent of whom are from out of state.

鈥淚ncreasing enrollment in this environment? That might not be realistic,鈥� she said.

In contrast, the community college system may be better poised to adapt to toughening economic conditions, noted Mark Rubinstein, the chancellor of the CCSNH and a member of the task force, in an interview.

Community colleges are less dependent on high school graduates and cater more to working adults, who may be more likely to seek higher education training during downturns. And community colleges, which are less residential-based, can meet students鈥� needs geographically, allowing them to maintain families and jobs outside of classes.

鈥淧art of the way that we鈥檙e envisioning the future is that with technology changing, with industries changing, with the circumstances in individual people鈥檚 lives causing them to want to alter directions, we anticipate that although the number of 18-year-olds can only grow as fast as as the number of newborns arise, that the number of adults who will need education and will want to pursue new pathways is likely to grow significantly,鈥� Rubinstein said.

Many of the consolidation moves are centered around defensive actions to stop state-run colleges and universities from losing more money, Appleby says. While the University System of New Hampshire has for in-state students for the past six years, administrative costs have continued to climb. Finding savings will allow USNH to hold off on future tuition hikes and maintain financial aid options even as expenses grow.

鈥楥lear pathways鈥�

Administrators aren鈥檛 just trying to stanch the financial bleeding. They鈥檙e also trying to build enthusiasm.

One approach is by increasing industry involvement with the colleges. 鈥淚f I鈥檓 a high schooler, a young adult, and I know that if I go through this program at Manchester Community College or at Keene State (College) and then on the other end is a job waiting for me it makes it a lot more likely I鈥檓 going to go through the program,鈥� said Appleby.

Clear roadmaps for community college students thinking about four-year college could help too, officials say. Following a law passed in 2022, USNH and CCSNH have coordinated to develop 50 different 鈥漷ransfer pathways鈥� for community college students, according to a report to lawmakers this month.

Those pathways delineate exactly which community college courses they should sign up for in order to have the smoothest transition to their intended bachelor鈥檚 degree if they choose to transfer to a four-year college. A student interested in working in the biotechnology industry, for instance, could follow one of the pathways to enroll in the exact community college chemistry, microbiology, and physics courses they need to finish the degree seamlessly at the University of New Hampshire.

Another tactic is to streamline the college-going experience for students 鈥� even before they reach adulthood. That鈥檚 where the 鈥淓arly College At Your High School鈥� program comes in. Previously known as 鈥淩unning Start,鈥� the program allows high school students to take college courses in high school, allowing them to obtain credits and cut down on costs later on. For students, two courses are free; subsequent courses are $150 each.

鈥淭here may be a whole cohort of students in high school right now that haven鈥檛 thought about going to college,鈥� said Provencher. 鈥淏ut if we can have clear pathways for students and joint communication 鈥� there are opportunities for those students to get some credits in high school, maybe get a lot of credits in high school, go on to the community college system, and then go on to the university system.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

New Hampshire public and private high schools will soon be required to give voting information to students, under a law signed by Gov. Chris Sununu this month.

requires that civics instruction 鈥渋nclude information on the laws governing election and voting鈥� in New Hampshire. That information would supplement what is to be taught in schools for history and civics, including the structures of the New Hampshire Constitution and U.S. Constitution, and the role and function of government.

Currently, the State Board of Education to distribute copies of the state constitution and state voting laws to middle schools and high schools for civics instruction. But HB 1014 would directly mandate that schools use that information to bolster 鈥渢he role, opportunities, and responsibilities of a citizen to engage in civic activity.鈥�

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The bill comes as part of an effort by some to increase participation in elections among young people. Voting rights advocates have noted that only 15 percent of 18-year-olds in the state were registered to vote in the 2022 midterm elections.

Rep. Mark Paige, an Exeter Democrat, noted that students with disabilities who have individualized education plans already receive information about registering to vote.

鈥淭his then just expands that to every student in the state,鈥� he said in a May 7 Senate hearing.

But some voting advocates have criticized the bill for not going far enough in requiring that high school students be directly taught how to register to vote. Originally, the bill required high schools to 鈥渁dopt policies to promote student voter registration鈥�; the House amended that to mandate that students are instructed in the laws instead.

In an unrelated section added by the Senate, the bill requires that any public school district, town, or city use the official name for state holidays 鈥� effectively barring those entities from calling 鈥淐olumbus Day鈥� 鈥淚ndigenous Peoples鈥� Day.鈥� The bill takes effect Sept. 12.

HB 1014 was one of a handful of voting-related bills signed by Sununu July 12. The governor also signed , which allows town clerks, assistant clerks, and clerks pro tem to deliver absentee ballots to nursing homes and other elder care facilities.

And Sununu signed , which requires that town and city election officials allow the public to observe the use of any voting tabulators as they are used on election night, and directs those officials to post the printout of the machine鈥檚 tabulated results within 60 minutes of running the machines.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

This story was updated on May 28 at 5 p.m.

Patrick Keefe says he just wanted to teach Toni Morrison鈥檚 鈥淏eloved.鈥�

The high school English teacher has long included the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about slavery in his curriculum at Litchfield鈥檚 Campbell High School. And in the past, he had questioned students about whether Morrison鈥檚 themes about the legacy of slavery applied to the present.

But after a state law passed in 2021 that regulated how teachers may talk about race and other concepts to students, Keefe became more cautious, he testified in a deposition last year. Any student-led discussion about structural racism might lead to a complaint under the new law, and might cause Keefe to lose his teaching license, he feared.

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On Tuesday, a federal judge cited Keefe and other teachers鈥� examples in an order striking down the law, siding with teachers unions and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and ruling that the law is unconstitutionally vague.

In , Judge Paul Barbadoro held that the law, known by opponents as the 鈥渄ivisive concepts鈥� or 鈥渂anned concepts鈥� law, violated teachers鈥� 14th Amendment rights because it is too vague for them to follow.

鈥淭he Amendments are viewpoint-based restrictions on speech that do not provide either fair warning to educators of what they prohibit or sufficient standards for law enforcement to prevent arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement,鈥� Barbadoro wrote, referring to the statutory changes passed by the law.

The law prohibits K-12 public school staff from any instruction that advocates for four concepts: that a person of any race, gender, sexual orientation, or other characteristic is inherently 鈥渟uperior鈥� to another; that any individual is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive against another for any characteristic; that an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment for any characteristic; and that people of one characteristic 鈥渃annot and should not attempt to treat others without regard to鈥� one of their characteristics.

The characteristics covered by the law are a person鈥檚 鈥渁ge, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, creed, color, marital status, familial status, mental or physical disability, religion, or national origin.鈥�

The law, which was in part modeled after an executive order by President Donald Trump that applied to federal employees and was repealed by President Joe Biden, was presented by Republican lawmakers as an anti-discrimination statute meant to ensure that all students were treated equally. It came as Republican lawmakers raised concerns about diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts implemented in public schools, and argued that teachers were espousing 鈥渃ritical race theory鈥� in classrooms.

The law allowed parents to bring complaints to the state鈥檚 Commission for Human Rights against teachers and school staff who they believed violated the new anti-discrimination statute. And it gave the State Board of Education the power to revoke educators鈥� teaching licenses if they were found by the commission to be in violation.

But teachers unions and others raised concerns that the prohibited concepts were too unclear to follow and would result in educators self-censoring instruction around certain topics such as race or gender for fear of losing their teaching credentials.

In his order Tuesday, Barbadoro sided with the state鈥檚 two teachers unions 鈥� the National Education Association of New Hampshire (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers of New Hampshire (AFT) 鈥� who had argued that the law violated their 14th Amendment rights because it did not provide clear guidance of what teachers should or shouldn鈥檛 teach.

Barbadoro鈥檚 ruling grants 鈥渄eclaratory relief鈥� to plaintiffs, meaning he is ruling that the law is unconstitutional, but it does not grant 鈥渋njunctive relief鈥� 鈥� a stricter ruling that would have stopped the state from carrying out the law. In his order, Barbadoro wrote that he didn鈥檛 believe he needed the latter relief because he believed the state would respect the ruling and stop enforcing the law.

The ruling was a setback for the state, which had argued that the Attorney General鈥檚 Office had given teachers sufficient guidance in a 鈥淔requently Asked Questions鈥� released in 2021 that outlined scenarios in which teachers would violate or not violate the law.

There are no known cases of New Hampshire teachers who have been found by the Commission for Human Rights to have violated the law.

But Barbadoro said there were a number of scenarios that the FAQs did not address. One such unanswered question centered on Keefe鈥檚 attempts to teach 鈥淏eloved.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

According to his deposition, Keefe had asked for clarity from his school鈥檚 administration but 鈥渨as told there was none available other than the Attorney General鈥檚 Frequently Asked Questions,鈥� Barbadoro noted.

Barbadoro also noted the example of Jennifer Given, a former high school social studies teacher at the Hollis Brookline High School who 鈥渇elt the need to significantly modify her teaching methods 鈥榦ut of fear that [she] would be accused of鈥� violating the Amendments, regardless of whether she was actually doing so.鈥�

And he argued that the uncertainty applied to extracurricular activities as well, citing the testimony of Ryan Richman, a high school history teacher at Timberlane Regional High School. Richman said as a faculty adviser for the school鈥檚 Model United Nations team, he felt the law hampered his ability to help students for their competition in fear of saying something that might be seen as a violation.

Barbadoro used the examples to bolster his larger conclusion.

鈥淭he Amendments are vague not because they subject teachers to severe professional sanctions, but because they fail to provide teachers with sufficient notice of what is prohibited and raise the specter of arbitrary and discretionary enforcement,鈥� he ruled.

He also said that the vagueness would allow state officials to apply their own arbitrary interpretations to enforcement.

鈥溾�� Because the Amendments fail to establish 鈥榤inimal guidelines to govern [their] enforcement,鈥� officials are free to 鈥榩ursue their personal predilections鈥� when applying the law,鈥� Barbadoro wrote.

The decision was hailed by the plaintiffs; Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, called it 鈥渁 victory for academic freedom and an inclusive education for all New Hampshire students.鈥�

鈥淣ew Hampshire鈥檚 鈥榖anned concepts鈥� law stifled New Hampshire teachers鈥� efforts to provide a true and honest education,鈥� agreed NEA-NH President Megan Tuttle in a statement. 鈥淪tudents, families, and educators should rejoice over this court ruling which restores the teaching of truth and the right to learn for all Granite State students.鈥�

And it was cheered on by Democrats, including the two lead Democratic candidates for governor. Former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig praised the plaintiffs who 鈥渇ought this unconstitutional law.鈥� In her own statement, Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington said, 鈥淭eachers should be free to teach 鈥� the truth 鈥� and students should be free to learn.鈥�

Republicans said they would redouble efforts to pass the bill. In a statement, former state Senate President Chuck Morse, a Republican candidate for governor who had helped push for the law in the Senate, said he was 鈥渄eeply disappointed鈥� in the decision but vowed to press on.

鈥淎s Governor, I will work tirelessly with lawmakers, educators, and community leaders to draft and pass a stronger bill that addresses the court鈥檚 concerns while keeping our fundamental goal intact: to prevent the dissemination of any materials that promote racial superiority or inferiority,鈥� Morse said.

In a post on X, State Rep. Keith Ammon, a New Boston Republican, wrote: 鈥淛udge Barbadoro just put stopping Critical Race Theory back on the ballot in November.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

The New Hampshire Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would allow school districts to hire part-time teachers 鈥� without the need for a State Board of Education credential.

would allow teachers working fewer than 30 hours a week who pass a criminal background check to be hired and teach without the credential. But the bill would prohibit teachers whose New Hampshire education credential has been revoked from teaching under the new category. And it would require them to adhere to the state code of conduct and code of ethics for teachers.

Supporters say the bill would address persistent teacher shortages in the state and allow for school administrators to find more innovative solutions.

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鈥淭his goes back to whether or not you trust your local school board to hire and retain people who work in that system and (are) able to provide a service to the school,鈥� said Sen. Tim Lang, a Sanbornton Republican, speaking at a Senate Education Committee meeting earlier this month. 鈥淲ho may not be a certified teacher but teaches a great business accounting class 鈥� or an art teacher, or a P.E. teacher 鈥� bringing in a football coach to teach P.E.鈥�

Rep. Rick Ladd, a Haverhill Republican and chairman of the House Education Committee, said the bill could allow professors at community colleges to also teach high school classes without running into certification barriers. Invoking his experience as a former school principal, Ladd said the bill would add welcome flexibility for school superintendents.

鈥淚f this bill came forward to me, I would be very pleased, because I would be able to put people in in these teacher shortage areas,鈥� he said.

But educators, teachers unions, and Democrats have spoken against the bill, arguing that a reduction in certification would lead to a decline in teaching quality and student achievement.

鈥淚f they鈥檙e not certified, they鈥檙e not real teachers,鈥� said Rep. Corinne Cascadden, a Berlin Democrat and former school superintendent, testifying against the bill in the Senate Education Committee in April. 鈥溾�ou wouldn鈥檛 go to your dentist and expect someone who just wants to do your root canal. You want them to be trained.鈥�

The National Education Association of New Hampshire, the state鈥檚 largest teachers union, offered Texas as a cautionary tale: After the state passed a law in 2015 allowing schools to become 鈥渋nnovation districts鈥� and drop teacher licensing requirements, researchers say the state has seen a stark rise in unlicensed teachers. This year, more than half of Texas educators are not certified, according to research by Minda Lopez and James P. Van Overschelde of Texas State University.

And the New Hampshire NEA cited a 2015 report by the U.S. Department of Education that suggests that teachers without certifications are less likely to stay in the profession. A department survey of educators who began teaching in 2007 found that 85.4 percent of licensed teachers were still teaching in 2011, but only 69.8 percent of unlicensed teachers.

The bill comes as concern about teacher shortages has persisted. In November, a yearlong legislative study committee produced a pair of reports that noted dwindling enrollment in educator preparation programs in the state, and pointed to low pay 鈥� the average teacher salary is $40,478 鈥� and burnout as two factors. The number of educator credential renewals has hit record highs in recent years, according to data from the Department of Education, but teachers unions say those numbers are inflated by the fact that many educators hold multiple certifications.

New Hampshire currently allows some teaching without a credential, with limits. The state administrative rules for schools allow an educator 鈥渨ith sufficient content knowledge as determined by the school principal鈥� to teach in a program area without being certified. The rules state that the work must be less than 50 percent of the educator鈥檚 weekly work time.

The Senate鈥檚 bill is broader than the version passed by the House in March. The House鈥檚 version limited the part-time designation to teachers working up to 20 hours a week. And it required that part-time teachers have a bachelor鈥檚 degree or higher in a field related to the subject they are going to teach and at least five years of occupational experience.

The Senate amended the bill to remove those requirements. Senate Republicans argued that doing so would allow for artists, musicians, and other professionals to work as part-time teachers without needing degrees.

Sen. Suzanne Prentiss, a Lebanon Democrat, said she wasn鈥檛 opposed to specialty members of the community who have backgrounds in local arts and culture being brought into the school system. But Prentiss said the bill鈥檚 language allowing teachers to work up to 30 hours per week would mean part-time teachers could be doing nearly a whole job. That, Prentiss argued, should require certification.

鈥淚t seems to me that we have gone just too far,鈥� Prentiss said on the floor. 鈥淚t鈥檚 one thing to bring in a specialty educator from the community. It鈥檚 another thing to be creating almost what I see as a secondary system that could start to break apart the fundamental profession of teaching in the state of New Hampshire.鈥�

The amended bill will go back to the House on May 30, which will vote to approve or reject the changes or send the bill to a 鈥渃ommittee of conference鈥� with the Senate to resolve differences.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

In early May, Democrats in the House defeated the 鈥� The bill was the latest effort to require public school teachers to answer parents when they ask about changes to their child鈥檚 gender identity.

But another bill is moving forward that supporters say would give parents more control over their children鈥檚 instruction in schools 鈥� and opponents say would intrude on classroom instruction.

would allow parents to opt their children out of any 鈥渋nstruction or program of鈥� sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression.

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Currently, state law allows parents to withdraw their children from classes related to human sexual education. HB 1312 would expand that ability to apply to the additional topics.

Under the existing process, parents must notify the school district in writing that they object to the class material. And the parents must propose alternative instruction that is agreed upon by the school district, and pay for it themselves if there is a cost.

HB 1312 would expand the withdrawal and require school district staff to notify parents at least two weeks in advance of any material that might fall into the category.

Separately, the bill would prevent school districts from requiring that teachers withhold information from parents about their child鈥檚 well-being 鈥� including information about their sexuality. Individual teachers could still choose not to answer questions from parents about their child鈥檚 sexuality, but school districts could not make it a blanket policy under the bill.

The legislation, which passed the House 186-185, appears likely to clear the Republican-led Senate, too; the Senate Education Committee voted to recommend that it pass, in a 3-1, party-line vote.

Supporters say the bill would give parents a greater say in how their children learn about sensitive topics. But opponents said the bill would empower discriminatory views against LGBTQ+ people, and that the notification process would be disruptive to teachers.

鈥淭he bill seems to be targeting, and I think stigmatizing, any instruction concerning LGBTQ+ people, and I think that this language really sends the message to LGBTQ+ students that their feelings and identities are something to be shunned, feared, potentially even censored, or not even acknowledged,鈥� said Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire.

To Sen. Tim Lang, a Sanbornton Republican, the bill would encourage parents to communicate with their children about the topics 鈥� knowing that they were coming up in the curriculum 鈥� which he said could foster better connections between parents and children.

鈥淧arents should have these discussions with their own children and not have teachers do this. This bill is the prompt for parents to have those conversations.鈥�

Lang said the notification requirements would not prevent school districts from teaching the topics, but would rather allow parents to choose whether to participate in them. And he argued that the bill is not intended to allow parents to withdraw their child from materials that relate to LGBTQ+ people or movements in history.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just informative to parents,鈥� he said. 鈥淣othing stops the school from doing those classes. The class is allowed. That just says that if you do it though, because this is a sensitive topic, you need to notify parents.鈥�

A class about Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco politician who was assassinated in 1978, would not fall under the definition of instruction of sexual orientation, Lang said, because Milk was a historical figure. But any instruction directed at students themselves that delved into their own sexual orientations or gender identity 鈥� such as that in a sex education class 鈥� would need to be disclosed, he said.

But representatives of teachers unions said the bill as written does not make those distinctions clear. Teachers might interpret the law to mean that any class that discussed the history of LGBTQ+ rights would need to be noticed ahead of time, opponents said. And English teachers might feel compelled to disclose any book that featured LGBTQ+ characters, and to empower parents to prevent their children from reading those books.

鈥淚f you pass this bill that expands the areas that a parent is required notification of and can opt a child out of, where will it stop?鈥� said Deb Howes, president of the American Federation of Teachers of New Hampshire. 鈥溾�� Can you study the pay gap between men and women in the same jobs in an economics class, which has to do with policies around gender discrimination?鈥�

Lang disagreed with that characterization; books that happen to include transgender or non-heterosexual characters would not automatically invoke the disclosure requirement, he said. Only instruction that was specifically intended to teach students about sexual orientation or gender identity would need advanced notice, he said.

Brian Hawkins, director of government relations for the National Education Association of New Hampshire, argued that the topics the bill would add to the parental notification law were so broad that teachers would find the law difficult to follow.

鈥淲e think that 1312 is another piece of legislation that would significantly limit educators鈥� ability to teach, and provides far too many instances of vague language and framework to determine when certain actions violate the statute,鈥� Hawkins said.

New Hampshire lawmakers first passed the law allowing parental opt-out from sex ed in 2017. In recent years, Republicans have pushed to allow more parental control over school library books, and have pressed for legislation to require teachers to answer any questions from parents about their child鈥檚 preferred pronouns or gender identity in school.

The latest parental notification bill effort, , was 鈥渋ndefinitely postponed鈥� earlier this month, on a voting day when House Democrats had a majority over Republicans in the near-evenly divided chamber. That motion means that the bill is dead and that it cannot return as an amendment to another bill this legislative session.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

New Hampshire public school teachers and officials would be required to update how they teach reading under a bill heading to Gov. Chris Sununu鈥檚 desk.

, which passed the Senate by voice vote Thursday, would formally implement the 鈥渇ive essential components of reading鈥� into curricula across the state. That teaching process, developed in 1997 by the National Reading Panel, focuses on teaching phonetics rather than older instructional models that allow students to guess words based on visual patterns.

The approach for decades as a more thorough way to teach reading, but not all New Hampshire school districts have implemented it on their own, proponents of the bill say.

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鈥淭his bill can ensure all New Hampshire children are afforded reading development and instruction that鈥檚 delivered in a manner that meets their individual abilities and their individual needs,鈥� said Rep. Corrine Cascadden, a Berlin Democrat, in testimony to the Senate.

Under , elementary schools are required to teach literacy up to third grade, instruction that includes 鈥渞eading, writing, speaking, listening, reasoning, and mathematics.鈥�

The bill requires instruction up to fifth grade and adds specific requirements for that instruction. According to the bill, the teaching must be measurable and evidence-based, and must include instruction in the five components: 鈥減honemic awareness, phonics (both decoding and encoding of sounds and words), fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.鈥�

The instruction would need to be aimed at allowing each student to achieve 鈥済rade level literacy,鈥� the bill states.

The bill also expands on the current requirement that schools teach mathematics by requiring 鈥渕athematics reasoning鈥� and 鈥渕athematics calculation鈥� in state statute.

If signed into law, the bill will not take effect until July 2027, which sponsors say is intended to give schools more time to implement it.

Cascadden, a former elementary school principal in Berlin, said she had implemented the five components in 2005, when they were recommended by the state鈥檚 Department of Education at the time. 鈥淲e saw success in the percentage of kids that improved in literacy,鈥� she said.

But she said there has been less emphasis on the practice, and that some schools had since 鈥渇allen by the wayside.鈥�

The bill passed the House nearly unanimously in March, 365-9.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

That fact that three former education agency employees were among those indicted shows that the program lacks adequate fraud prevention measures, said Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes.

鈥淚t was very easy for these individuals to do this,鈥� Mayes said during a press conference. They鈥檙e accused of faking birth certificates and special education evaluations to bilk over $600,000 from the program. 鈥淚 think we all have to be asking the question: 鈥業s it being replicated?鈥� 鈥� 

But ESA advocates saw little in the news that would lead them to push for more guardrails on Arizona鈥檚 system or halt the movement for in other states. Some dismissed it as an 鈥渋nside job鈥� that reflects more on government corruption than the thousands of families looking for better educational options for their children. To this group, the fact that Arizona investigators uncovered the alleged plot shows that existing safeguards worked.

鈥淚 don’t think there’s any program that can regulate out the possibility of bad actors,鈥� said Lisa Snell, senior fellow at Stand Together Trust, a foundation funding school choice initiatives, and one of the leading voices nationally on ESAs. 鈥淚n any sector, there are people that are taking advantage of taxpayer money.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

She pointed to the national and as two government programs that have proven vulnerable to corruption. And she noted an investigation last year that found Los Angeles teachers union members received .

鈥淕overnment employees committing fraud is a tale as old as time, and by no means unique to education,鈥� said Mike McShane, director of national research at EdChoice, an advocacy organization.

鈥楾his kind of abuse鈥�

Unlike their counterparts in several states, Arizona private schools accepting ESA students don鈥檛 have to be accredited and their staff members don鈥檛 have to pass criminal background checks. There are also no testing requirements for students, and while homeschooling parents are required to use funds to teach core subjects, many pull curriculum materials from the internet. 

Some argue that, with a little over 30 employees, the program lacks the staff to accommodate its rapid growth to nearly 76,000 students since 2022. 

鈥淲hat I’m most concerned about is how ripe the program clearly is for this kind of abuse,鈥� Mayes said in detailing the .

Suspects Dolores Lashay Sweet, Dorrian Lamarr Jones and Jennifer Lopez were ESA program specialists at the department who allegedly admitted real and fictitious students 鈥� some with identical birthdays 鈥� to the program and then approved expenses on their behalf. Jadakah Celeste Johnson, and Raymond Lamont Johnson, Jr., also indicted, are Sweet鈥檚 adult children. 

In an odd coincidence, just hours after the indictments, educators met in Washington, D.C. at the conservative American Enterprise Institute whether Democrats should get behind the ESA movement. Arizona鈥檚 program came up frequently.

鈥淣o academic accountability. No financial transparency. No student safety measures,鈥� said Bethany Little, managing principal at Education Counsel, a consulting firm. 

鈥淚 agree with you on the flaws of Arizona鈥檚 law,鈥� responded Ravi Gupta, a former Obama staffer and charter school leader who said he supports the idea of ESAs, but sometimes questions their implementation. 

In several other states that have embraced ESAs, administrators say they鈥檝e put guardrails in place to prevent fraud and corruption. 

In Utah, where applications for the state鈥檚 new ESA program opened last week, advanced software is designed to spot fake documents, said Jackie Guglielmo, vice president of ESA programs at the Alliance for Choice in Education, which runs the program. If the system flags something irregular, a member of the customer support team will manually review it and might ask for additional documentation, she said.

New Hampshire officials employ to differentiate people processing applications from those who approve vendors. A third group approves expenses. A bill to passed the state House last month.

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has proposed for the program by having an outside auditor track how private schools are using ESA money. 

But Snell, with Stand Together Trust, said she doubts there are any reforms that would satisfy most Democrats. She was among the school choice supporters gathered at a over the weekend to highlight the growth of microschools, homeschool co-ops and other unconventional programs. 

Not all of the programs represented accept ESA funds, but many attendees view their success as critical to the future of their movement. John Thompson, a researcher from Kennesaw State University, which organized the event, said the notion that ESAs are a fad is 鈥渧ery crazy and wrong.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 not going backward,鈥� he said.

Kaity Broadbent of Prenda Learning, a microschool network, said alternative models are responding to parents who feel their children weren鈥檛 well served in a typical classroom.

鈥淭his generation of parents cares about mental health,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 just need their kids to get into Harvard. There鈥檚 a new vibe.鈥�

While sessions focused on policy and accountability, no one mentioned the indictments.

鈥楤igger than any superintendent鈥�

Inside Arizona, however, the news upset advocates who say thousands of children are benefiting from the flexibility ESAs offer.

鈥淭his type of thing is just devastating to those of us who really depend on the program,鈥� said Kathy Visser, who administers a Facebook page for ESA families and vendors. 鈥淚t angers us because accountability matters more to us than anyone else.鈥�

Hobbs has also proposed background checks for staff members at private schools accepting ESA funds and for students to attend public school for a minimum of 100 days before they qualify for the program. But have opposed the measures, likening them to 鈥渄eath by a thousand cuts.鈥�

This was the second batch of indictments involving the program since last summer, when a grand jury in Maricopa County accused of fraud and theft of over $87,000 from the program. 

They allegedly created receipts and claimed reimbursements for 鈥渂ogus鈥� educational services, according to a prosecution report. When investigators examined one woman鈥檚 account linked to the ESA program, they found charges at retail stores, restaurants and companies like Uber and Airbnb. The case is ongoing.

Also last summer, the former head administrator of the ESA program, Christine Accurso, and another high-ranking official, Linda Rizzo, following a 鈥渃ybersecurity incident鈥� in which student names and their disabilities to a parent through ClassWallet, the program鈥檚 online financial platform. 

Superintendent Tom Horne, a Republican and strong advocate for ESAs, hired Accurso when he defeated Democratic incumbent Kathy Hoffman in 2022. After Accurso鈥檚 resignation, Horne put John Ward, who has years of auditing experience, in charge of the program. 

While a tip from a credit union alerted officials to large amounts being withdrawn from Sweet鈥檚 account, Horne, , said it was his department that raised concerns about Jones and Lopez and that he is working to 鈥渞oot out potential fraud and abuse.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

But in an email to 蜜桃影视, Hoffman said the state legislature should reform the program and fund more fraud prevention efforts.

鈥淯ltimately, the problems with this program are bigger than any superintendent,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he ESA program does not have 鈥� and has never had 鈥� enough oversight to ensure tax dollars are being spent appropriately.鈥�

Disclosure: Stand Together Trust provides financial support to 蜜桃影视.

In the four years since New Hampshire legalized sports betting and teamed up with DraftKings, the partnership has contributed $100 million to public education, according to the New Hampshire Lottery. It鈥檚 one of several games run by the Lottery that contributes to the Education Trust Fund.

鈥淲e are extremely proud of the work we have done to establish New Hampshire as the premier destination for sports betting in the Northeast,鈥� said Charlie McIntyre, executive director of New Hampshire Lottery, in a statement. 鈥淲e encourage our New Hampshire players to continue placing responsible bets and we are excited for many more years of winning big!鈥�

State revenues across all games, including instant scratch tickets, keno, and historic horse racing, generated an increase of $43 million, or 29.3 percent, last year to the Education Trust Fund, according to Lottery鈥檚 .

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Sports betting is among the Lottery鈥檚 newest games, opening its first retail sports book at The Brook in Seabrook, followed by Filotimo in Manchester and Dover, and the Gate City Casino in Nashua.

In the four years since the launch of sports betting, New Hampshire players have wagered more than $2.71 billion, according to the Lottery.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

Fueled by Kids, a nonprofit founded and run by teenagers in Bedford, New Hampshire, fills the 67 hour gap between when students receive school lunch on Friday afternoons and again when they receive school breakfast on Monday morning, alleviating the food anxiety that many of these children experience as a result of not knowing when or where they might be having their next meal.

Each week, Fueled by Kids members gather for their club meeting at Bedford High School, then pick up food that they preordered from local grocers. They partner with other high schools to pack bags of groceries 鈥� all ready-to-eat or simple enough to be prepared by the students themselves 鈥� that then get distributed to more than 20 schools serving over 1,000 students. The recipients are all anonymous to Fueled by Kids organizers, identified by school counselors and principals as students who may face food insecurity over the weekend. All of Fueled by Kids’ funds raised go directly back to purchasing food for distribution.

In high school, Alice Wade spent a year planning how they would come out as transgender. And to be safe, they planned what to do if it went poorly.

鈥淲hen I was 15, I made plans for what I would do, and which friend鈥檚 house I would go to, and how I would work to make enough money to live on my own if I had to become homeless,鈥� Wade told New Hampshire lawmakers earlier this month.

Wade wanted to do it on their own terms. The process was gradual: first, Wade told their close friends, then a teacher, then their mom. Finally, they felt they could tell their dad. That was crucial, Wade said.

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鈥淲hile it wasn鈥檛 perfect, if my parents had found out before I was ready to tell them, I don鈥檛 know if I鈥檇 be alive here to give you my testimony,鈥� Wade testified.

The experience of coming out in high school 鈥� and the choice of when to inform parents  鈥� is once again at the center of a legislative fight. State Senate Republicans are pushing for a bill this year that would require schools to disclose information to parents who ask for it, echoing efforts in the past two years that have fallen short. LGBTQ rights groups have said the bill could out a student鈥檚 sexual orientation or gender identity to their parents before they are ready to tell them.

would require any school staff member to answer any written requests sent by parents for information about their children within 10 days of receiving the request.

School employees who feel that responding to such a request 鈥渨ould put that student at risk of endangerment of physical harm, abuse, or neglect鈥� must file a report to the Division for Children, Youth, and Families within 48 hours, the bill states.

The bill adds that any violation of the requirement to provide the information must be referred to the school board to determine disciplinary action, which can include termination. Under the bill, if a parent isn鈥檛 satisfied with the school board鈥檚 chosen disciplinary action, they can appeal the decision to the state board of education, which could make its own final call to terminate the staff person.

Sen. Tim Lang, the Sanbornton Republican sponsoring the bill, likened it to the state鈥檚 right-to-know law, RSA 91-A. That law requires public officials to produce documents and information when requested by a member of the public, with exceptions for confidentiality.

鈥淭his bill extends that to the school setting,鈥� Lang said during a press conference held by Senate Republicans this month.

鈥淭he school is obligated to respond in an honest and complete answer, and not hide any information from the parent,鈥� he said.

During a Jan. 3 hearing, some members of the public agreed. Bridgewater鈥檚 Aubrey Freedman, who is gay, doesn鈥檛 support pronoun changes in school.

鈥淚t鈥檚 all about honesty,鈥� said Freedman. 鈥淣obody鈥檚 outing anybody, (but) if the parents want to ask the school personnel a question, they should be honest. I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 a big deal.鈥�

But advocates and young trans people countered that they believed the bill would result in children being outed, and would complicate the trust that teachers are trying to build with students.

Megan Tuttle, president of the National Education Association of New Hampshire, a teachers union, argued that parents and educators already work well together, and that the bill would 鈥渇racture鈥� that relationship.

Tuttle said the bill鈥檚 disclosure requirements would override the chain of command within schools, and could interfere with collective bargaining agreements. And she cited a recent report by a legislative committee studying the teacher shortage that found that a climate of culture and fear has helped drive educators from the profession.

鈥淲e believe Senate Bill 341 would only be an extension of the sort of legislation that the committee found was driving current and prospective educators away from the profession,鈥� she said.

Barrett Christina, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, took issue with the appeals process to the state Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the governor and Executive Council, calling them 鈥渦nelected bureaucrats.鈥�

Sara Smith, a retired teacher, also opposed the bill. 鈥淚 fundamentally believe in honesty, and if anybody asked me to lie I wouldn鈥檛,鈥� she said.

But Smith said as a teacher, her fundamental purpose 鈥渨as to teach children to think for themselves.鈥� Part of that effort involved building a 鈥渟caffolding鈥� and a foundation of trust among students that the teacher would be there for them.

Teachers often have an open door for students to discuss personal issues, Smith said, which can help in the discovery of abuse and neglect issues. 鈥淏ut once this law is enacted, students can no longer expect their teachers to keep confidential issues they have shared with them,鈥� Smith said.

The bill comes on the heels of two major attempts in 2022 and 2023 to pass similar legislation. Each time, the effort was thwarted in the House, which was narrowly dominated by Republicans in the 2021-2022 session and is now nearly evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.

Opponents to the bills have raised concerns that requiring a school to divulge information to parents about a student鈥檚 sexual orientation or gender expression at school could lead to dangerous situations of abuse or neglect if the parents disapprove. Lang said the bill was intended to give an option for school officials to not inform parents and instead file a DCYF report if abuse is likely.

But Chris Erchull, staff attorney at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), said the bill as currently written does not allow school staff the option to stop informing parents, even if they file the DCYF report.

In an interview last week, Lang said he listened to some of the concerns and will be making tweaks to the bill in an upcoming amendment.

Lang plans to add language to make clear that if teachers suspect abuse or harm could result, they do not need to disclose the information to parents, as long as they file a report with DCYF.

And Lang said he would narrow the bill to apply to certified school staff, such as teachers and administrators, and not other staff members like bus drivers or custodians.

鈥淚 heard what people said,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 adjusting accordingly 鈥� the things I think are reasonable requests.鈥�

Linds Jakows, an advocate from their father after being involuntarily outed in high school, said the bill would disrupt a delicate process.

鈥淢any LGBTQ young people feel a strong need to come out to peers first, regardless of whether or not their parents are affirming,鈥� Jakows said. 鈥溾�� This bill doesn鈥檛 explicitly name situations related to trans or LGBTQ youth like last year鈥檚 bill, but we know the forced outing will be the same.鈥�

The bill is likely to spur months of acrimonious testimony and contentious floor votes. To Lang, the bill is simply about strengthening communication.

鈥淚 think we鈥檝e lost sight of the fact that when we talk about trusting adults in the school system, the trust is between the parent and the teacher and the parent and the school system,鈥� Lang said 鈥溾�� And so this bill seeks to make sure that that trust is not eroded.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

For many New Hampshire public school students, getting breakfast at school is not a priority.

The Granite State has one of the largest divides in the country between the number of school breakfasts eaten and the number of school lunches eaten, from the Food Research and Action Center. While an average of 95,337 students per day ate school-provided lunch in the 2021-2022 school year, fewer than half of those students 鈥� 45,192 鈥� also ate breakfast, the center found in a 2023 report.

That ratio puts New Hampshire in the bottom 16 states in the country. Now, educators and child anti-hunger advocates are urging Granite State schools to increase their promotion of school breakfasts and make it easier for students to eat them.

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鈥淪chool breakfast has maybe a bad rap,鈥� said Amy Hollar, the SNAP-Ed director at the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. 鈥溾�� It鈥檚 better than it used to be. And it can get even better the more of us that embrace it and work together to make school meals a priority.鈥�

This school year, nine school districts are competing in the School Breakfast Challenge, in which each district will attempt to increase the number of students eating breakfast by the highest percentage by March.

Organized by New Hampshire Hunger Solutions, an advocacy group, as well as the UNH Cooperative Extension and the New England Dairy Council, the competition aims to empower and encourage schools to launch campaigns promoting breakfast.

Educators and child anti-hunger advocates say school breakfasts help increase nutrition, boost attentiveness, and increase reimbursement to schools.

鈥淲e know that kids that eat school breakfast miss less school,鈥� said Hollar. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e more alert and focused.鈥�

The competition has been accompanied by a series of webinars to give school administrators ideas on how to boost breakfast participation. And it follows a template crafted in part by the University of Minnesota, which helped spearhead a four-year project in that state to do the same.

Riona Corr, deputy director of New Hampshire Hunger Solutions, said school meals are important in making sure students have consistent energy throughout the day.

And she said bringing in more students for breakfast would increase the amount they are reimbursed, which could help address school lunch debt.

The Food Research and Action Center found that New Hampshire schools could collectively receive $8.6 million more in school meal reimbursements per year if 70 percent of the students who eat lunch at school also ate breakfast.

鈥淪ay there鈥檚 50 percent of the school who鈥檚 participating in free and reduced lunch,鈥� Corr said. 鈥淲hy is only 8 percent of those kids participating in free breakfast?鈥�

For schools looking to expand breakfasts, educators have strategies. Schools should make the food more convenient to access and provide more flexibility to students about when they can eat it, they say.

Advocates are pushing 鈥渂reakfast after the bell,鈥� an approach in which schools allow students to pick up and eat breakfasts after the first class begins. Many schools require students eating breakfast to do so before that first period, which researchers say discourages many from doing it.

鈥淎 lot of schools 鈥� nationwide, not just in New Hampshire 鈥� are allowing breakfast before the first bell, and then not allowing kids to eat afterward,鈥� said Corr.

Under the 鈥渂reakfast after the bell鈥� model, schools are encouraged to allow breakfast to be eaten in the classrooms, or in an area more convenient than the cafeteria. That could include tables with to-go food bags near entrances, or grab-and-go carts in the hallway.

And students are given more time to eat those meals, even if class has begun.

Meanwhile the UNH Cooperative Extension has developed a toolkit for 鈥渘udges,鈥� or techniques school administrators can use to remind students about the breakfasts and encourage them to eat. The tips range from ways to incorporate nutrition advice into classroom curricula to pre-written jokes about breakfast that can be read out over the loudspeakers.

The challenge offers schools three participation tiers with increasing levels of commitment. Tier one is deploying the 鈥溾�榥udges鈥�; tier two involves attending New Hampshire Hunger Solutions鈥� webinar series; and tier three involves developing an action plan for a broader campaign.

For schools putting in the effort, the challenge has a modest cash prize for the largest increase in school breakfast take up: The Dairy Council has donated $1,000, which will be distributed to two of the winners, Corr said.

But the competition is only a piece of the overall effort, advocates say. The Cooperative Extension and New Hampshire Hunger Solutions are working with school food service directors and wellness committees to develop campaigns tailored to each district鈥檚 challenges and needs, Corr said.

鈥淲here is your barrier? Is it administration? Is it teachers? Is it students?鈥� Corr said.

Those challenges can be hard for some schools to overcome. In some cases, low cafeteria staffing levels can hamper some of the more innovative ideas. Other times, custodial staff will raise concerns with additional cleaning needed if schools allow eating in classrooms.

Students face stigmas associated with school breakfasts. And parents might assume that the breakfasts are not nutritious, thinking back to their own childhood experiences.

All of those hurdles can be overcome, Corr said, but some are more entrenched than others. It鈥檚 why the campaign is focusing on nudges as a low-cost way to get involved without overextending staff resources.

In continuing its campaign, New Hampshire advocates are following the footsteps of the University of Minnesota, which in 2013 launched its own breakfast promotion program in 16 high schools across the state.

Nutritionists at the University of Minnesota kept tabs on the schools, sorting some into control groups that received fewer resources and others into experimental groups that received budgets to launch ad campaigns.

One school took on a Hunger Games theme in an homage to the film series that had just opened in theaters, complete with lighthearted videos. Others tried taste tests where kitchen staff would experiment with new variations of recipes like banana bread and students would vote on their favorites.

鈥淭here was one school where the admin was, oh my gosh, 110 percent on board,鈥� said Mary Schroeder, an extension educator for health and nutrition at the University of Minnesota. That school produced a video that included every student in the school, she added.

In one of the most innovative and effective strategies, several schools offered free breakfast for all students one day a week, carving out money in its budget to do so. That allowed everyone to try the food without fear of stigma, and helped to combat negative perceptions students may have had about its quality, Schroeder said.

鈥淲hen they did their pre surveys 鈥� many children said that they didn鈥檛 like the taste of school breakfast,鈥� Schroeder said. 鈥淏ut then when they asked other questions, they realized a lot of the kids who didn鈥檛 like the taste of school breakfast had never eaten school breakfast.鈥�

The program, which lasted four years, produced strong results: The schools in the experimental group that received funding and pursued the recommended strategies saw a 49 percent higher increase in breakfast takeup than those that didn鈥檛, from the extension. And the extra takeup in meals brought in between $90 to $489 per day in reimbursement money to the schools, after accounting for the program start-up costs.

This year, Minnesota lawmakers made the breakfast pitch much easier: The legislature passed a universal school breakfast law making them free for all students.

New Hampshire does not pay for universal school lunches or breakfasts; students who want breakfast will need to pay full price if their family makes more than 185 percent of the federal poverty level.

But advocates in the Granite State say strong efforts by schools can create a word-of-mouth effect that can get more kids buying the breakfasts anyway, benefitting the school and themselves.

鈥淲e want to make sure that we can promote a culture where it鈥檚 great to eat breakfast at school, because for some kids that鈥檚 the only place they鈥檙e gonna get it,鈥� said Hollar.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

New Hampshire school districts have been competing to retain and recruit new teachers for years. But some say schools in rural areas of the state are facing bigger challenges than others.

The work can be uniquely challenging 鈥� and more lucrative teaching jobs in wealthier districts are sometimes just a town or two away.

Now, lawmakers in the Senate are attempting to help. A bill approved unanimously by the Senate Education Committee this week would create a 鈥渞ural educator incentive program鈥� that would make student loan repayment grants available to teachers who work in qualifying rural districts.

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鈥淲e鈥檝e heard from teachers (and) school administrators about how important a loan repayment incentive program is, and how necessary it is to keep educators in the profession,鈥� said Sen. Donovan Fenton, a Keene Democrat and the bill鈥檚 sponsor.

Fenton鈥檚 bill, , would apply to school districts in which there are fewer than 20 students per square mile living within the district. It would also apply to districts in areas that the Department of Health and Human Services has designated as rural.

Currently, 104 school districts in the state meet those criteria, according to Fenton.

Under the proposal, educators employed at the school would be eligible for repayment of 鈥渁ll or part of鈥� their outstanding student loans, depending on whether they exceed the cap.

Those that are approved would receive four years of loan repayments: $1,500 in the first year, $2,500 in the second year, $3,500 in the third year, and $4,500 in the fourth. The maximum total payout would be $12,000. Educators would need to work in the same school district for all four years to get the full benefit.

Sen. Ruth Ward, a Stoddard Republican and the chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, agreed that the problem is acute.

鈥淚 think there鈥檚 no question that we need to do something for our teachers,鈥� she said to the committee Monday. 鈥淏y looking at the salary scale, they鈥檙e not at the top layer of people getting a decent salary.鈥�

The bill, proposed in early 2023, would direct the Legislature to set aside $1 million in the first year after the bill鈥檚 passage and $2 million in the second year. It would be up to future lawmakers to continue funding the program after that.

The bill will be voted on in the Senate later this year after receiving a 4-0 recommendation from the committee. It will then go to the Senate Finance Committee.

In a statement after the vote Monday, Megan Tuttle, president of the National Education Association of New Hampshire, the state鈥檚 largest teachers union, applauded the bill as an 鈥渋mportant tool to removing barriers for educators getting into the profession.鈥�

鈥淭oday鈥檚 unanimous, bipartisan vote in support of the establishment of a rural and underserved area educator incentive program is an important step toward boosting the pipeline of future public school educators,鈥� Tuttle said.

The idea for the proposal came from the state鈥檚 committee to study New Hampshire Teacher Shortages and Recruitment, a joint panel of representatives and senators that has met for several years.

According to NEA-NH, educator shortages have been a problem for years in New Hampshire but the COVID-19 pandemic made them worse.

As pandemic-related learning loss has made the profession harder, many teachers retired during COVID-19, causing major gaps. The resulting hiring crunch gave other teachers the opportunity to leave their districts for higher paying jobs in other districts, which in turn has put less wealthy districts at a disadvantage

Data show that salaries are low for teachers just entering the field: The median entry salary for teachers with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in New Hampshire is just under $40,000, the legislative study committee found in a report this year. In less wealthy districts, that salary can be as low as $30,000. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the average cost of living in New Hampshire in 2021 was $56,727 per year.

The idea of incentivizing teaching jobs in struggling school districts has been gaining popularity: 25 states and the District of Columbia have some kind of statewide loan repayment program to encourage teachers to take jobs in underserved districts, according to from the Education Commission of the States.

The state has had persistent shortages of science and mathematics teachers, noted former Sen. Jay Kahn, a Keene Democrat, in his own testimony on the bill. Kahn was the chairman of the teacher shortage committee until he retired in 2020; Ward now leads the committee.

Kahn said his committee found that school districts that paid less had the greatest challenge in recruiting teachers. Those with lower paid teachers also had lower student performance, he said.

鈥淚n rural areas where there are smaller enrollments and fewer courses offered in those schools, teachers need multiple certifications,鈥� Kahn said, speaking to the Senate Education Committee in February.

Some school districts, like Keene, have implemented their own, smaller student loan repayment program for new hires, as a way to compete for staff. But Kahn noted that not all school districts can afford that approach. And he said a statewide model would be more effective at incentivizing teachers to go to the needier districts.

More teacher recruitment, in turn, could boost student performance in those same districts, Kahn said.

鈥淲e do need a replacement measure for economically disadvantaged school districts,鈥� he said. 鈥淔ree and reduced lunch just is not going to make it.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

New Hampshire school districts received nearly a billion dollars in federal aid since the outbreak of COVID-19. The funding is meant to help pay for remote learning technology, HVAC upgrades, and learning loss initiatives.

But the money is due to expire in September 2024 鈥� and some researchers warn that schools could be facing a funding cliff if they don鈥檛 prepare.

A recent study of New England states by the Georgetown University Edunomics Lab, a research center, found that New Hampshire schools are on average facing a 3 percent budget cut in the next year, in part because of the loss of federal funding and in part because of a continuing drop in enrollment.

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鈥淭he school finance landscape is shifting rapidly,鈥� said Marguerite Rosa, a research professor and the director of the Edunomics Lab, during a briefing to reporters in October. 鈥淎nd there鈥檚 fiscal shocks coming that we haven鈥檛 ever seen before.鈥�

The hardship will not hit school districts equally; schools with more low-income students will face greater budget headaches, researchers found. Schools with more low-income students received more federal COVID-relief money, but also stand to lose higher amounts of it if they don鈥檛 spend it.

Concord School District will likely need to reduce its budget by 2 percent to account for the loss of the COVID relief funding, researchers projected. Manchester School District, which has a higher proportion of students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, will face a 10 to 14 percent drop in funding, the study found.

The end of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funding could be important to the upcoming spring school budget season. School boards are preparing to draft budgets for the 2024-2025 school year and release them to residents to approve at town and school meetings in March.

According to researchers, the ESSER money may have helped New Hampshire districts mask bigger problems with declining enrollment and delay the need to downsize accordingly. The anticipated sudden loss of funding could require schools to reduce personnel, the researchers found.

In Concord, the projections suggested 11 positions might need to be cut; in Manchester, 35 to 60 positions could be at risk.

Compounding the problem is the fact that despite receiving millions of dollars under the ESSER fund, many school districts have struggled to spend it all in time.

The study found that New Hampshire schools have spent their COVID relief money at a slower rate than the national average. And schools with higher portions of lower-income students have much more money left over than those with more higher-income students, researchers found.

School districts where more than 25 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch have an average of 69 percent of their funds remaining 鈥� compared to 46 percent of funds remaining in districts with less needy kids, according to the researchers.

鈥淲ith more to spend up against the deadline, these districts are at risk of a steeper fiscal cliff once the funds expire,鈥� the researchers wrote in a presentation accompanying the report.

In total, school districts have spent 87 percent of the total amount of ESSER funding, according to a dashboard by the Department of Education.

Barrett Christina, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, said school boards across the state are aware of the coming deadline to spend the ESSER money, and will be calibrating their budgets this spring to spend down as much of the remaining money as they can.

But he said it is unlikely that schools will be able to spend down all of it.

鈥淎s a matter of economics, I don鈥檛 think 100 percent of the money is going to be spent,鈥� Christina said in an interview. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 certainly aware that districts and superintendents are budgeting appropriately and trying to find ways to use the money within the allowable uses of it.鈥�

The issue with leftover COVID relief money is not unique to New Hampshire schools, according to the Georgetown researchers. While Congress was quick to appropriate the money at the peak of the pandemic in 2021, schools across the country have struggled to spend it down efficiently.

Part of the difficulty has been caused by the overall economy. The ESSER funds were in part designed to be used to install or upgrade HVAC systems to improve air circulation in schools, a major concern as districts moved back into full-time learning in 2021. But supply chain problems and a shortage of labor has meant that many of those infrastructure projects have faced long delays, impeding the districts鈥� ability to spend down the federal aid.

School districts also sought to use the federal aid to fund paraprofessional positions to address learning loss caused when students moved to remote learning in 2020 and 2021. But a broader difficulty in hiring and an exodus in existing teachers and paraprofessionals has made filling those positions difficult.

In New Hampshire, the end of COVID money is compounded by another phenomenon: falling enrollment. This month, the Department of Education reported that New Hampshire public school enrollment in the current school year dropped 1.4 percent from last year, and has fallen 20.5 percent since 2002. Lower enrollment means schools receive less money in state adequacy aid and federal funding programs.

Georgetown researchers say that combination of factors 鈥� enrollment drops and funding lapses 鈥� means New Hampshire schools should expect the hardest budgeting conditions to arrive in the next coming school year.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been calling 鈥�24-鈥�25 the bloodletting (year),鈥� said Rosa.

State figures suggest schools will need to make adjustments when the federal money ends.

Of the nearly $900 million that has been budgeted by New Hampshire school districts since 2021, about 25 percent has gone to pay for staffing costs, according to the New Hampshire Department of Education. Another 25 percent has gone to 鈥渋nspection, testing, maintenance repair, replacement, and upgrade鈥� services.

Christina noted that school boards that had been using the COVID money to help pay for staffing costs are going to need to find off-ramps to account for the money ending soon, either by finding local money to continue paying those staff or eliminating those positions. This budget season will be the last chance to use the rest of the ESSER money to facilitate that off-ramp.

Some districts may try and use the funding for more short-term expenses, such as professional development for teachers.

When it comes to staffing, Christina noted that the Legislature鈥檚 decision to increase the state school funding formula to provide more dollars per student could help some districts absorb some of the cuts in federal aid. But he said that personnel costs have always been the most important costs for school boards to keep contained.

鈥淚 remember having conversations with school board members and administrators back in 2020, 2021, saying, 鈥楤e mindful of how you鈥檙e spending this money, because your salaries and your staffing are your real budget drivers,鈥欌�� Christina said. 鈥淪o I think we鈥檙e probably going to see a mix.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

By the time Kelly Santos found the Education Freedom Account program, she felt out of options.

The Hudson resident had fought for years for disability accommodations for her son James at his public school, beginning in the first grade. By his fourth grade year, she had arranged letters from teachers and had paid $5,000 for a neuropsychological exam to prove to school administrators that he needed help. But without a formal evaluation, the accommodations did not appear.

鈥淚 fought to keep him with his community and his friends,鈥� she said, speaking to members of the State Board of Education this month to advocate for the program. 鈥淪pecial education did not work for me because I could not get past step one, which is evaluation.鈥�

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Santos applied for local charter schools, but lost the lotteries necessary for admission. Then she found the Education Freedom Account program, and with it, an opportunity to send James to Second Nature Academy in Nashua.

It鈥檚 changed her son鈥檚 relationship to school, she says. 鈥淲hen I asked James, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 the difference between your old school and your new school?鈥� he said to me: 鈥楳om I was sitting in a prison and I was bored鈥� And when I went up to my new school that was the key that let me out of jail,鈥欌�� Santos said.

鈥淚f it wasnt for the EFA, we would have been stuck without a school to go to,鈥� she said.

The program is continuing to see similar interest. More than 4,200 New Hampshire students are participating in the Education Freedom Account program this school year 鈥� a 158 percent jump from the first year鈥檚 enrollment.

But most new participants are not following Santos鈥檚 exact path: 28 percent of the 1,577 new students this year transferred directly from public school. The others were either homeschooled or attending non-public schools before they transferred.

In total, the state will spend $22.1 million toward EFAs this school year, up from $8.1 million in the 2021-2022 school year and $14.7 million in the 2022-2023 school year, according to numbers released by the Department of Education Thursday. That money comes out of the state鈥檚 Education Trust Fund, which spends about $1 billion per year on public education. The enrollment grew by 20 percent since last year.

Launched in 2021, the Education Freedom Account program allows parents to take the state education funding dollars that would go to their child鈥檚 public school and use them for private and homeschooling expenses instead. To qualify, families must have an income below 350 percent of the federal poverty level 鈥� or $105,000 for a family of four.

Republicans, including Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, have hailed the initiative as a means for lower-income families to receive assistance to enroll their children in programs they might not otherwise be able to afford, providing alternatives if the public school is not a good fit.

But Democrats have criticized the program as wasteful and unnecessary, and argued that the Education Trust Fund dollars should be exclusive to public schools. Democrats have attempted unsuccessfully to both repeal the program and , including that students be attending public school before they can receive the vouchers. Currently, the vouchers are also available to qualifying families that don鈥檛 attend public schools.

This year, the Republican-led Legislature increased the eligibility for the program the income cap from 300 percent of the federal poverty level 鈥� where the program started 鈥� to 350 percent. Some Republicans, including gubernatorial candidates Chuck Morse and Kelly Ayotte, removing the income caps entirely in the future.

An examination of the latest numbers reveals some differences between public school students and EFA recipients. There are 4,211 students who receive EFAs and just over 160,000 students in New Hampshire public schools this year.

Of the students receiving EFAs this year, about 44 percent are enrolled in free or reduced price lunch program, meaning their families make below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $55,500 for a family of four. That represents a higher proportion than in public schools, where 26 percent of students are in the free or reduced lunch program.

Of all EFA recipients, 6.3 percent are receiving additional state funding for special education services. In public schools, 20 percent of students receive special education funding.

The state is spending an average of $5,255 per EFA recipient this year, according to the Department of Education. That鈥檚 a higher amount than in previous years and comes after the Legislature raised the base amount of state funding that schools receive per pupil in the two-year budget passed in June. The state is spending $6,161 per student in public schools this year, according to the department.

Among the 4,211 students receiving EFAs, 1,577 are new to the program this school year and 2,634 are returning. Since the last school year, 109 students have graduated, 75 have re-enrolled in public schools, and 524 have made 鈥渙ther exits,鈥� a category not defined by the department.

In a statement Thursday, Edelblut praised the increased numbers, saying 鈥渋t is apparent that New Hampshire families are taking advantage of this tremendous opportunity that provides them with different options and significant flexibility for learning.鈥�

鈥淲ith three years of data under our belt, we know that students are coming and going from the program, which is exactly how it was designed 鈥� to allow various options for personal learning needs that may fluctuate from year-to-year based on whatever path is appropriate in the moment,鈥� Edelblut said.

Megan Tuttle, president of the National Education Association of New Hampshire, the state鈥檚 largest teacher鈥檚 union, disagreed, accusing Edelblut of 鈥�(focusing) his energy on a small sliver of the population that was never in public schools.鈥�

鈥淟et鈥檚 be clear 鈥� vouchers take scarce funding away from public schools and give it to private and religious schools that are unaccountable to the public,鈥� Tuttle said in a statement Friday. 鈥淭axpayer funds should be spent to resource neighborhood public schools to ensure they are desirable places to be and to learn, where students鈥� natural curiosity is inspired.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

Michael Whaland knows New Hampshire鈥檚 teacher staffing challenges better than most: He wrote his dissertation about it.

As part of his doctor of education degree at Plymouth State University in 2020, Whaland, a former teacher, spent months studying schools in rural New Hampshire to find out why some schools saw teachers leave and others saw them stay.

鈥淚 was noticing early in my career that, hey, a lot of people I started with aren鈥檛 here anymore, and (thought) what鈥檚 going on?鈥� he said in an interview.

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Now, Whaland is a superintendent of School Administrative Unit 13, covering the towns of Madison, Tamworth, and Freedom. And the staffing headaches are no longer theoretical. While two of his three schools are currently fully staffed, the shortage of paraprofessionals and support staff often requires teachers to take on additional work to bridge the gaps.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a daily check-in with your principals and just talking with them about how can we make sure that the student is getting what they need?鈥� he said.

The problem has persisted across the state. New Hampshire teachers are increasingly leaving the profession due to increased stress, concerns about school culture, and a desire for more pay, a survey this year has found.

Now, lawmakers are mulling solutions to get more to stay.

, conducted by Reaching Higher New Hampshire, a left-leaning think tank, and Woman Educators Leading Learning, a network of educators, found that teachers believe their profession has been 鈥渄evalued,鈥� particularly after the tumult of COVID-19 and rising political challenges.

鈥淭heir open responses specifically cited the political rhetoric in our state, attacks from top brass leaders, the lack of support that they were feeling in the reality of the classrooms, and (the) divisive concepts (law),鈥� Reaching Higher Executive Director Nicole Heimarck told lawmakers on Monday.

鈥淭hey specifically said the fear of consequences that they would face as educators as a result of divisive concepts,鈥� she added, referring to a 2021 law that restricts teachers from advocating for certain concepts relating to race and gender.

This month, senators and representatives on the are preparing a report to list the challenges for teachers and make recommendations. The Reaching Higher survey will be a consideration for that report.

Administered in spring 2022, the survey asked 590 elementary, middle, and high school teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators how they felt about their jobs, and what factors might prompt them to leave. The survey, which was conducted online, was not randomized and not necessarily representative of the state.

Of all the respondents, 39 percent said that the school鈥檚 鈥渃limate鈥� was a top concern, while 32 percent cited a perceived lack of administrative support and 28 percent pointed to low pay.

Among the teachers who are leaving their jobs, their top concerns differed. Those leaving New Hampshire but staying in teaching were most disturbed by the climate of their school district or local school board. Those leaving the profession entirely cited frustrations with their pay.

鈥淚f it鈥檚 like this now, I can鈥檛 imagine what this profession will look like in 25-30 years when I expect to retire,鈥� one respondent said, according to the report. 鈥淚 would say entitlement and behavior of families and students is the biggest factor and the reason why many of the teachers I know are very unhappy.鈥�

Many teachers 鈥� especially those staying in the profession but leaving the state 鈥� said they felt a lack of support from their local communities and their school boards. They felt more support from the schools they worked in, the survey revealed.

Among paraeducators, meanwhile, 100 percent said the low salary was a top reason for leaving.

Many teachers surveyed said they were departing. While 34 percent of respondents said they were not leaving their position, 14 percent said they were moving to another school district but staying in New Hampshire; 13 percent were looking to transfer to a different job in education; 12 percent were leaving the profession; 12 percent were changing their roles within their district; 10 percent were retiring; 3 percent were leaving the state; and 1 percent were going to a private school.

The report鈥檚 authors recommended that schools work to provide competitive pay, build up mentorship programs to encourage teachers to stay, and pursue more diverse candidates. They also recommended that the state provide financial help to teachers who need it, including scholarships and grants.

In his own research project, Whaland stopped trying to find an answer to why some teachers leave school districts. A more interesting question, he said, is why others choose to stay.

Focusing on rural schools in the Upper Valley, the North Country, and the Lakes Region, Whaland found that teachers are much more likely to stay when they feel supported by both their school and the community 鈥� even in jobs that don鈥檛 pay well.

That support can manifest in a number of forms, Whaland said, from residents appearing to support their schools and teachers at town meeting, to parents engaging with their parent-teacher organization, to community members holding shared events between the school and the rest of the town.

In one case, a teacher in the Upper Valley told Whaland that they had turned down an opportunity to get a major pay raise because of the positive culture they already experienced.

鈥淭hey could go next door for about $20,000 more and they chose to stay where they are because they love that school, because they love the people there,鈥� Whaland said.

Members of the study committee are considering a wide swath of concerns around teaching jobs. While the number of teacher credential renewals is relatively high, the number of teachers is not, and teacher preparation programs in the state have produced fewer graduates in recent years, an early draft of the committee鈥檚 report states.

The average pay for a first-year teacher in New Hampshire 鈥� $43,764 according to Salary.com 鈥� is around $20,000 lower than the average salary in the state, the committee said. And due to disparities in school funding, school districts in wealthier towns are able to offer teachers higher salaries, creating a drain for poorer towns.

Meanwhile, the committee plans to explore how the recent politicization of school issues around COVID protocols, LGBTQ rights, diversity efforts, and classroom materials and books has contributed to teachers鈥� unease.

The study committee has met for several years; it was first chaired by former Sen. Jay Kahn, a Keene Democrat, and is now led by Sen. Ruth Ward, a Stoddard Republican. While the report, due Nov. 1, will lay out some of the causes of the state鈥檚 teacher shortage, many say a simple legislative solution may be tougher.

鈥淲hen I was a high school senior, I took a protractor, put it on the map, and drew a big circle,鈥� said Rep. Oliver Ford, a Chester Republican. 鈥淚 would not apply to a college inside that circle. I wanted to go away; I wanted to see the world from another perspective from the one I grew up in. But I went back. You go back for something that makes it attractive, something that says, 鈥榃e鈥檙e doing good things here, it鈥檚 interesting here, there鈥檚 a future here.鈥欌��

Lawmakers are considering one approach: a teacher loan forgiveness program for New Hampshire residents who are enrolled in teaching programs. would help provide $10,000 to eligible students over two years 鈥� provided that they teach for five consecutive years in a school that the state Department of Education has identified as having a critical teacher shortage.

That bill has been retained by the House Education Committee, which will vote on a recommendation later this year.

The Senate is also holding on to a bill from the 2023 session 鈥� 鈥� which would create a 鈥渞ural and underserved area educator program鈥� to give loan forgiveness to teachers at schools affected by critical educator shortages. The teachers would need to be working at schools identified by the Department of Education as rural and economically disadvantaged. The bill would put aside $3 million over two years; educators would be entitled to up to $12,000 in reimbursement on their existing loans if they stayed in the district for four years.

鈥淭he whole purpose is to try and address this issue of teacher shortage,鈥� said Rep. Rick Ladd, a Haverhill Republican and chairman of the House Education Committee. 鈥淭he shortage is starting right off 鈥� we have over half of (students) going outside the state and not returning.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

For over a year, a group of taxpayers have waged a lawsuit against the state of New Hampshire, seeking to prove that the state鈥檚 school funding model is unfair. This month, lawyers behind that effort made an ambitious ask.

In a proposed settlement offer sent in early August, the plaintiffs asked the state to require that cities and towns send any excess taxes collected by the statewide education property tax back to the state for redistribution 鈥� ending a decade-long practice. Since 2011, municipalities wealthy enough to collect more than they need in that tax have been able keep the extra revenue. If the state agreed to the settlement, the result would be a return to the model referred to by opponents as a 鈥渄onor town鈥� system.

The settlement offer has dim prospects: The state has not responded to it in the two weeks since it was sent. And even if it were accepted, it would resolve only a portion of the lawsuit, which also seeks to demonstrate that the state does not send enough money for an adequate education to its public schools, distorting property tax rates.

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But the attempt highlights the bigger aims of plaintiffs in the case, known as Rand v. State of New Hampshire, and demonstrates what could be at stake if the state Supreme Court takes up that case and Contoocook Valley School District v. State of New Hampshire in the future.

Here鈥檚 a refresher of where both lawsuits are and what to expect in the coming months.

Two cases, two focuses

In recent years, two lawsuits have emerged challenging the way New Hampshire funds its schools.

The first, filed on behalf of the ConVal School District and others in 2019, asserts that New Hampshire鈥檚 low level of state support for public schools has hurt districts financially and that the state is not fulfilling its duty to provide an education. The second, filed by taxpayers, argues that the state鈥檚 school funding formula creates broad disparities between towns with more property wealth and towns with less, hurting taxpayers in the poorer towns.

Since the 1993 state Supreme Court decision known as Claremont I 鈥� and the follow-up 1997 decision in Claremont II 鈥� New Hampshire has been obligated to provide the funding for an 鈥渁dequate鈥� education. But despite that mandate, critics argue the state does not do so, and that the current $4,100 minimum of funding guaranteed to every child does not meet that standard of adequacy on its own.

While similar, the two lawsuits were not filed in conjunction, and they address different themes. The ConVal lawsuit is requesting that the court define the realistic cost of an adequate education in order to determine whether the state is providing that to schools. The Rand lawsuit is arguing that the current system creates uneven outcomes for towns and violates the constitutional requirement that state taxes be uniform.

Each of the cases is following its own timeline. The ConVal case has already appeared before the state Supreme Court; in 2021, the court remanded the case back to a superior court so that that court could hold a trial to determine what parts of public school services constitute the minimum requirements for an 鈥渁dequate鈥� education. That trial took place in May; the parties are awaiting a decision by Judge David Ruoff of Rockingham County Superior Court.

The Rand case has not yet received a full trial. Arguments in that case were expected to be heard in September 鈥� also by Ruoff. But this month, Ruoff announced he was delaying that trial so he can either issue a ruling in the ConVal case or resolve one of the motions in the Rand case. The timing of that case is now in limbo until Ruoff completes those actions.

The spring ConVal trial

While the Rand case is stalled for now, the ConVal case was put into the spotlight this May, when Ruoff presided over a trial.

There, lawyers for the state and the plaintiffs tussled over which parts of a school district鈥檚 budget 鈥� from busing to nursing 鈥� are necessary in order to provide an adequate education, and thus necessary to be funded by the state. They disputed whether the adequacy standard requires the state to give schools enough money to keep the number of students per teacher below a certain level.

And they debated the bigger question of whether the state鈥檚 adequacy formula payments come close to covering the actual cost of educating each student, which averages about $24,000 in Contoocook Valley School District.

The same case had been decided for the plaintiffs by Ruoff in 2019, but in that decision, Ruoff declined to issue a recommended per-pupil dollar figure for what the state owes schools to ensure an adequate education. Because the case was then remanded by the Supreme Court back to superior court for a full trial, Ruoff will need to revisit that decision.

The push for SWEPT changes

In contrast to the ConVal lawsuit, one major aim of the Rand lawsuit is to change New Hampshire鈥檚 statewide education property tax, known as SWEPT.

The tax, created in response to the Claremont school funding decisions, was created to help standardize how towns and cities collect property taxes for their public schools. Money raised by the tax helps to offset how much the state needs to pay in 鈥渁dequacy aid鈥� payments.

But because towns have different property values, each town collects a different amount in SWEPT. Originally, towns that collected more SWEPT than they needed to offset the state adequacy aid would need to return the rest to the state to be redistributed to other cities and towns. But in 2011, the Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. John Lynch removed that requirement after some railed against wealthier municipalities becoming 鈥渄onor towns.鈥� Now, wealthier towns that collect more than they need are allowed to keep the excess and use it to lower their other town taxes. Poorer towns that take in less through SWEPT, must rely on adequacy payments from the state and their own local property taxes to bridge the gap.

This month, lawyers for Rand asked in their settlement proposal for the state to reverse the changes made in 2011. The proposal would require the state to stop allowing cities and towns to keep excess SWEPT revenue starting on April 1, 2025. To properly carry that settlement out, the Legislature would need to act in the 2024 session to undo the 2011 changes; if the Legislature refused, the state could be held liable, according to Natalie LaFlamme, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The state does not look likely to accept that settlement. If it doesn鈥檛, plaintiffs in the Rand case will attempt to ask the New Hampshire courts to require the changes to SWEPT instead.

Uncertain steps ahead

At this point, lawyers in both cases are waiting for more developments from the court. And because both cases are in the same court before the same judge, the timing of each development is intertwined.

Ruoff鈥檚 order earlier this month staying the Rand trial until he issues the ConVal decision means his decision in the ConVal case will likely arrive in the next few months. At that point, the losing side will likely appeal the case again up to the state Supreme Court.

Ruoff鈥檚 decision in the ConVal case could affect the trial in the Rand case, especially if he rules on some of the questions that overlap between the two cases. That, in turn, could affect the legal strategies of both the plaintiffs and the state.

But lawyers in both cases are expecting a final destination at the Supreme Court, meaning a resolution in court on New Hampshire鈥檚 school funding formula is still likely years away.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

New Hampshire students are learning at a faster pace in 2023 than in 2019, new figures suggest 鈥� an indication that schools and teachers are beginning to turn around learning loss from COVID-19.

shows that New Hampshire students in third to eighth grade are learning at a faster rate of acceleration in math and English language arts than students in those same grades did four years ago. The pattern is the same for students in 11th grade.

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Meanwhile, the percentage of students proficient in English language arts and mathematics has improved in recent years, even if it hasn鈥檛 fully returned to pre-pandemic levels. For instance, the percentage of seventh graders proficient in English language arts dropped five points from 2019 to 2021, from 56 percent to 51 percent. But by 2023, 54 percent of seventh graders were proficient, according to last week鈥檚 figures.

Proficiency rates in other grades and subjects tested have seen a similar trend: a drop between 2019 and 2021, and a near recovery in 2022 and 2023. New Hampshire conducts annual standardized assessments for students in the third to eighth and 11th grades.

The figures are preliminary; full school-by-school data will be released in the fall. But they suggest that students and teachers are starting to recover from the challenges imposed by the pandemic, which forced many students to learn remotely from home or in hybrid settings with limited class time.

New Hampshire schools closed universally in March 2020 following an executive order from Gov. Chris Sununu, and stayed closed through the end of the school year. In the 2020 to 2021 school year, school districts were allowed to choose whether to conduct classes fully in person, fully remote, or with a hybrid model that saw reduced 鈥渃ohorts鈥� of students take turns learning in person through the week. In April 2021, Sununu signed an executive order requiring all schools to return to in-person instruction.

The new state assessment results indicate that New Hampshire is ahead of the national average when it comes to learning recovery. A released last week by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), an Oregon-based testing organization, found that students across the country are seeing lower rates of learning now than before the pandemic, and are failing to return to pre-pandemic proficiency.

New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut hailed New Hampshire鈥檚 results last week. And he said they suggest the state is seeing more of a U-shaped recovery in learning, where students learn faster to catch up to material they missed, than an L-shaped recovery, where students continue learning at the same rate without making up for past learning loss.

鈥淭his was encouraging news to me,鈥� he told the State Board of Education at its monthly meeting July 20. 鈥淚 think that our school leaders and our teachers and everybody else are doing everything that they can think of to try and find ways to make sure that we鈥檙e closing that gap.鈥�

A week before New Hampshire鈥檚 data was released, Edelblut, a potential candidate for governor in 2024, had been critical of the national picture painted in the NWEA report.

鈥淒ata from this study is loud and apparent 鈥� across the country academic growth is not gaining pace at the rate we had hoped,鈥� Edelblut said on July 11. 鈥溾�� Deployment of more of the same in terms of instructional supports is not producing an accelerated or improved outcome.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .