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What the Trump administration’s assault on DEI means for Granite Staters

In January, the Trump administration began efforts to remove and minimize DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — initiatives in federally funded workplaces, schools and athletics. Across the country, businesses and organizations like PBS, the national public broadcasting service, are removing their DEI offices and programs. New Hampshire PBS is a member of the national service. Here to talk about what this means for Granite Staters is Anthony Poore, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Center for Justice & Equity. 

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

Anthony, what is the mission of your organization? 

Anthony Poore:

The mission of the New Hampshire Center for Justice & Equity is to empower and elevate New Hampshire's communities of color by making connections and meeting people so everyone can live their fullest life here in the Granite State. That's our mission. Our vision for our organization is to ensure that everybody who lives, works, plays or prays here in the Granite State,not only feels that they can belong, but their contributions matter to the greater good.

Melanie Plenda:

For our audience, let’s define what DEI is. When people use that term, what does it mean?

Anthony PooreIt depends on who you're asking. Over the course of the past year or so, for some the definition has changed. For myself, when I think about diversity, equity and inclusion, I actually move in the opposite direction, in the sense that what we're attempting to do through this work is create and develop inclusive policies and practices that lead to more equitable outcomes and create much more diverse environments. Instead of ensuring that everyone gets something, the goal here is to ensure people get what they need so they can contribute and live their best life.

Melanie Plenda:

With only 7.5% of New Hampshire’s population identifying as non-white, according to the 2024 Census. Why are these initiatives important in New Hampshire?

Anthony Poore:

Let's talk about young people right now, and I think this is where it's important. If you look at my daughters’ experience both 24 and 21 years of age, and you look at that particular cohort, or you look at kids under the age of 18 in New Hampshire right now, 20.2% of our kids under 18 reflect my daughter's lived experience — that is to say, their mother’s from Columbia, South America, their father happens to identify as a person of African descent here. 

So what I would argue, and this is some of the pushback that we are always trying to suggest to people that, yes, New Hampshire is still a majority white state. But that does not mean that the state is not increasingly becoming more and more diverse.  And as you know, had it not been for the in-migration of people into the state, not only would there be a loss of population, but those people that are coming in are both younger in terms of working age — between the ages of 18 and 44 — and the majority of people that are moving in the state are coming from international experiences or environments. They're coming from New England, with the vast majority of them coming from Massachusetts.

I think this discussion, or this argument, of “Why do we need to worry about diversity when we're not a very diverse state?” is not only inaccurate, but it paints us in a light that's not appropriate. I think about our school systems right now. Down in Manchester, Nashua, these are majority minority school systems, and are really at the cutting edge of our state's diversity.

Melanie Plenda:

What do you think is driving the executive orders on DEI? 

Anthony Poore:

To put it simply, white supremacy. What I argue oftentimes is that we've seen this playbook before. Now, I don't claim to be a history major by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know a little bit about history. When I think about this focus and us moving backwards on what I call some of our Great Society programs — rolling back the Civil Rights Act, rolling back the Voting Rights Act, thinking about the Fair Housing Act in 1968 and the demise of what I would call the Great Society.

Let's go back. Let’s think about the original sin called slavery, right? From there, let's talk about, for example, the Trail of Tears, where we force — relocated — thousands of Native Americans off fertile southern lands so rich white landowners could have access to those rich lands for the production of cotton to support the production of linen, cotton and so on. 

From there, let's talk about the Chinese Exclusion Act. For 60 years in this country, we excluded those of Chinese ancestry to immigrate into this wonderful nation of ours for fear of losing jobs, of them taking our “good jobs” away from us. We go from there, and of course, the post-Reconstruction period, the growth of Jim Crow, the 13th Amendment and so on. But then we get to World War II and the forced internment of Japanese Americans, thousands of Japanese Americans into places like Manzanar, and so on. I look at what we're seeing here as being historically accurate and not dissimilar to things that we've seen in the past. I think history is a wonderful teacher here. 

Many of us would argue right now we find ourselves in maybe the third or fourth Reconstruction period, or post-Reconstruction period, and we've seen these before. So we should not be surprised that those that might fear change or a fear of loss to see these things happen. So I'm not surprised, at least, and I don't think this is a new phenomenon. I think the issue of white supremacy and the fear of loss has been with us since almost the creation of this incredible nation of ours.

Melanie Plenda:

The state of New Hampshire DEI commission page was removed from the nh.gov website in early January. What impact do you see these actions having on New Hampshire and the country?

Anthony Poore:

Well, if I'm not mistaken, that group was finished, if you will, by executive order at the departure of our former governor. But I think when I look at what we see going on at the national level and at the state level is that that creates an enabling environment that somehow suggests that these kinds of behaviors, these processes, these tactics, are somehow OK. And by creating that enabling environment, it allows other folks, either at the state or local level, to act out in ways that they otherwise wouldn't do. 

As such, even our organization, which focuses on our disabilities community, our communities of color and our queer community, we've been the recipients of hate as of late,and this has just happened in the past two to three weeks, actually. Again, I think what we're seeing coming at us is a reflection of the kind of tactics and fear-mongering that we see at the national level beginning to play out at the local level.

Melanie Plenda:

Why do you think organizations that aren’t affected by the president’s executive order are altering their DEI programs?

Anthony Poore:

There were institutions and organizations who were changing their stance relative to DEI even before the executive orders, for fear of and so all those corporations shifted away from this DEI work well before our current administration took office, and, frankly, before the executive orders. I think some organizations — some, not all — were reading the tea leaves, if you will, and tried to get out in front of this problem before it becomes one, for fear of being targeted. 

At the same time, we've seen companies like Costco that I'll lift up and celebrate, who said that we recognize that, frankly, this DEI stuff is not a new phenomenon. It's a tried-and-true solution, and in lieu of targeting specific segments of our consumer base, we want to not only target all of our consumers, but ensure that we have a board and a staff that reflects our consumer base. So instead, we can get a little bit of everybody's money, if you will, and we think that's a good thing. 

I look at DEI as simply being good business, particularly in this space, because you have access to the greatest and largest talent pool, you have access to the largest consumer base, and we have the best talent and the largest consumer base, you can achieve economic prosperity. Honestly, as I think about this DEI and this anti immigration sentiment that exists here in the state, I often think about our local communities.

A dear friend of mine, a mentor, and I’ll call him out  — John Moore from Bangor Savings Bank — told me once that “doing good is good business.” And I think of DEI being good business, particularly in this space, because you have access to the greatest and largest talent pool, you have access to the largest consumer base, and with the best talent and largest consumer base you can achieve economic prosperity.

So, honestly, as I think about, particularly right now, this anti-immigration sentiment that exists here in the state, I also think about our local communities, and let me think about three sectors of our environment. First, I think about the hospitality sector and food service — it's one of the largest economic sectors in New Hampshire. I would argue that our hotels and motels cannot operate without immigrant labor who are here either as immigrants and refugees, or think about places like Santa's Village or the Mount Washington Resort, where young people come here on an H-2B visa to earn money during the summers and gain experience working internationally. 

Let's talk about our health care industry. I would argue, as a cancer survivor and somebody who spends a lot of time in hospitals, that Dartmouth-Hitchcock and other hospitals could not operate if it wasn't for foreign-born providers in our current system, and they require an H-1B visa. 

Or let’s talk about agriculture. Frankly, our agricultural sector, particularly dairy, could not survive if it wasn’t for our migratory laborers who come in based upon the seasonality of work 

So this anti-DEI sentiment, this anti immigration sentiment, not only affects us negatively from a business perspective — but when I think about our overall economic prosperity as a state, to just allow people to come here to work — at the end of the day is just cutting our nose to spite our face if we want to achieve economic prosperity that we all claim to want here in the Granite State.

Melanie Plenda:

What are the perceived benefits of removing DEI initiatives, if any? Who does this benefit?

Anthony Poore:

Mediocre talent. I founded the New Hampshire Center for Justice & Equity, alongside the board, three years ago. And, as any employer, I want the best and the brightest talent. I'm here in the nonprofit sector, but I'm competing actively with the for-profit sector for the smartest, the most hard-working, dedicated employees we can find. The idea of limiting that talent pool because I want people who reflect my own lived experience and not the lived experience of others, I think diminishes our opportunities at the local, state and national level. 

My grandfather used to tell me, “You never want to cut your nose and spite your face,” and I feel that this anti-DEI, anti-immigration sentiment is doing precisely that — we’re limiting our potential and our future opportunities.

Melanie Plenda:

The NHCJE’s website describes New Hampshire as one of the many states subjected to outside interests pushing an agenda to “normalize racism.” What do you mean by that?

Anthony Poore:

New Hampshire has 1.4 million people, and it is small enough to where if you want to move initiatives forward, you can do that in a way that almost represents a test case for other opportunities outside of New Hampshire. 

Let me give you an example — and this is not a discussion for or against, it's just an observation. If we think about current legislation right now to advance universal school vouchers here in New Hampshire. A lot of times people will talk about vouchers as a means to make a positive difference in kids who the traditional school system is failing. Here at the center, for example, we are not anti-voucher, what we're suggesting is for those that the voucher is intended to serve, let's do that work.

But historically, if you look at the utilization of vouchers, a lot of times are used for folks who are either homeschooled, participate in private school, or some combination of that. These typically tend to be middle- and upper middle-income individuals who may not need that additional subsidy. So we're seeing the parental rights movement, the school voucher pieces — all those things are advancing here in New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a smaller state. It gives us an opportunity to try these things out, if you will, and then bring them to scale in other states. So again, Free Staters moving into New Hampshire did not happen by coincidence. It was intentional, because they knew that they had the opportunity to push their agenda here further along, particularly given our citizen legislature and all the things that come along with that.

Melanie Plenda:

What is the New Hampshire Center For Justice and Equity planning to do about all this? 

Anthony Poore:

The first thing that we recognize is that the work continues. We're not going to stop doing what we believe to be really, really important work. 

One is to encourage people to recognize that New Hampshire is not a quote, unquote, lily white state that is diversifying, and that's important for people to recognize that. Number two, it's important to work with our allies and collaborators across the state. We're a statewide institution, but we want to continue to maybe blunt some of the negative activity that's taking place with respect to our communities of color and similarly marginalized populations.

So, in the short term, continue the work and blunt some of the negative things coming our way, but in the long term, begin to galvanize support at the local level that cuts across issues of age, gender, race, ethnicity, preference, identity or geography, and to bring together what we call people of a good conscience to form a coalition of what I'll call the willing. Because, at the end of the day, real power rests with the people.

But there's so much coming at us right now, people don't know where to go, frankly, and are looking for opportunities for mutual support. And so the New Hampshire Center for Justice & Equity, along with our allies, are intent on creating those safe places for communities so we can come together with one unified voice and an agenda that's been developed collectively that responds to our individual communities’ needs, but on issues of mutual concern we can all come together again with one voice and demonstrate our power. And that’s the direction we’re moving forward in.

Melanie Plenda:

Along those same lines, what can the average Granite Stater do about this?
Anthony Poore:

Number one, I think it's about really understanding and knowing our changing community. It's about staying informed and organizing around those issues that concern you. There's so much stuff being thrown at us right now. Identify two or three issues that you really care deeply about and find people that share that common concern and organize. 

When I think about our communities of color, our immigrant population, and so on, I think for those that want to be allies and collaborators and supporters, I think it's important that we build relationships with key leaders in those communities and those organizations — and, as appropriate, identify and advocate for those issues that directly affect those communities. 

I think, just from an accessibility perspective, we want to meet people where they're at, particularly as we're coming together, and accommodate for language or other accessibility issues. I think what we can all do is recognize that everything is local here in New Hampshire, and I think it's important to contact our local and state and federal delegation about issues that concern us so they can know that while there might be a vocal minority of people who may have negative thoughts, that the majority is really in the middle, and there are people of good conscience there who want to really engage in this work. 

Lastly, I think it's important that those that can to donate to organizations who are working directly with these communities, and if you can't donate, support their fundraising activities, so they can continue this good work and make sure that no matter where you come from, no matter how big your pocketbook is, no matter what your language of origin, that you know that New Hampshire is a place where you can live, work, play and pray, and that your contributions matter and you actually belong.

Melanie Plenda:

That was a great discussion. Thank you Anthony Poore, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Center for Justice and Equity.


“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.

Who is buying all the homes in New Hampshire?

Influx of wealthier buyers and ever-rising prices have made it almost impossible for average-income Granite Staters to enter housing market

By Jon Decker, Granite State News Collaborative

First-time homebuyers and others who are earning the average wage in New Hampshire and are hoping to buy a home have essentially been shut out of the housing market — and have been for several years, with apparently no end in sight to their plight. 

In fact, even middle- and higher-income renter households are finding it difficult to buy a home.

With sale prices in New Hampshire remaining at record highs — the median price of a single-family home has been above $500,000 since April 2024 — the relatively few homes on the market are being gobbled up almost exclusively by high-income earners from out of state, prior homeowners, and people with access to generational wealth. And these buyers often rely on cash purchases, allowing them to outcompete people who need financing to buy a home. 

The median price of a single-family home in New Hampshire jumped by over 71% between 2019 and 2024, according to the N.H. Association of Realtors. Prices are so high that the state’s housing affordability index is now 59, meaning that a buyer earning the median household income has only 59% of the money needed to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced single-family home.

According to an analysis from the N.H. Fiscal Policy Institute, in 2023 one-fourth of all New Hampshire households had incomes of less than $50,000 per year. Another 14% earned between $50,000 and $74,999, the analysis found. That means nearly 40% of New Hampshire’s approximately 547,000 households have incomes below the median of $96,838. 

At one point, according to Dave Cummings, vice president of communications for the Realtors association, median household income was double the amount needed to get a mortgage. Now, he said, the current affordability index is “as low as we’ve ever seen it.”

But even though so many potential buyers are priced out of home ownership, New Hampshire homes are still selling fast. According to the Realtors, there was only a 1.7-month inventory of single-family homes on the market, meaning it would take less than two months for the available homes to be sold if no new homes were to come onto the market.

“A balanced market would be about five to seven months of supply,” Cummings said. “The last time we saw a balanced market was October of 2016 and that was five months. Since then it’s been below two months supply, which is an incredible seller’s market, but it’s not a healthy market for anyone entering the housing market, particularly if you don’t have something to sell to gain some equity.”

Who are the buyers?

Such high prices and quick sales raise the question: Who is actually buying homes in New Hampshire?

“Most [of the buyers] are coming up from Massachusetts, because that’s where the money is,” said Conway Realtor Dave Haines. “Unfortunately, local people are pretty much priced out of the market.”

A line of homes rests at the foot of the White Mountains in Conway.With a median single-family home priced at over $437,000, ‘local people are pretty much priced out of the market,’ says Realtor Dave Haines. Most of the buyers, he adds, are paying cash for their new homes. (Photo by Jon Decker)

Haines has been selling homes in the Mount Washington Valley area for five decades and he lives just 150 yards from his childhood home in Conway. In those 50 years, he’s seen homes grow increasingly unaffordable for locals.

“When the price moved up over $400,000, it was out of reach for most everyone with wages, " Haines said, but the buyers he has worked with — whether retired or pre-retirement — haven’t resorted to financing their purchase, even for the most expensive homes.

According to Haines, with decades of savings, pensions and equity built up in their first homes, many buyers are paying cash, making it even harder for people who need financing to compete. 

“I’ve only had just a handful last year that were financed,” Haines said. “The majority of everything was cash. The one that I closed last week was cash, and the one this week is cash.”

Cash is also king in the Lakes Region, according to veteran Realtor Frank Roche, who said at least half of his recent sales were in greenbacks.

“They’ll come in and pay cash, but that doesn't mean they won’t refinance them later,” Roche said. “It’s hard to say how many people stay in that position, but we’re fortunate. Massachusetts is our strongest market, and we get a good number of people from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.”

While more rural areas like Carroll County are seeing an influx of older buyers, the Lakes Region is a little bit more of a mixed bag.

“It’s mostly older folks, but we do get some younger people,” Roche said. “There’s lots of wealth in the Boston area. Let’s say these families have invested in the stock market; they’ll parlay that to their children. Many have inherited wealth or trusts.”

Other buyers are second-home or condo owners who were able to sell their previous properties and move into their vacation homes full time, said Roche. Members of America’s elite have also purchased multimillion-dollar properties along Lake Winnipesaukee’s shore.

“The president of Black & Decker is here with a few trophy homes in Winnipesaukee,” Roche said. “The president of Moderna bought a house, the Marriott family. There are many CEOs that have purchased property.”

Luxury recreational areas like the Lakes Region have also been inundated with vacation and short-term rentals, putting a further squeeze on housing stock while boosting income for property owners.

“There’s been a lot of investors who have purchased single-family homes for Airbnb and VRBO sites — they're generating very attractive returns because they are doing weekly rentals, and shorter than that,” Roche said. “There’s benefits but major disadvantages. You provide more housing for people who want to recreate, but it can change the culture of the neighborhood, and it definitely takes away product from year-round residents.”

Some towns in the Lakes Region and elsewhere have started to crack down on short-term rentals through local ordinances, but thousands of properties are still available throughout the state on VRBO and Airbnb alone.

Another buyer archetype showing up in the Lakes Region and beyond is the returning Granite Stater. Some are driven by nostalgia, others by climate change or a desire to live closer to family — a reversal of the classic New Hampshire-to-Florida retirement pipeline.

“I was puzzled myself last year because I kept talking to people from southern states like Florida and the Carolinas,” said Suzanne Damon, a veteran Realtor operating in the Manchester area. “The fact is, in Florida, costs to insure property are almost the same as your mortgage, so we’re seeing people move back from Florida to New Hampshire — the grandkids are here, the family is here.”

Damon also cited the pandemic as a major driver for returning retirees.

“Think about mom and dad getting sick and the kids not there to help,” Damon said. “With travel restrictions, there's really no one there to help. People got nervous.”

Damon’s home turf of Manchester is seeing much more than returning snowbirds cornering the market. The city’s proximity to Boston and post-pandemic pressures further cemented the Queen City as a commuter town.

In addition, “what I hear is many millennials moving into this immediate area are in the work-from-home industry — tech, hospital, medical tech people,” Damon said.

Manchester’s average home price of about $423,000 is about half of Boston’s median of $825,000, allowing for easy cash purchases when homeowners sell. 

“We are selling homes very well — my average time is about 14 days, which is nothing in terms of time frame,” Damon said. The mortgage payment on an average home in Damon’s area runs about $3,300 a month, roughly 40% of the local median household income of $94,000.

“Even with that $3,300 monthly payment, it’s still more affordable than being in Massachusetts, and they can commute backwards. That puts pressure on affordable towns like Derry, Merrimack and Manchester,” she said.

Wealthier newcomers

Many of the new commuter and remote workers were pandemic-era refugees enticed by the Granite State’s access to outdoor recreation and a general sense of open space. Their arrival contributed to a significant increase in the state’s average income, according to a 2025 report from the UNH Carsey School of Public Policy.

“When their ability to work from home increased, a significant number moved to their second homes, or if their parents had a second home. I think that’s part of why there was this big surge of income in New Hampshire,” said Kenneth Johnson, the Carsey School’s senior demographer and one of the report’s authors.

According to the Carsey report “Domestic Migrants and Dollars Flowed to New Hampshire During the Pandemic,” people migrating to New Hampshire from 2020 to 2022 earned, on average, $111,000 a year, compared to $87,000 for households leaving the state. Although most of the home purchases appear to be made by older individuals closer to retirement age, Johnson’s work shows that a lot more younger people are moving into New Hampshire than meets the eye.

“New Hampshire tends to gain people in their 30s and 40s with kids, and has a modest influx of older people,” Johnson explained. “The state has a significant outflow of older people to the south, but it still has a net pretty close to zero because it's also getting older adults moving into the Lakes Region and vacation areas in the state. Overall, it's gaining people in their 30s to early 50s.”

Johnson added that, if New Hampshire loses any population, it’s people in the 20-to-29 age group, but in the last few years, the state had “a very modest net gain” even among that cohort.

Limited opportunities

Even among working-age buyers who might not have built up significant equity, Manchester Realtor Damon said, cash purchases are quite common in her market as well — a real estate market that recently was named the hottest in the country by Zillow, the online real estate marketplace.

“In addition to competitive offers, I’m seeing mom and dad pulling out equity to pay cash for the kids’ home so they can turn around and get a mortgage,” Damon said. “We definitely have a good inside population moving from apartments, parents' basements into people’s homes in our local market.” 

With an average time on market of 14 days, it is especially difficult for first-time buyers to mobilize funds quickly enough to compete with cash offers for a home.

“Some [first-time buyers] have been out for a couple of years and have been frustrated, and sometimes they throw in the towel,” Damon said. “But in terms of affordability, you can only go up so high. Two years ago, I would have 10 to 15 offers [on a home]; now it’s two to three, so things are starting to balance out with inventory and pricing.”

But she added that there is some hope for lower-income or first-time buyers.

While the standard down payment is usually 20% of the sale price, “New Hampshire Housing has a fine program, which is state-backed with funds from banks and other lenders, and there are programs with 100% financing, some with 3.5% down, there are grants out there,” Damon said. “They just really need to connect [buyers] with those sources. In these institutions, they don’t really have a marketing budget, and they depend on Realtors to spread the word, so I think I have a responsibility and due diligence.”

However, funding and loans aside, New Hampshire has also long suffered from a lack of inventory to meet demand. Based on current population growth trends, a 2023 New Hampshire Housing report estimated that the state will need 60,000 more units by 2030 and 90,000 by 2024. The shortage is currently 23,500 units, according to New Hampshire Housing, further increasing demand and thus raising prices, all the while attracting wealthier populations throughout the Granite State. 

“This is a story that is playing across the states,” Johnson said. “There is concern about who’s moving in. Who's going to be the volunteer firefighters, paramedics, who's going to coach Little League, are there going to be enough kids in schools?”

A luxury property along the waters of Lake Winnipesaukee, one of the many of its kind that have attracted wealthy buyers to the Lakes Region. (Photo by Jon Decker)

“I’m worried, " said Lakes Realtor Frank Roche, "because we’re one of the top three oldest states. We are an aging population, and one of our biggest problems in the Lakes Region is labor supply.”

Many of the service jobs that make these communities work, such as food service, hospitality roles, EMTs and firefighters, pay well below even the median household income, and far below what’s needed to afford a home.

“You can take Auburn, Candia, Hooksett — towns with significant socioeconomic standing with higher incomes — and those are the people saying ‘I don’t want to bring in the $50,000 blue-collar workers,’” Damon said. “What my $150,000 worker doesn't understand is that we have to have blue-collar and our entry-level workers to run these businesses. You’re not going to have a suit to put on if you don’t have entry-level people working.” 

Johnson, however, pointed out that the influx of wealthier, higher-educated migrants cuts both ways.

“The people who are coming in are coming here because they like it and want to be there, and many of them bring experience in bureaucracies and how to get things done in big organizations,” Johnson said

Johnson, a Lakes Region resident, gave the example of a chief financial officer of a Fortune 100 company who had retired to the area and was elected treasurer of the town he moved to. “There’s no way we could have gotten someone with that kind of expertise to do this job, but he lives there and is part of the community and we get that expertise,” Johnson said.

But while talented and experienced individuals have the potential to uplift the community, the natural effects of an ever-growing market are causing concern, even among experienced Realtors like Roche. 

“Are we going to keep growing at these numbers in leaps in bounds?” Roche asked. “It has to stop at some point and readjust. It always does. It did in the ’80s, ’90s, and 2008.” 

Citing the infusion of COVID funds stimulus and other forms of government spending in recent years, he said, “I think the government pumped a ton of helium into the country, and now we’re at a point where we’ve got to sustain ourselves. I think we’re at a plateau where we have to watch the accelerator.”

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.

Black History, DEI, and the Silence We Can’t Afford

By Shamecca Brown, Columnist, GSNC Freelancer

“Ma, why do I only see things that mention Black people in February?” my son asked. Movies with Black characters were popping up on Amazon Prime and Netflix–Roots caught his attention. My son, the youngest of my four kids, is 12. He’s so laid back but notices and pays attention to everything around him. I told him the truth: Schools, workplaces, and society at large still treat Black history as a seasonal event rather than the foundation of American history. And now, with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs being rolled back, it’s clear that some people would rather erase progress than embrace it. 

I grew up in neighborhoods of New York City where diversity, equity and inclusion were the norm. But when I moved to New Hampshire as a 28-year old single mom with a 12-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter, my family faced challenges that underscored the pervasive nature of racial ignorance. 

Shortly after we arrived, a peer called my son  the N-word. In response, my son invited the child to discuss the matter outside, seeking resolution. The school perceived my son’s actions as threatening and involved the police. Despite my requests for a meeting, the school failed to address the racial slur directed at my son. This incident revealed a profound lack of cultural competence and an urgent need for comprehensive DEI training within the educational system. Fourteen years later, I’ve never seen that happen. 

My son’s experience reminded me of when I was in eighth grade, learning the harrowing story of Emmett Till. The discussions were intense, and the emotional weight was palpable among my peers. During one such conversation, I voiced a sentiment that had been brewing within me: “We’re the most hated race.” Instead of engaging in a meaningful dialogue, my teacher asked me to leave the classroom, labeling me a distraction. This reaction was telling. It highlighted an unwillingness to confront the uncomfortable truths about racism.

DEI is more than a buzzword; it’s a daily practice. I celebrate everyone’s unique background and ensure that each person has a fair chance to contribute. I know not everyone starts at the same place, so I work to level the playing field through mentorship, advocacy and simply listening. Creating a space where every voice is valued and respected is what makes me show up at work. I do so with the goal of challenging inequities and fostering an environment where everyone truly belongs. DEI work isn’t on my check list–it is how I live and work every day.

This work isn’t easy. It’s uncomfortable. For white people, it takes vulnerability and a willingness to be an active ally. For Black people these topics can hit hard, stirring up emotions and overwhelming feelings, especially when you feel like you’re constantly having to explain what should be obvious. I’ve cried at more than one DEI training. Despite the discomfort, these tough conversations are needed. They matter—especially in schools, where kids need to learn both history and the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Today, the landscape of DEI is shifting, and not in a good way. What once felt like progress is now under attack.. Let's talk real. This new executive order that’s tryna ban teaching about race in schools? It’s a big problem for our kids. By shutting down conversations about race, we’re keeping children in the dark about our country’s real history and the different stories that make it up. This kinda ignorance? It just keeps stereotypes alive and kickin’, ‘cause our kids won’t learn about the struggles and contributions of different racial groups.

Plus, when schools act like certain histories don’t matter, it sends a messed-up message to minority kids. It’s like saying their stories ain’t worth telling, which can make them feel left out and lower their self-esteem. Schools should be places where every kid feels seen and respected.

DEI programs are crucial. They help kids from all backgrounds understand and respect each other. But now, with moves to cut these programs, with federal agencies pulling DEI guidance from their websites and canceling staff training, we’re taking steps backward. This ain’t just about schools; it’s about creating a society where everyone gets a fair shot.

Bottom line? Keeping race out of the classroom doesn’t just mess with our kids’ learning: it stops them from growing into open-minded adults ready to thrive in our diverse world. We gotta stand up for an education that tells the whole story, so our kids are ready for whatever comes their way.

Writing about this, speaking about this  makes me more curious, but also more cautious. Because the truth is, every time we push for change, there’s pushback. But if we let fear silence us, nothing changes at all.

I didn’t just sit with the shock of racism I encountered in New Hampshire. I educated myself. I sought out Black organizations and connected with people who truly care about creating spaces for people of color, for different genders, for those struggling with socioeconomic barriers. I found my community, even in a place where it wasn’t easily visible.

In New York City I was nurtured in a city defined by its diversity. I was fortunate to experience an educational environment where Black history was an integral part of the curriculum. Schools actively taught it, and our elders enriched our understanding by sharing personal stories of their experiences, especially given my family’s roots in Birmingham, Alabama, and various parts of North Carolina. They instilled in us the importance of respect, a value I now pass down to my children.

Raising my children in a predominantly white state requires a more proactive approach. When people express curiosity about my kids’ hair or skin, I’ve taught them to assertively communicate boundaries, emphasizing that while questions are acceptable, unsolicited touching is not. It’s crucial they understand their right to stand up against derogatory language, such as the N-word, and not allow anyone to demean them.

These experiences have reinforced my commitment to educating my children about their rights and the importance of self-advocacy.  While we can’t change everyone’s mindset, we can empower ourselves and our children to stand up against injustice and demand the respect every human being deserves.

I’ve learned that no matter where I go, the work doesn’t stop. Whether it’s Black history, DEI, or basic human rights, it’s not about waiting for change, it's about making it happen. I will continue to work toward that. 

Columnist Shamecca Brown, a proud New Yorker, is family-oriented and passionate about serving underserved communities.


These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

Shamecca Brown, Courtesy

What are New Hampshire lawmakers’ priorities for 2025?

A new session has started at the State House in Concord, but some of the bills lawmakers are proposing seem to be old favorites. What else are they proposing? On this episode of “The State We’re In,” Anna Brown, executive director of Citizens Count and executive director of the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership and Public Service at the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law, talks about what’s coming up in the next few months.

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

Can you give us a high-level overview of some of the bills we’ll see in front of the State House this term? I imagine there are new proposals as well as some old favorites returning for Round 2, or in some cases, Round 22.

Anna Brown:

Yes. When I think about three big hot topics that are happening this year, it's housing, school policies and curriculum, and immigration.

Housing has been a top issue for many years. There is now a housing committee in the House of Representatives that is dedicated to bills looking at this issue. The challenge is that a lot of what the state can do right now is pushing back on local zoning laws, and there's a big tradition of local control in New Hampshire, where towns and cities set their own zoning regulations. 

Many of those proposals are coming up that have been proposed in previous years. For example, limiting parking requirements, limiting minimum or maximum lot sizes, and so on. Those bills are coming back around, and we're going to see where they go this year in terms of school policies and curriculum.

In terms of school policies and curriculum, some of these are repeats — for example, a “parental bill of rights.” There’s another bill that would require teachers to respond to parent inquiries within a certain amount of time, or if they're worried for a student answering that question, then they would have to report it to the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Something new this year is the No Screens in Classrooms Act. This was brought up by Gov. Kelly Ayotte in her inaugural address, and it would ban cell phone use in the classroom during instruction time, unless a teacher is specifically incorporating it, or a student has needs for an assistive device. A lot of these other school bills are definitely variations on a theme from previous years.

Then immigration enforcement — that’s another big priority that Governor Ayotte brought up in her inaugural address. She's looking to ban sanctuary cities in New Hampshire, which I actually don't think is the most controversial immigration issue this year, because it's not really a huge, common thing in New Hampshire that you're going to have a lot of tension between police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In New Hampshire, there are only a couple cities or towns that have ordinances that might fall under that category. So that one is getting attention, but I'm looking more at immigration-related issues, on requiring employers to use E-verify, banning out-of-state immigrant licenses, and so on, and seeing where those issues will unfold.

Melanie Plenda:

Let’s drill down a bit on some of the other issues expected to come up this session. First, let’s talk about the state budget. What’s happening there? And how will that affect people? 

Anna Brown:

I could have answered the entire first question about important legislation by just saying “budget, budget and budget.”

The New Hampshire budget is how we really set our most important priorities, and it's going to be a tough one. Governor Ayotte has already said to expect to tighten your belt. She's already put a hiring freeze on at the state level, and that's because there's several challenges going on.

The federal COVID money that was floating around for several years and earning a lot of interest for the state is all gone now. Business tax revenue is slowing down, and the state is facing a few really challenging lawsuits related to school funding, related to juvenile detention, and the ultimate bill on those is anybody's guess.

We already have a shoestring budget for our state compared to a lot of other states. We know there are almost certainly going to have to be cuts. The governor has said as much. She will give her proposal in February, usually right around Valentine's Day — It’s easy to remember that way — so I'm really going to be curious to see where she's proposing cuts and where she's proposing to hold the line.

She's already said that she's very concerned about mental health. She's very concerned about first responders and law enforcement. So we can presume that she's not going to be looking to make cuts there. But honestly, anything else at state government is on the table.

Melanie Plenda:

There are also bills concerning child abuse up for consideration this session. What are those about? Are they related to some of the horrific cases that have made headlines in the past year?

Anna Brown:

There is a lot of bipartisan concern around child protection in New Hampshire. There are bills looking to criminalize neglect, expand definitions of child endangerment, add more assumptions that harm is occurring — so basically making it easier to remove a child from the home or prosecute — and requiring more interaction and cooperation between child safety workers and police. And this is in response to some high-profile cases. Harmony Montgomery, of course, was murdered by her own father, and it was a really tragic case that has been unfolding over multiple years as more information is uncovered about reports that were made or maybe not followed up on, and where communication didn't happen across state lines or in different departments. So definitely, those bills, I think, have a good chance of moving forward. People are trying to shore up the system. A big challenge, though, is if you don't have enough child protection workers, and people are getting burned out, and they have too large of a caseload — this is going to continue to be an issue in New Hampshire.

So this is another issue that I think might get explored during the state budget process as well, because even if you have wonderful laws, if you don't have enough people working to investigate and protect children, we're going to continue to see failures.

Melanie Plenda:

There’s also a bill aimed at no-cause evictions. What is that about? How will that impact people?

Anna Brown:

This is another repeat bill from years past, and it's sponsored by Rep. Bob Lynn, who is a former chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, so he definitely carries some weight in the House of Representatives. 

This bill would basically allow a landlord to just choose not to renew a lease. Under current law, there has to be some cause, so they can't just say, “No I don't want to rent to you anymore.” It's intended to prohibit discrimination. But the reason this bill is coming up is that there's an idea that, OK, maybe if landlords have the ability to get rid of bad tenants more easily it would encourage more people to become landlords. This is another way to maybe ease the affordable housing crisis in New Hampshire.

The flip side of this is that people are concerned that there will be a movement to just flip tenants and keep on raising rents, and that you can be as picky and discriminatory as you like. Of course, it would still be illegal to actively discriminate against people. But this is the debate. This is the reason why the bill has come up time and time again, and we're going to see if this is the year that it goes forward.

Melanie Plenda:

So, amidst all this, there are also federal mandates coming down the pike. So what is going on with the federal funding freeze, and how will that affect New Hampshire?

Anna Brown:

This is a constantly changing situation. Over a period of just a few days, we saw a complete federal funding freeze. Medicaid portals went down temporarily. There's some debate about whether that was a technical glitch or intentional. Then the Trump administration said they were lifting the order that implemented the freeze, but were still going to continue the review of federal funds. That's a very uncertain environment.

I think the challenge in New Hampshire is how to plan for this going forward, because there are big potential impacts on the budget. At the highest level, about one-third of all of the revenue that's in the New Hampshire budget comes from the federal government, and that might go to roads or schools or contracts for other community services. And it's worth noting that, with our shoestring budget compared to other states, a lot of our social service programs — whether it's after-school programs or public health programs, essential services for new mothers, maybe services for veterans — are coming from nonprofits that get government contracts. So this potential federal funding freeze — it's hard to understate the impact it could have in New Hampshire. But since the landscape continues to change so much on a daily basis, we can't know for sure what ultimately is going to happen.

Melanie Plenda:

Do you expect any of President Trump’s recent executive orders to have an impact on New Hampshire in the coming months? 

Anna Brown:

Absolutely — that's almost undeniable. I've discussed the scope of a federal funding freeze potentially in New Hampshire. Even freezing some of those grants or specific areas of funding could have a very large impact in a state that relies so much on that funding. That being said, it could be a small impact or a big one.

There was also a recent Trump executive order that's looking to expand school choice. So we know that New Hampshire has the Education Freedom Account program, and that allows students to take the per-pupil share of public school funding and spend it on private and homeschool expenses. Is there a world where the Trump administration would support funding that program? It's not impossible.

At this point, I would say the executive orders are written in really broad legal language that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. So absolutely — there will be an impact, and I think it's just up to journalists and nonprofits like Citizens Count and the UNH Law School, and everyone else to just be doing their best to keep reading and talking to each other and doing their best to plan for what might happen.

Melanie Plenda:

Thank you Anna Brown, executive director of Citizens Count as well as executive director of the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership & Public Service at the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law.

“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

By creating a ‘kin first’ culture, the state substantially increased the number of children staying with family

State policy now says children who can’t safely live with their parents do best when they can remain with other family members.

By Kelly Burch-Granite State News Collaborative

Patrick Sweeney’s mornings are busy. He wakes up his 10-year-old granddaughter Kiarah before the sun, and both leave home at about 5:20 — Sweeney to walk a mile and a half to work, and Kiarah to spend time with a babysitter before school starts. 

Afternoons are when the duo can spend quality time together in their Lincoln apartment. 

“We do everything together: We read, play board games, play Hangman,” Sweeney said. 

Kiarah Sweeney and her grandfather, Patrick Sweeney, pose for a portrait in the skylight of her room in Lincoln, N.H. on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. The Sweeneys’ third floor apartment has views of town and the mountains beyond.

It’s not the life that Sweeney, 63, imagined four years ago, before he took custody of Kiarah. Sweeney had raised his seven children and was preparing to retire from his career as a roofer and painter. That’s when one of his sons, a police officer, called to say that Sweeney’s other son, who struggles with substance abuse, was living on the streets with Kiarah. 

Sweeney persuaded Kiarah’s dad to bring her for a visit, and immediately filed for custody. A judge granted the petition, and Sweeney has been parenting Kiarah ever since, trading his would-be Florida retirement for discussions about puberty and working two jobs to make ends meet as a single parent.

“This is my life, and this is what I want to do, and it’s what I’m going to do, but it’s hard,” Sweeney said, his voice cracking. “It’s definitely hard.”

Despite the challenges, research shows that kids who can’t safely live with their parents, often because of substance misuse, do best when they live with family. 

Children placed with family have better mental health outcomes, fewer behavioral issues, and experience fewer moves and school changes than children in foster care with strangers, according to the American Bar Association. 

Kiarah Sweeney and her grandfather, Patrick Sweeney, pose for a portrait in the living room of their Lincoln, N.H. home on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

Over the past few years, New Hampshire has been making a concerted effort to get more children into these kinship placements and to support families like Sweeney’s to make the placements successful. 

“We are really thinking about how to internalize that kin-first culture,” said Marie Noonan, director of the state Department for Children, Youth and Families.

That’s resulted in a shift for Granite State kids. In 2019, just 26 percent of children who came into the foster care system were placed with kin; by last year, that number had jumped to 79 percent, according to state data.

Yet not all kinship placements have involvement from the state agency, commonly called DCYF. Far more placements are informal, where families decide to step in to protect a child. Overall, about 7,000 grandparents in New Hampshire are raising their grandchildren, and about 24,000 children live in homes where a relative other than a parent is the head of household, according to state data. 

A statewide Kinship Navigation Program, administered through the state’s family resources centers, aims to support all kinship caregivers — formal and informal — by connecting them with financial, social and educational resources. 

Kiarah Sweeney shares a story she wrote and illustrated in Lincoln, N.H. on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

Keeping kids with family whenever possible is “the priority,” said Kristin Conlin, kinship program specialist with DCYF.  

“It’s necessary, and it has to happen,” she said. “It’s really important.”

A new process for keeping kids with family

Conlin’s position, created in December 2022, is part of the state’s effort to increase kinship placements. Creating that job “enabled us to really look at how we implement practices and policies” to keep children in kinship families and empower those caregivers, Noonan said. 

In addition, the state began contracting with A Second Chance, a national organization that helps place children with kin and provides resources to kinship caregivers. That contract began in the summer of 2023 and became fully operational in June 2024. 

Now, when a child comes into contact with DCYF, the child’s caseworker and A Second Chance begin working immediately to identify possible kinship placements, should the child need to be removed from their parents’ custody.

Kiarah Sweeney works on a drawing in Lincoln, N.H. on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

“The workers strongly believe that children should be with relatives or kin, and because of that they’re engaging parents from the get-go around who’s in their family system, who could take [the children] temporarily while [parents] work on whatever the issue is that brought the child into care,” Conlin said. 

The state has also made policy changes, such as reducing the amount of state training required for kinship caregivers before a child can be placed in their home, Noonan said.

Finding a kinship placement is only the first step, however. Families need financial and emotional resources to be able to parent that child successfully, especially since many children in the system have trauma. 

That’s where the state’s Kinship Navigation Program comes in. The program, a partnership between the N.H. Children’s Trust and the state’s family resource centers, aims to provide resources to help families address the financial, social and emotional challenges of raising a child. 

“A tremendous amount of resources are necessary and a tremendous amount of parenting strategies are necessary,” said Nathan Fink, senior director of advancement with the Children’s Trust. 

Many caregivers, like Sweeney, have never interacted with the social welfare system before, and sometimes don’t know where to turn. Too often, they carry the financial burden of caregiving themselves, said Lindsay Allsop, director of impact with the Children’s Trust. That can be especially problematic for grandparents on a limited income.

Patrick Sweeney and his granddaughter, Kiarah, hang out before dinner at their home in Lincoln, N.H. on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

“They’re depleting retirement savings and are denied certain benefits,” she said. “They need resources [and] our navigators can really help connect them to programs that they’re eligible for.”

Finding resources to support kin caregivers

Sweeney eventually connected with Megan Woods, a kinship navigator at Whole Village Family Resource Center in Plymouth. She helped him find a range of other resources, including a senior center bus that gives him a ride to the grocery store, health insurance for him and Kiarah, a state case worker, SNAP benefits and fuel assistance. 

“I never knew these resources were there,” Sweeney said. “I have to take advantage of everything I can to try to save us.”

Woods works with about 10 families, spread over a 19-town area. Similar programs exist across the state. In addition to explaining financial benefits, Woods hosts family nights where kids and kinship caregivers can share a meal together, and she teaches parenting classes. After six months to a year with the navigation program, she says, most caregivers have a much better understanding of the resources available to them. 

In the midst of cooking dinner, Kiarah Sweeney and her grandfather, Patrick Sweeney, stand for a photo in their Lincoln, N.H. kitchen on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

“That’s one of my favorite parts – when they can empower themselves after us being in there,” Woods said. 

Other kinship navigators are constantly sharing new resources, Woods said. Yet she doesn’t have every tool she needs for kinship families. Transportation is a major challenge for many rural caregivers, she said. Sweeney, for example, hasn’t been able to participate in caregiver support groups because he doesn’t have a car to make the drive to the family resource center in Plymouth. 

Leaders at the Children’s Trust would like to see even more investment in the kinship program to close gaps like that one. 

“There are so many different pockets of money that could be braided together to support kinship navigation,” said Allsop. 

She would like to see kinship placements — both formal and informal — automatically enrolled in every state benefit they’re eligible for, including SNAP food benefits, cash assistance and Medicaid. 

Patrick Sweeney cooks dinner in the kitchen of his Lincoln, N.H. apartment on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

Kinship caregivers, she said, are often breaking a generational cycle of trauma and substance misuse. That in itself can save the government money long-term and should be supported, she argued. 

While the state is making strides, Allsop says, “we’re still in Band-Aid territory, not system-building territory.”

Caregivers, she said, “need stable, long-term financial support in order to do it right.”

Sweeney said he doesn’t know what he would do without the resources the Kinship Navigation Program has connected him with, and without his local community in Lincoln. 

“As hard as it is for us just to get by, I’m so grateful,” he said. 

Those supports have allowed him to focus on Kiarah, who he says is flourishing. These days she plays basketball, she snowboards, and she’s reading at an eighth-grade level. But her kindness and grace are what Sweeney is most proud of. 

“When she smiles at me and tells me, ‘I love you, Grandpa,’ that will keep me going forever,” he said. 

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

From incarceration to independence: How Dismas Home helps women rebuild their lives in New Hampshire

How does someone move on from being incarcerated? It can’t be easy, but our guests on this episode of “The State We’re In” — Julie McCarthy-Brown, founder, and Cheryll Andrews, executive director, of Dismas Home of New Hampshire — know something about how to do it successfully and why it’s important for the entire community. 

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

Julie, tell us about Dismas Home in Manchester and how it came to be.

Julie McCarthy-Brown:

First of all, I'd like to change “formerly incarcerated women” to “women that are involved in the justice system,” because we serve women throughout the justice system. The state is moving to restoring and helping women grow, and not just from incarceration, but they come from all areas.

The namesake comes from the penitent thief who died on the cross next to Christ. Before he died, he asked Christ for forgiveness and he was given forgiveness, and we want these women to have forgiveness. His namesake is St. Dismas, and it’s called Dismas Home of New Hampshire.

In most of the other states it’s called Dismas House, but we wanted a home, not a house, because these women have never had truly a good home that’s a safe environment for them. We give them the space and the time to recover from the trauma that got them in trouble in the first place.  

Cheryll Andrews:

So the state is moving towards a more restorative process instead of just punitive. So we consider women “justice-involved,” and that could mean pretrial services. We get calls from public defenders. We get calls from the drug courts, because they plead into drug court, and they need a partner, a housing partner, and so we work with them. We do take women from the prison. We take women from the jails. We take them from other programs that they might be involved in — a detox, a 28-day program. So they all have levels of justice involvement, probation and parole — any of those connections give us a place to reach out to women. And we have recently extended our service catchment to include women veterans who are justice-involved.

Melanie Plenda:

And, why was it important to go beyond just the people who were incarcerated to these other aspects of the justice system?

Cheryll Andrews:

If I'm really direct, if we can catch them before they're actually sentenced and put into a situation where they're incarcerated for a number of years it serves them better. And, because the state is moving away from long-term incarceration, they’re still justice-involved. They still have all the stigmas and obstacles attached to their re-entry into the community, including their substance misuse, but they haven't had four years in prison or 18 months in jail. It might have been a shorter stint with probation or community service or some other piece that still connects them to the justice system. But it's not directly incarceration.

Melanie Plenda:

Cheryll, tell us more about the programs of Dismas Home. What does it offer, and how does it help women?

Cheryll Andrews:

So one of the things that we are asked often is, “What do you mean Dismas Home? Is this a faith-based organization?” And my answer is we are a 501c3 nonprofit organization and we are not faith-driven. But I will tell you that a whole lot of people who have a lot of faith are behind the scenes helping us move all the pieces forward. But we do not preach doctrine, and we ask women to connect with their higher power and work and find a spiritual place for themselves, but we do not dictate that, and we don't preach doctrine. That's definitely a question that we're often asked. 

Our program is a Level 3.1 ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) — it’s a national mental health care standard, and it means that we have a set program. They are required to have one hour with the clinician a week, one hour with the drug and alcohol counselor a week. They have to have three immediate group therapy meetings a week in house, and we take them to several outside community meetings every week. So that's the core of it. Plus we are staffed 24/7 with recovery support workers, meaning if they're struggling with something, they can talk to somebody 24/7 here. 

It's a pretty strict program, and residents come to us on a volunteer basis. They have to want to come. I can't make them come, and I can't make them stay. That is key to their ability to move themselves forward, because they're here on their own accord. They can pick up and leave anytime they want, and they can make the choice to stay.  It's pretty important. 

Then when they move into the transitional living program, they move into heavy case management, where we begin to really help them focus on the plan to leave us, because it's going to come, and we need to help you figure out what that looks like and how to get there. It might be education, it might be a driver's license, it might be finding housing. It's certainly about helping them find meaningful work that's not a get-well job, which is something like Dunkin’ Donuts or McDonald’s. It's a meaningful job where they will earn benefits and wages that will help them move forward to an independent level and all of the surrounding support that needs to happen.

Melanie Plenda:

Julie, how does Dismas Home support itself? 

Julie McCarthy-Brown:

We support ourselves in many different areas. We take donations, we do grants, we have corporate sponsors, volunteering — our board, for instance, is totally 100% volunteers — and they give up their time and they’re all ages. 

We have volunteers that come in. We have a book club starting right now. We have a woman who just became a professional chef, and she's coming in to work with the women. We have canine therapy. We have equine therapy. We have a lot of different programs in which people can support if they are just able to volunteer. Sometimes we have to find someone to help them get a GED, get them through that paperwork and the process to have that behind them, because there are some that arrive with no high school education. 

We also work with colleges. If a woman wants to become a vet tech, we find a scholarship for her so that she can fulfill those dreams and have a very meaningful life — something she loves going forward. Because, if you enjoy your job, it's not work.

Melanie Plenda:

Here’s a question for both of you — why is a place like this needed? Let’s start with Julie then to Cheryll. 

Julie McCarthy-Brown:

You need long-term help overcoming what you've grown up with and how you've lived in your life. Sometimes our women come with 25 years of addiction — selling drugs, being on the street, you don't know. We don't ask them their story — they’ve learned never to trust anybody, and they really just can't fathom the fact that people that don't know them personally would support them financially and would care enough to come and help them. It's very important to have that underpinning. 

When you see them succeed — I equate it to a rose blooming. When they bloom and it's fully fragrant, it is gorgeous to watch — very, very fulfilling to work with this population. I'm blessed to be able to have somebody like Cheryl who runs around very diligently for us.

Cheryll Andrews:

The personal connection for me is this:I have a sister who spent some time in jail, probably more than 20 years ago now, and when she came out, I had no way of helping her. I had no resources. I had nobody to tell me how to help her get herself moving. She was fortunate enough to find a program that helped her, and she is now living her most beautiful life with her family. So when I came to Dismas Home, I wanted to help somebody else's sister, because maybe family isn't the right place for them to go, or they certainly don't have the clinical skills. 

Women don't know how much help that they need because they built this steel cage around themselves of no trust. It's survival mode. But what they want is what the rest of us want — a normal, healthy, happy life, free of addiction, free of all this craziness that goes on because of the addiction, and to move forward to be able to have their children and enjoy going grocery shopping and have a home, the simple things in life that we all take for granted. They don't take any of it for granted, and there are so many of them — on average, over the course of a year, it's about 2,000 women in the state of New Hampshire who are justice-involved, and we can help right now. 

Melanie Plenda:

I’m sure people understand how Dismas Home helps these women, but let’s talk a little bit more about how it can also help the community.

Cheryll Andrews:

The argument is the humanity, right? The human side of things. I want to help her. She deserves help. She shouldn't have to live this way. It helps her. It helps her family. It helps break that cycle of recidivism and substance misuse. It keeps her from teaching those bad habits to her children. It helps her to find new ways to be successful, and that helps the community at large.

It offers her an opportunity to go to work. Our unemployment rate is really low, and there are boatloads of jobs out there, so if we can help someone get back into the workforce — we're helping the community on that foot. If she’s also a taxpaying citizen, she’s also contributing to society by paying her taxes. We're also helping save the state money on the other end because she's not in and out, in and out, in and out of the jail system relentlessly, or she's not living on the street where she could freeze or where she could die from anything. So if you're looking at it from the human perspective, we're helping a small chunk, a very small drop in the bucket, of people who need help. But if we can help one, and then she can help one, then we're helping more than one, and we're hopefully making that ripple effect in the community. 

Melanie Plenda:

Julie, what are your plans for the future of the organization? 

Julie McCarthy-Brown:

Cheryl always laughs at me when I talk about this. The dream 11 years ago was to have a home in every county in the state for women, and probably some for men, too. We've been asked to do it for men, but right now, the women have nothing — and that's where we're concentrating our efforts. We’ll eventually have one for men, but we'd like to have at least 10 homes.

Melanie Plenda:

And for those who would like to offer help or support, what do you need and how can they do it?

Cheryll Andrews:

Anyone who wants to help us in a wide variety of ways can send an email to info@Dismashomenh.org. Visit the website, do a little research, pick up the phone and call us. 

We're always open to lots of ideas and possibilities all the time. We have a group of volunteers that come to us from the Manchester Area Human Resources Association, and that organization has about 180 members, and they come once a month. There's a group of women who come once a month, and they do interviewing skills and resume-building skills, and how to dress for an interview, talking about what kinds of work they might want to do when they leave here or eventually, and trying to help them sort out what do I need to get there? Sometimes the conversations are pretty short, but they're planting seeds all the time to help them move themselves forward. 

You know, our motto is, “You can always make another choice.” So if today you're not making the best choice, you can make another choice today. You can make another choice tomorrow. So it's important that they know that their future is in their hands.

Melanie Plenda:

Julie McCarthy-Brown and Cheryll Andrews from Dismas Home of New Hampshire, thank you for joining us today. 

“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.

Bill would expand school voucher program to all families, at steep cost

The expansion would cost the state government more than $100 million a year, according to analysis. 

By Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative

Lawmakers will hear testimony Thursday (Jan. 16) on a bill that would expand eligibility for educational freedom accounts — commonly known as school vouchers — to all New Hampshire families, regardless of income. 

That expansion, proposed in House Bill 115, could cost the state $102 million during the 2025-26 school year, according to Reaching Higher NH, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on education in the Granite State.

Educational freedom accounts provide families vouchers averaging $4,600 per child toward the cost of homeschooling or private school tuition. That is based on the amount that the state pays per pupil to public and charter schools. 

Vouchers are currently available to families with incomes at or below 350 percent of the federal poverty level, equal to $109,200 for a family of four. House Bill 115, sponsored by 15 Republican lawmakers, would remove the income cap altogether. A hearing on the bill will be held Thursday, Jan. 16, at 1 p.m. The public can also submit written testimony. 

People who oppose the expansion say the state is already underfunding public education. They point to ongoing court battles in the ConVal and Rand cases, in which judges have ruled that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to fund an adequate education for students, thus putting the funding burden for schools on local taxpayers. 

“Every dollar that is spent on school vouchers is a dollar that’s not available for public schools, charter schools and property tax relief,” said Christina Pretorius, policy director for Reaching Higher NH. 

Pretorius argues that the voucher expansion would steer state dollars to families that have already opted for private education or homeschooling.

“Basically, it’s just finding ways to subsidize money they’re already spending,” she said. 

Kate Baker Demers is executive director of the Children’s Scholarship Fund NH, which administers the educational freedom account program. She argues that state education funding should be available to every student, whether they’re educated in public school, private school, or at home. 

“Having the income limits on this state adequate education grant that otherwise follows the child, really it shouldn’t be there,” she said. “It should be for every child in the state, logically.”

She said last year 325 children applied for educational freedom accounts, but were found ineligible because their family’s income exceeded the limit — $109,200 for a family of four. Families with incomes “a few dollars over that [limit] feel like this is the most important discussion of their children’s lifetime,” Baker Demers said. 

The effort to expand education freedom accounts comes amid concerns about the transparency of the program. Last year, the state Department of Education declined to make all data available for a legally required performance audit, InDepthNH reported. In addition, a state audit in 2024 found that Children’s Scholarship Fund NH approved some families for the voucher program when their income exceeded limits.

“There is growing concern over the lack of transparency and accountability with the school voucher program,” Pretorius said. 

Baker Demers disagreed, saying there’s “adequate transparency” around the program. 

Zandra Rice Hawkins, executive director of Granite State Progress — an organization that promotes progressive solutions to critical community problems — said that lawmakers’ top priority should be fully funding public schools and addressing taxpayer concerns about school costs, not expanding vouchers.\

“The first question is whether or not we’re fully funding our public schools and we know that we’re not,” she said. She points to recent public concerns, such as those voiced during a deliberative session in the Kearsarge School District, where voters on both sides of a proposed spending cap expressed frustration with the state’s funding formula. 

“It has been very clear that the message from local communities is support for the public schools,” Rice Hawkins said, “but we haven’t seen that call be answered from Concord.” 

State Reps. Valerie McDonnell, R-Rockingham, and Rick Ladd, R-Grafton, sponsors of House Bill 115, did not respond to requests for comment. 

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.

In the wake of the COVID pandemic, what viruses concern experts today?

While the COVID-19 pandemic may be over, our concerns about another virus leading to another one will likely never go away. What viruses are concerning doctors and health officials now? Here to discuss current health concerns is infectious disease specialist Dr. Michael Calderwood, chief quality officer at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

As an infectious disease specialist, how are things looking this season? What are you watching and what are your concerns? 

Michael Calderwood:

We often see in the winter months, and particularly after the holidays at the end of December, an increase in a number of viral illnesses, many of them hitting at the same time. Things like the common cold — which is caused actually by a few different viruses — flu, RSV and norovirus and the impact that's had on families.

Melanie Plenda:

In terms of bird flu, what is concerning about this virus, and why are we watching human cases so closely? 

Michael Calderwood:

Avian influenza, which goes by the other name H5N1, can cause very severe illness in animals and has the potential to be transmissible to humans. We have seen cases, and have now recorded our first death from avian influenza in the United States. 

That individual who died was older and had some comorbidities, and so it wasn't unexpected that they might have a more severe outcome from that illness. The worry is that if it were to mutate and become more transmissible — meaning that we have human to human transmission or spread in communities — it can cause very severe illness. Also, it has that potential to cause a pandemic that is what is worrying.

Melanie Plenda:

Can you tell us more about the recent human cases? 

Michael Calderwood:

Up until this point, we have seen fairly mild illness, and when we think about avian influenza, a lot of what we have seen is individuals who are working with animals — it may infect things such as the eyes from direct contact or cause mild respiratory illness. This individual ended up with a severe lower respiratory tract illness, ended up in an ICU and died. Again, that is the severe form, and as this mutates, the worry as we could see more of that.

Melanie Plenda:

How are health officials tracking this and other cases of flu? 

Michael Calderwood:

We have the ability to test for all the different types of flu, so when individuals come into health care — whether that be seeing a provider in the outpatient setting or coming into an emergency or hospital setting — we can test for flu and tell what type of flu it is. There is state-level and national-level testing actually looking to characterize what is circulating. That's gone on for years, because it's important to know what's circulating so that we can match the vaccines and make sure that we are updating those each year. 

Melanie Plenda:

What about COVID? Is that still a concern this season? 

Michael Calderwood:

If you look at the respiratory viruses that are circulating right now, COVID is actually the lowest that it has been in recent years, and a lot of that is related to population immunity, much through vaccination.

We are seeing more influenza — that began to peak a little bit about a week earlier than it has in years past. RSV is about 20% higher this year. And we are seeing a number of other viruses. I will say that we actually have tests for a lot of viruses that we didn't routinely use in past years. We would always say, ‘“This is just the common cold,”, but not test for it. Now we can put a name to it and say what is circulating. It doesn't mean it wasn't always there. It just means that we are detecting it more on tests.

Melanie Plenda:

We’ve also heard a lot recently about norovirus. Can you tell us more about what that is and why it’s concerning? 

Michael Calderwood:

Norovirus is a highly transmissible virus, and it causes a gastrointestinal illness. It really attacks pretty much the entire family, if one were to get it. When it comes into a household, you see pretty much everyone in the family falling ill. It's about 48 hours, typically, in terms of its duration. But that 48 hours is very severe. You're having vomiting and diarrhea at the same time, feeling very rundown and fatigue. We tend to see over time that new strains will emerge. This is the first new strain in about seven years. 

Prior to this, people who had been exposed to norovirus had some level of immunity and maybe didn't have as severe of an illness. With this new strain being introduced into the population, this year is worse for norovirus, and a lot of people's holiday plans were unfortunately disrupted by this. I've described this as being quite memorable. Thankfully, my family and I have not suffered this time, but we have had it in the past, and it is definitely something that sets you back when it runs through your family.

Melanie Plenda:

How worried should we be about that? 

Michael Calderwood:

I would say that this is a natural trend, that every decade or so you're going to see a new strain that develops. This is running its course. I would say that I'm not particularly worried long term about the impact of this.

Melanie Plenda:

What should we do to stay healthy? 

Michael Calderwood:

So there are a number of things. Obviously, as the weather turns cold, we're going to spend more time inside and gather with others. As we've learned in years past, when you are ill you're at risk of transmitting that illness to others, and particularly respiratory illness. So staying home when you're sick, thinking about wearing a mask to protect others when you need to go out in the community. Frequent hand washing is critical at all times, but particularly in the winter months, when we know that we have more of these illnesses that are spread by secretions, such as a runny nose. 

Then, as we think about things like norovirus, washing hands with norovirus is best with soap and water. Alcohol-based hand rubs are very good for respiratory viruses, but norovirus in particular requires soap, water, and bleach is important for cleaning the environment. I also mentioned food-handling, and at any time you want to be thinking about how you are handling raw food and how you're washing your hands.

Melanie Plenda:

When should we seek medical help? 

Michael Calderwood:

When you are feeling ill — a lot of us kind of have a sense. So if we begin to have difficulty breathing - many people these days actually may have the ability to measure their oxygen at home — If you see your oxygen levels are dropping. Obviously, if people are having difficulty breathing while they sleep, or if you see anyone that appears to be changing color. These are very severe things that you'd want to bring people into the hospital for. 

But the other thing is who might benefit from treatment? We have medicines for flu, we have medicines for a number of different conditions. and so coming in to be tested, we can treat your COVID, we can treat your flu — and particularly if you have underlying illnesses that would predispose you, whether it be your age or your diabetes or medicines that suppress your immune system — we can help to protect you, get you better sooner if you take these medicines.

Melanie Plenda:

Has the pandemic changed or had an impact on the way the hospital responds to these and other virus concerns? 

Michael Calderwood:

What was interesting is that we actually had pretty good systems in place even before the pandemic. We are always taking a global look and seeing what might be on the horizon.Obviously, a lot of this grew out of earlier pandemics, whether this be from the initial SARS or from the risk of Ebola, or even the 2009 H1N1. We have teams that are meeting regularly to say, “What do we need to be concerned about that is coming around the corner?” 

I actually remember the initial conversations in December 2019 as we began to see the emergence of SARS COVID 2, the virus that causes COVID. But we had systems in place to say, “How do we begin to screen people? How do we make sure that we are setting up the hospital to be able to handle that?” Obviously, the pandemic made us strengthen some of those systems. I am worried about the fact that we are reducing some of our public health infrastructure at a time when it will increasingly be necessary, but I would say that the hospitals continue to be on a footing of preparedness.

Melanie Plenda:

What about society as a whole? Should we think about changing the way we live or vacation or work when we see some of these things?

Michael Calderwood:

I would say that you always want to be looking at where you're traveling and what might be circulating, and for particular places, it is helpful to get some pre-travel consultation. We here at Dartmouth Health have a travel clinic and can help to think about vaccines and medicines you might take to protect yourself during your travel. 

The other thing is to understand the availability of health care resources where you're going, particularly if you take medicines and have underlying illness, understand if you were to fall sick, how would you get help? What are the hospitals? How could you fly home if you were sick? These are standard things I would say for anyone who is traveling, not that I'm particularly worried and saying don't travel to location X, Y or Z at the present time, but it's always important to understand what is in those areas you might be traveling to.

I love to travel. I think travel is something that we can do a lot more of, and it's nice to be able to get back to it after the pandemic, but we just think about how we do it safely.

Melanie Plenda:

That was fascinating. Infectious disease expert Dr. Michael Calderwood, chief quality officer at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, thank you so much for joining us today. 

“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.

How a warmer climate is changing access to water, New Hampshire’s most precious resource

Water may be our most basic and precious resource, however, as the New Hampshire climate gets warmer and wetter, residents and towns are finding it increasingly difficult to get access to it. On this episode of “The State We’re In,” Melanie Plenda talks with Mary Stampone, New Hampshire state climatologist and an associate professor of geography at the University of New Hampshire, whose undergraduate courses in environmental geography include courses on weather, climate, and natural hazards.

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

The region is in the midst of a drought. What does that look like in New Hampshire? And what led to the drought here? 

Mary Stampone:

Drought in New England is typically caused by a lack of precipitation, but it can be exacerbated by temperature. For example, in summer, the higher temperatures can cause more water to evaporate from lakes, ponds and soil, and this can cause conditions to deteriorate rapidly during long spells without rain. But in winter, we're largely concerned with groundwater levels, because at temperatures below freezing, frozen ground limits groundwater recharge from the surface — under normal conditions, we also see most of our water on the surface as snow. So drought conditions tend to persist through the winter months until spring.

Melanie Plenda:

What needs to happen over the winter or into the spring to alleviate these drought conditions?
Mary Stampone:

Recent rainfall over the holidays allowed for some slow improvement, but groundwater levels are still below normal. We really need to see some snow. Ideally, we want to have a consistent snowpack through the winter, through early spring, followed by a slow, steady snowmelt to balance the water use during the spring leaf-out, which can draw a lot of groundwater when we already have low groundwater levels.

Melanie Plenda:

Is that likely to happen this year, do you think? 

Mary Stampone:

It's hard to say for now, but we still have plenty of winter left. One of the concerns, though, going forward is that as our winters have warmed, we're seeing more instances of snowmelts as well as rain on snow events within the winter season. In the short term, that water can keep conditions from deteriorating in real time, but it lessens the amount of snow melt going into the spring, which can exacerbate spring dryness. 

Melanie Plenda:

Is it true that, generally, New Hampshire’s climate is getting warmer and wetter — and if so, then why are we going through a drought? 

Mary Stampone:

We are overall becoming warmer and wetter, but we still have a substantial variability in how much precipitation we get from year to year, season to season, month to month.

What we also see as we get warmer is that the precipitation is coming in these bigger events, and we're kind of getting it all at once, rather than having it spread out. Then you combine that with the warmer temperatures, and we have a potential for having longer, drier periods between rain events that leaves us vulnerable to drought.

Melanie Plenda:

How will all this affect New Hampshire’s agriculture? 

Mary Stampone:

We've already seen some substantial impacts on agriculture, but given these impacts from recent droughts, many farmers, in coordination with state agencies, are really investing in building drought resiliency, which can include everything from more infrastructure — but probably more importantly — more water-efficient practices that will, long term, reduce our vulnerability to drought. 

Melanie Plenda:

So many New Hampshire residents rely on wells. What can they do to prepare for a drier future? 

Mary Stampone:

First and foremost, reduce water use where you can. Consider your indoor water use, and if you are able to invest in more water-efficient appliances, that's a great start. Consider your outdoor water use. If you have a garden, hand-water if possible, think about your yard and having a perfect green grass yard made of clover — other plants like that — can be more drought-resistant and still look nice. So think about your individual water use and try to conserve where you can. 

Melanie Plenda:

What can towns do to help with this issue? What sort of proposals are on the table?
Mary Stampone:

I know several towns in the Seacoast have invested in redundant water systems so we have one or more than one water source. If we rely on stream flow and if stream levels are low, we can go to a groundwater system — things like that.

Water regulations are also a tool — limiting outdoor water use or un-essential water use during the driest parts of the summer season can help. Also education — educating citizens on water use in ways that individuals can reduce.

Melanie Plenda:

What about at the state level? What can be done there to help alleviate the problem?

Mary Stampone:

Policy and support for communities during drought periods can greatly improve our resilience, but assistance for towns and individuals to increase water efficiencies as well as improve infrastructure. A lot of the investments that the state made following the 2001 drought and as well as in the 2016 drought, for people to dig deeper wells or, again, grants to improve water efficiencies, have all actually helped build resilience to drought. All of these improvements help us as we kind of move into this future where we may see, may see more summer drought.

Melanie Plenda:

Is that more of a tough sell, given some of legislators’ attitudes about climate change? 

Mary Stampone:

I don't think it should. I mean, these are practices that our state agencies and our state government have already engaged in in recent droughts dating back decades. This isn't a new phenomenon for New Hampshire. We do see dry periods from time to time, and these investments have been made in the past, and I don't see why these policies should change in the future.

The impacts can be great, and they impact our economy — agriculture, but also tourism, water quality, water availability, and so these are pressures that we've faced for a while, and we'll continue to face, and our state has addressed them, and hopefully they'll continue to do that.

Melanie Plenda:

What advice do you have for New Hampshire residents who are concerned about this issue?

Mary Stampone:

At the individual level, think about how you use water, and if there are ways that you can be more efficient in your water use and reduce your water use. Going forward, every drop counts. And one thing going into the summer season is that the soils are going to use more water, plants are going to use more water, people are going to use more water. But we don't know how much rain we're going to get, and in the winter, we don't know how much snow we're going to get. Building in water-efficiency practices, regardless of the drought conditions, is a really good thing that people can do.

Melanie Plenda:

Mary Stampone, New Hampshire state climatologist and associate professor of geography at the University of New Hampshire, thank you for joining us today. 

“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.

New Hampshire nonprofits brace themselves for uneasy 2025

Higher costs, decline in giving and political uncertainties top their concerns

By Susan Geier-Granite State News Collaborative

 Nonprofits play a unique role in New Hampshire by supporting its residents every day. They are not simply organizations that do good works — nonprofits are a critical part of the state’s infrastructure in providing direct, essential services, the backbone of the safety net. 

‘The nonprofit sector in New Hampshire arguably plays a larger role than in almost any other state in the country, and that's because we have a minimalist approach to government,’ says Dick Ober, CEO of the N.H. Charitable Foundation. (Courtesy photo)

But heading into 2025, there is concern in the sector as demand for services increase amid higher costs, decreased giving, shrinking state budgets and uncertainties surrounding the incoming administration in Washington.

“The nonprofit sector in New Hampshire arguably plays a larger role than in almost any other state in the country, and that's because we have a minimalist approach to government,” said Dick Ober, CEO of the N.H. Charitable Foundation, which awards more than $60 million in grants and scholarships every year. “Nonprofits support and do so much of the work in the state that actually is kind of invisible, and we've all come to take it almost for granted.”

New Hampshire’s more than 9,600 nonprofits employ over 14 percent of the state’s workforce, substantially higher than the national rate of less than 10 percent. According to tax filings, they reported a collective revenue of $17.2 billion in 2023.

Many of them receive contracts from the state and federal governments to provide essential services, such as child care, health care, mental and behavioral health care, food and nutrition services, transportation and in-home care for people of all ages. 

“A fair amount of what (the state) does is work in partnership with nonprofits,” said Kathleen Reardon, CEO of the N.H. Center for Nonprofits, a statewide association that provides programs and resources to support nonprofits across the state. “There are a lot of strengths in the model. Nonprofits can be nimbler than state government. We are close to our communities, and so we understand the needs in the communities. We're part of that community where nonprofits, by their very nature, are accountable to our community.”

Coping with uncertainties

But several unknowns at both the state and national level are weighing on the entire sector as it heads into the new year, including an end of COVID-era relief funding, a decline in New Hampshire tax revenue and political uncertainties. 

“I hear pretty consistently from organizations that they are responding to rising demand for services while managing complex issues,” said Reardon, adding that those concerns continue to be workforce, housing and child care shortages. “Nonprofits are at the forefront of helping think through or develop solutions to the state's most pressing issues.”

While outgoing Gov. Chris Sununu has called for state agencies to cut vacant positions and reduce their budgets by 4 percent, it’s unclear how the new governor, Kelly Ayotte, will approach the next biennial budget. 

At the same time, those agencies have collectively requested $1.78 billion more (an 11.7 percent increase) than is in the current state budget, according to the N.H. Fiscal Policy Institute

Then there is the incoming Trump administration. 

“There’s concern around the new administration and what potential policy changes could mean for the people nonprofits serve and for the nonprofits themselves,” said Molly Hodgson, CEO of GoodWork in Portsmouth, an organization that supports nonprofits on the Seacoast. “We've had organizations asking about federal tax policies and how that might affect them. There could be changes in government funding priorities for those that get federal funding. Locally, nonprofits are concerned if the demand for services and support continues to grow, how will they be able to meet that need?”

She and Chief Operating Officer Maria Sillari encourage nonprofits to focus on what they can control. “There are so many people needed to do the work, (staff) is often the biggest line item in most budgets,” Hodgson said. “ We work with them to mitigate turnover and burnout, which is key to reducing costs. ‘

Reardon agreed: “In a lot of boardrooms, there are some intense conversations about understanding what may be happening, and people are doing scenario planning.” 

However, shifting political winds and tight budgets are not new and are factors that all nonprofits (and any business) face. 

“At times like this, we think it's more important than ever that people dig deep to support their nonprofit organizations with both charitable donations and with gifts of time as volunteers when they can,” said Ober. “Nonprofits in New Hampshire are incredibly adaptive. The volunteers and the staff who work for them are committed to the missions, and they figure out a way to provide the services that people need.”

That applies to fundraising, which continues to be a challenge for organizations that rely heavily on charitable giving for a large part of their funding. Charitable giving is down across the country, impacted in particular by inflation and other economic concerns.

Nonprofits “really need to be very strategic about their fundraising,” said Reardon. “I'm hearing from the field that they continue to work even harder to show their impact, to raise those funds that are needed.” 

She also recommended that nonprofits seek diversification within their revenue streams as opposed to adding new sources of revenue. It takes different capacities, for example, either to contract with government or to raise funds from private donors.

“It's understanding your mission, what your revenue capacities are, and lining that up,” she said. “It takes a lot of strategy to think that through and figure out where you invest your time and resources.”

Another solution? Collaboration. 

‘In a lot of boardrooms, there are some intense conversations about understanding what may be happening, and people are doing scenario planning’ for 2025, according to Kathleen Reardon, CEO of the N.H.Center for Nonprofits. (Courtesy photo)

Hodgson said GoodWork advises nonprofits to focus on what they can control, which is connecting with their stakeholders and building relationships with community partners. 

To foster those partnerships, GoodWork launched the Seacoast Impact Collaborative, made up of 14 social service agencies that get together to discuss issues, explore resources and network. 

“I think collaboration and partnership are the wave of the future,” she said. “If you really want to serve people, we're going to have to do it together.”

Even if giving is down and government budgets are cut, the need for services doesn’t go away, said Ober. 

“What individuals can do is support their nonprofit organizations, whichever ones they believe in most, and pay attention to some of the budget and policy changes that could impact themselves and their neighbors,” he said. “Engage in those conversations with policymakers.”

Reardon agreed: “We continue to see funding coming from a smaller amount of people. We really need —  as a sector — to continue to promote opportunities for people to understand that every dollar matters.”

That is one reason the center created the annual 24-hour online fundraising event NH Gives. Every June, it gives the state’s nonprofits a chance to raise awareness and collectively raise money. Some $3.5 million was raised for 649 participating organizations this year.

Beyond essential services, Ober added, the depth and breadth of what nonprofits do is not often understood. 

“If you go to see any sort of live music or plays, virtually all of the performing arts theaters in the state are nonprofit,” he said. “So much of the land that's been conserved in the state, where people might get out to take a walk, to take a hike, to walk their animals, walk their pets — many of those properties have been conserved for the public through the work of nonprofit organizations. That’s what I mean when I say it touches people every day.”




These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

N.H. journalists weigh in on 2024's biggest stories and prospects for 2025

The year 2024 had many firsts and a bit of deja vu. We saw a spirited presidential election — first between former and now President-elect Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden, and later between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. As we bid goodbye to 2024, let’s take a look back at some of the major stories and issues that dominated headline — and look ahead to what 2025 holds — with three veteran journalists: Keene Sentinel managing editor for audience development Jack Rooney, Manchester Ink Link editor and publisher Carol Robidoux and Laconia Daily Sun reporter Gabriel Perry.

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

Let’s start with the presidential election. What were some of the highlights of 2024 election coverage? 

Jack Rooney:

Thinking back to January and the presidential primary, it's almost easy to forget that Joe Biden wasn't even on the ballot in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire and ended up winning as a write-in candidate. I also think New Hampshire did still keep its first-in-the nation primary status, bucking the [Democratic National Committee’s] wishes.

It was a different time. Nikki Haley was still challenging Trump for the Republican nomination, and there was maybe a little bit of uncertainty going into the New Hampshire primary that Haley could mount a sustained challenge to President-elect Trump. But the New Hampshire primary seemed to be a bit of a turning point for Haley and for Trump, and it seemed inevitable that he was going to win the nomination for a third straight time.
Then, here in Keene, in the Monadnock Region, which tends to be a pretty liberal, progressive corner of the state ended up being, you know, having signs of a bit of a red wave. Vice President Harris did win Cheshire County, and obviously won the state of New Hampshire as well, but she ran several points behind Joe Biden in Keene and Cheshire County compared to the 2020 election. So even though Vice President Harris won New Hampshire's electoral votes and the federal delegation remained Democratic, at the State House level and statewide, New Hampshire was part of that kind of red wave as well.

Gabriel Perry:

We really experienced a lot of audience engagement about the election. the whole time. Our letters section was extremely lively all the way up to the day. Something I found particularly interesting this time around was that there seemed to be quite a link or an influence on local and state races. It seemed like all roads led to the presidential election, and people referred to either candidate pretty consistently throughout all of their campaigns as well. So it was pretty fascinating to see the influence that had.

Melanie Plenda:

What about your top statewide stories of the year? As you look back, what were some of the biggest stories at the state level? 

Jack Rooney:

For us at the Sentinel, a lot of the statewide stories that we followed continued to be really how state-level policies and politics played out at the local level. For instance, the school funding debate in New Hampshire — the constitutional challenge is back before the Supreme Court, led by the ConVal school district based in Peterborough, which is within our coverage area. And while that's a big statewide issue and a big statewide story, we see the effects of it at the local level all the time. 

Gabriel Perry:

Something we spent a lot of time covering, that maps on to pretty much every region in the state is the development of housing and everything that goes along with that. As we see people increasingly interested in coming to New Hampshire to live their lives and start families here, we also see at the same time that not every area necessarily has the infrastructure or the housing stock to support it, so stuff like that really kind of took the forefront throughout much of the state this year. 

Carol Robidoux:

I'm going to roll back to the total eclipse, which was kind of like an eclipse-chasing moment for all of New Hampshire. We were so close to places where you could really go to get that full view, and it created an odd sense of community in a way where people were jumping on buses and going to Vermont or up north to find a place where they could hang out and be with other people when the skies went black for a minute, and it was pretty neat. So that was fun. 

As far as politics, I would say, the biggest impact here in Manchester in particular was the gubernatorial race and some of the negative campaigning by Kelly Ayotte, who eventually won. But she was running against the former mayor of Manchester, Joyce Craig, and she went very negative with her advertising, portraying Manchester as a place that even the rats probably wouldn't want to live. It really struck a chord with the business community that there was some backlash on that. I think if she comes to Manchester in 2025 she's going to need to go on a goodwill tour to build back the good feelings.

Melanie Plenda:

What about the local level? What were some of the biggest stories in your respective regions?

Gabriel Perry:

Something that more recently became a prime issue, but has been in the news for quite a while is the sale and development of the State School property located in Laconia. That's sort of a state and a local story. It's been fascinating to follow. There's a whole lot of contingencies around it that people have their skepticisms about and their anxieties. Also, people, especially business owners in the area, seem to be looking forward to that potential. It's sort of a symbol of the revitalization of the area. 

The state school is a large property owned by the state and located in Laconia. It was formerly the site of a prison and a mental health center at different points, and there's been sort of this like long, winding saga over the past number of years in terms of selling it to a real estate developer and turning it into something productive for the future. A major deal fell through earlier in the year, and that deal included a very high sales price. In more recent months, a different developer, the Pillsbury Realty Group, actually won the contract to purchase the land and develop the property. So that's well underway in terms of the planning phase right now, and people feel somewhat burned by the original deal, which didn't end up coming to fruition. 

Carol Robidoux:

Housing is really in the forefront of everything that the media is covering here in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness recently issued a report based on the last point-in-time count from earlier in the year, citing New Hampshire as having the highest increase in homelessness of of all 50 states, where the national average was like a 12% increase — we had like a 52% increase

That statistic hopefully will generate some interest in Concord to look at the state as a whole and see that the major cities like Laconia, Manchester, Concord, Nashua — we are all bearing the brunt of this increase in homelessness, and it's not something we're doing wrong. It's something that the state has to wrap its arms around as well and help find immediate solutions to this, which is rapid rehousing, which is transitional housing for people to get out of shelters or out of homelessness. It's a very complex issue, but that really is probably one of the bigger issues. 

Melanie Plenda:

Beyond these stories, it seemed like there were recurring themes that hit headlines. You mentioned affordable housing and workforce development. Immigration also seemed to be a big concern throughout the year and will likely be in 2025. What stories did we see in New Hampshire? What ways might we view that topic in the news going forward? 

Carol Robidoux:

Manchester has had various groups come in as part of resettlement projects. Most recently, we had some Afghani refugees come, and interestingly one of them is a journalist, and he came with the idea that he wanted to tell some of those stories of getting grounded here in Manchester. So through working with him a little bit, we've had conversations with the International Institute of New England, and trying to really understand the relationship between the federal allocation of money and how it disappears pretty quickly, and then what that means going forward in terms of making sure that of the success for the people that are here.

And of course, we hear incidentally, especially from some [board of mayor and aldermen] members here in in Manchester, that they're part of that national narrative around immigration and refugees and sort of not wanting to be welcoming cities — the fear that we're going to become something different than we've been all along.  It's kind of correcting the thinking around what it means to be a refugee or an immigrant in 2025 in New Hampshire.

And, to be honest, there is still a lot of uncertainty, really, across the board, as far as what the national narrative is going to be. We're waiting to see what happens when President Trump enters office, and if there's continued talk about mass deportation or if that was more campaign rhetoric — we don't know, but it could really have a lot of fallout here in New Hampshire, as well as everywhere. We have a lot of families that are right now on edge. 

Gabriel Perry:

We ended up following a really quite interesting story here earlier this year, back in September. Of course, one of the main drivers of the economy here is the seasonal tourism business, and we had a prominent local business owner who was interested and sought to develop some workforce housing, essentially in a neighboring town, with the idea that he would bring in some of these visa workers who generally work for him every summer.

The town where this development was initially planned really showed a lot of opposition to the idea, and the idea eventually died. It was kind of an interesting cross-section of the discussion on immigration, sort of outside of the political context of the election and some of these other things like infrastructure and development problems that we are seeing and trying to work through here in the Lakes Region.

Melanie Plenda:

What about inflation? That also seemed to dominate headlines and the election. What sorts of things did you cover in that realm and what do you expect to look into for 2025?

Gabriel Perry:

Mostly our coverage of inflation has really kind of come in response to people describing the trouble they've had with rising costs all across the board, whether it be essentials like food and gas or, most presciently, housing. People talk a lot about the need to develop more housing because of rising rent costs, but it's not quite so simple in order for developers to have the incentives to make housing that can be priced affordably. Things along those lines have been pretty prominent in our coverage throughout the whole year, and I expect that will continue.

Carol Robidoux:

I think we're seeing a little adjustment in the housing market with the median price of a house in November was, I think, lower than it had been since about March, and sales were up a little bit. I think the rising cost of getting by is kind of what people are focused on in terms of hitting the panic button. The price of eggs is almost like a meme, but it's kind of true and we kind of see the rising cost of staples in the supermarket like that. And I feel like we need to track that for the sake of the consumer, to see what the reality is.

You have the threat of possible tariffs on things. So will the cost of doing business for builders and for construction, any industry that requires goods, imported steel — is that going to price us out of something, and is it going to have a trickle-down effect on the average citizen? 

There's a lot of uncertainty, and we don't know the answers to these things. If we had a crystal ball, it'd probably look really blurry right now, because there's just too many open-ended things. But I do think that it's a common theme you hear in casual conversation with anybody, that the cost of living has become an issue for the average person, and with tax bills reflecting the inflated price of the value of a home, it’s a good news/bad news kind of thing.

Melanie Plenda:

As you look ahead to 2025, what stories do you think will dominate New Hampshire headlines? 

Carol Robidoux:

Probably it's going to be all about all the housing that is going to be coming online. I think the last year, year and a half, two years, municipalities in the larger cities and towns have known that the housing issue is something that needed to be addressed. There was a lot of ARPA money floating around, and there's been this infusion of money to build things. Well now we’re going to see what happens with a lot of these units coming online.  Are they going to have stabilized pricing? They've been advertising apartments anywhere between $2,500 and $3,500 a month. Is that going to be sustainable, or are they going to have to reduce pricing, and is the market going to sort of level out a little bit? 

So I think just housing is really going to be everybody's big story, again. Not to be a broken record, but I think that until we fix that we're gonna be talking about it. 

Gabriel Perry:

I totally concur that housing will likely remain one of the, if not the, top story next year.

Two other things I'm looking at pretty closely are, as we roll out of winter, depending on environmental and weather conditions, is how badly lakes and rivers are affected by blooms of cyanobacteria. That is something that goes sometimes somewhat unnoticed in general, but really makes a big impact on the health and well- being and the wealth of our state. So I think that will continue to make waves as an issue.

The other thing I'm looking at is the rising cost of health care and availability of primary care physicians in multiple regions throughout the state in the context of several large hospital mergers that have occurred over the last five or six years, and even continue to occur this year. So I think those things are something that people might want to keep on their radar, absolutely.

Jack Rooney:

Locally, here in Keene and the Monadnock region, the downtown infrastructure project in Keene is going to be the big story in 2025, whether it starts on schedule or is pushed off to kind of allay some concerns of local businesses. What is the construction going to look like, and how will people be able to access downtown Keene throughout? I think those are going to be big, big questions, not just for the city of Keene, but since Keene is kind of the hub of the Monadnock Region, how is that going to have broader effects? 

Then on the on the statewide level, I think certainly the things we'll be watching very closely are the start of the Ayotte administration, as we get a new governor in New Hampshire, and kind of hand-in-hand with that is that we are heading into a budget year at the State House, and so, particularly as we discussed earlier, as a lot of the federal pandemic era spending has stopped, and especially as a second Trump administration is pledging to cut costs at the federal level, what sort of belt tightening is going to need to happen here in New Hampshire, and how much of that is going to get passed down from the state to municipalities to work that into their own local budgets?

Melanie Plenda:

Interesting predictions! Keene Sentinel managing editor for audience development Jack Rooney, Manchester Ink Link editor and publisher Carol Robidoux, and Laconia Daily Sun reporter Gabriel Perry — thank you for looking back with us.


“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

Winter tourism in New Hampshire: a ‘small but mighty’ economic driver

There are plenty of fun things to do in New Hampshire all year long. And when you do them, you not only entertain yourself and your friends and family, but also help the New Hampshire economy. Tourism is one of the biggest economic drivers in New Hampshire, with an estimated $1.5 billion impact on the New Hampshire economy every winter. Here to discuss that is Commissioner Taylor Caswell, who heads the Department of Business and Economic Affairs. 

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

How busy is the winter season for tourism in New Hampshire? How does it stack up to the other seasons in the state?

Taylor Caswell:

It's always pretty busy. We sort of have a legacy of winter tourism here in New Hampshire — it definitely has a strong following in terms of how it compares in numbers to summer and fall.

I would say of the three, it's probably the smallest in terms of the amount of dollars that we see in the amount of visits. But, it's really relevant to the fact that at that time of year, the season is a little bit shorter. Particularly as we see changes in the climate, the fall season is fast and furious. We have about four to six weeks of really vivid colors that people all over the world have on their bucket list to come see. So that's a quick one, but summer really is a long season, and in fact, it's a season that may be feeling a little bit longer. We all know that September is starting to feel like the fourth summer month. But winter is small but mighty, and it is very much, as I said, part of the legacy of New Hampshire tourism.

Melanie Plenda:

Where do most of these tourists come from?

Taylor Caswell:

Typically, within New England, we have obviously a very strong market out of the Boston and eastern Massachusetts region. But we also get into Hartford and down into New York for winter. We also see a lot of people from Maine and Canada and Vermont also checking out their fellow ski areas or their communities nearby. So we don't have a huge fly-in market. People don't generally come from Colorado to New Hampshire, but as far as the East Coast, we really, really see that as our major market.

Melanie Plenda:

Do you have any sense of why they pick New Hampshire as a destination?

Taylor Caswell:

Well, because we're so awesome, obviously. But beyond that, I think the Boston market has very easy access into New Hampshire. Obviously, we have I-93 that comes right up into the heart of our ski country, and, particularly in winter, there's a lot of family traditions and people that have been coming here for a long time.

Since COVID, we've definitely seen an increase in the number of people who have second homes, and then there's that whole Airbnb issue that exists out there. That activity, I think, has increased the number of people who are returning visitors to New Hampshire. But for the most part, I think our geography is a big reason why we see a lot of that activity from southern New England.

Melanie Plenda:

What are some of the most popular activities here in winter, and how does the state promote them? 

Taylor Caswell:

The number one activity in terms of numbers for us, pretty much every season, is snowmobiling. But, of course, that is highly dependent on the weather. Last year was not a good snowmobiling season. Skiing is right in there behind them. Skiing has the added advantage of being able to make snow, so as long as it's generally cold, they can provide a product, and people will certainly take advantage of that. Winter hiking is becoming really, really popular, and a lot of people like to do that.

I think there's a good deal of effort to try to diversify the type of activities that people have. And of course, you’ve always got the shopping and the people going into our cool downtowns, like up in Littleton and North Conway to spend an afternoon, maybe getting something to eat, a couple of good craft beers, and picking up something nice at a small Main Street store.

Melanie Plenda:

As you mentioned, skiing is one of the most popular winter activities in the state. What’s being done to grow tourism in that sector?

Taylor Caswell:

We work closely with the ski areas, particularly with Ski NH, which is their main organization. We partner with them for big events in Boston, and we support the work that they do through marketing and through joint advertising.

One of the things that we really harp on as doing quickly and very nimbly is, as you know, if it’s raining on any sort of random day in Boston, but it’s snowing in the mountains, we have to convince everybody that there’s snow up here and what they’re seeing in their backyard isn’t necessarily the reality in the ski areas. So we have done a lot of advertising, even showing live shots of snowmaking being done so people in our key markets can see that there is snow and there is winter activity happening just a few hours north.

Melanie Plenda:

As you mentioned, weather can play a role in the failure and success of so many activities. Though you can’t control Mother Nature, what can be done to foster adaptability for activities that are weather dependent?

Taylor Caswell:

Adaptation is really the name of the game — being able to provide different types of activities, being able to understand the value and the technology of snowmaking equipment, and we've seen almost all of our ski areas in New Hampshire have made some pretty big investments in that, and they're getting quite good at using it. So as long as it stays somewhere around 35 degrees and below, they can make that snow, and they're quite good at that. That provides a really, really quality product. 

Melanie Plenda:

What sort of an impact does tourism have on the New Hampshire economy, as a whole? And what are some of the key drivers of that impact?

Taylor Caswell:

Tourism is huge. I refer to it all the time as sort of the tip of the spear for economic development in New Hampshire, and it's kind of been in that role for a long time. It's our second largest industry by the number of employees and the amount of income that's generated for participants in that economy. But it also is our best advertisement.

I mean, we talk a lot about New Hampshire, generally about access to the workforce, having enough people to fill the jobs that employers have in New Hampshire. We talk a lot about being able to recruit businesses into New Hampshire to make investments and take advantage of, obviously, our business climate here. In almost all of those cases, what we are hearing and what we see and what we know is successful is the experience that people have as a tourist at one point or another here in New Hampshire, and the great quality product that our tourism industry puts forward. 

Melanie Plenda:

As you noted, when we talk about the economy, we tend to think of it as separate sectors, but in truth, so many areas are related to each other. For example, affordable housing can have an impact on the job market and, therefore, tourism. What’s being done to address some of those connected issues like affordable housing or preserving natural resources? 

Taylor Caswell:

That's a really, really important point, and it really speaks to the whole reason why this department exists. We were established in 2017 with the goal of doing exactly what you're describing — a holistic approach to our economy in New Hampshire that takes advantage of all the things that I was talking about, with tourism leading the way for a lot of the recruitment we do of not just tourists, but workforce and businesses and even students to our universities.

But the housing piece is another issue that we deal with here at the department, and the interconnectedness that that has even to tourism. You talk about people that like to come out here and work as a seasonal employee in some of our high tourist areas —those are also some of our highest-cost areas as far as housing goes. How do we address that?

I mentioned earlier the Airbnb issue. That's a significant issue in a lot of our sort of tourism economy communities up in the Mount Washington Valley, for example.  That's an issue that they've really been struggling with — a lot of people in in more urban areas find it quite affordable to buy a nice little home in North Conway and then maybe just Airbnb that when they're not there — perfectly legitimate business, but at the same time, that takes away a housing unit that might typically be used for someone who's working at one of those ski areas during the winter. So it is an ongoing challenge. It's one of those things where you squeeze the balloon in one place and it pops up on another, but we continue to use the sort of resources we have here at the Department of Business and Economic Affairs to understand how those pieces go together and try to help do something about it for our communities. 

Melanie Plenda:

What else is being done to grow tourism in New Hampshire? What are the challenges there and what are the opportunities? 

Taylor Caswell:

Challenges are always obviously the broader economy, and how much disposable income people have for travel — cost of gas is something that always comes up in that in that consideration, inflation, all the general costs that go into planning a trip. We are, in some respects, slaves to those types of economics. A couple of years ago during COVID and the border to Canada was closed, we definitely saw a decrease in the numbers, particularly obviously coming out of Canada, but our overall numbers were affected by that.

When we look into the crystal ball here of what's going to happen over the next couple of years, those are the types of things that we really need to be paying attention to and trying to accommodate. Those costs, again, are something that the state government is not going to necessarily have control over, but we can work with our industry to make sure that they're pricing themselves in a way that's highly competitive for the market that we're in.

Melanie Plenda:

What’s your prediction for the outlook for tourism in New Hampshire this winter? How do you think things will go?

Taylor Caswell:

We see each year the ability for our tourism industry to take advantage of a very close market, still with some disposable income to come up and really experience the state. The only thing that really holds us back, ultimately, is the weather. But I always try to be very optimistic — particularly when I’m in a format like this.

Melanie Plenda:

Business and Economic Affairs Commissioner Taylor Caswell — thank you for joining us today. 


“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative.

The ski industry’s continued impact on New Hampshire’s economy

For most of us, the snow isn’t here yet. However, the skiing season has begun. As one of the largest economic drivers in the state, the ski industry affects every New Hampshire resident. Every year about 2.8 million people visit the ski areas of New Hampshire — and most of those people come from out of state. They spend an estimated $384 million, generating thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions more in economic impact. That’s why the winter season is an important one for the state, especially for the northern and western areas. On this episode of “The State We’re In,” host Melanie Plenda talks with Jessyca Keeler, president of Ski New Hampshire about the outlook for the season and what’s new in New Hampshire ski areas.

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity. 

Melanie Plenda:

Please tell our audience more about Ski New Hampshire. As an organization, what do you do and whom do you serve? 

Jessyca Keeler:

We are a nonprofit 501(c)(6) trade association that represents ski areas from around the state of New Hampshire. We currently have over 30 members. We also work with a host of associate members that are kind of adjacent to the ski industry.

We have three or four different buckets, if you will, of activities. One of those is advocacy and government relations work. We also do a lot of educational programming and planning for our members and offer networking opportunities as well. Then we do some marketing and PR and communications work.

Melanie Plenda:

In a general sense, what is the outlook for the 2024-2025 ski season this year? How does the weather look? How many people are expected? 

Jessyca Keeler:

We're always an optimistic bunch in the ski industry. While I'm not a meteorologist, one thing I will note is that this is apparently a La Nina year in terms of global climate phenomena or patterns. What that means, at least what we've read or been told that that means, is that we could be looking at a colder winter than average. Precipitation could be higher, could be lower. We could be seeing more storms. But honestly, time will tell.
We’re excited about the pattern that we're currently in. It's gotten colder in the last week or so. We've had a couple snow events. So we're excited about that. In terms of how many people are expected to come, I mean that really depends a lot on the weather. As much as ski areas do a lot of work to prepare for the winter and make sure that we have a great skiing surface and experience for people, the weather really can dictate how many people come in any given season. But, over the last 10 years, we've been averaging approximately 2.3 million skiers, which would be Alpine, cross-country and tubing visitors, over the course of each winter. So hopefully, we'll be in that range. 

Melanie Plenda:

For our audience, tell us more about the direct and perhaps indirect impact that skiing has on the New Hampshire economy. What businesses and industries are affected? What kind of revenue does it generate? 

Jessyca Keeler:

The last economic impact study we did was about six years ago, and what we were looking at was about $384 million in direct and indirect spending by skiers. That's spending at ski areas but also spending at places like restaurants and lodging properties and grocery stores and gas stations. But then you look at the induced effect, which really brings that number up to about a 500-plus-million-dollar economic impact to the state of New Hampshire. So that means that you're taking the employees who work in those businesses, whether it's the ski areas or the lodging properties or the restaurants, and they are then spending their funds, their income, if you will, on rentals or homes. They're paying taxes, going to the same grocery stores and gas stations that guests are going to, and they're just generally contributing back to the economy. So overall, we're looking at about a half a billion dollars a year. That number may have grown or changed since the study was completed in early 2019, but that's roughly the economic impact.

Overall, we're looking at communities in generally rural and mountainous parts of the state that rely heavily on tourism. So that's, you know, a lot of those communities, the ski area is kind of the big attraction — the big driver, the big economic driver for those areas. So without those ski areas, a lot of those other businesses might not do so well. It's an important economic driver for a lot of parts of the state.

Melanie Plenda:

It looks like many ski areas upgraded facilities over the summer, especially in terms of snow-producing equipment. Can you tell us more about that? 

Jessyca Keeler:

Ski areas are constantly investing in snowmaking. This is something that's been going on for decades, really. When the ski industry started back in the 1930s in the state, it was pretty evident right away that we might need some help along the way, because Mother Nature can be kind of fickle in the winters here in New England and in New Hampshire. 

It's really just important and vital for ski areas to invest in that technology so that we can guarantee a great product for skiers and riders who are coming up here to ensure that our winter tourism industry is healthy. So it's something that we do on a regular basis. I think this year alone, at least eight ski areas that I've counted that I know of invested — some small investments, some really big investments — in snowmaking this year, and I expect that to continue in the years to come.

Melanie Plenda:

How is climate change affecting the industry?

Jessyca Keeler:

It's definitely something that we've been grappling with over the years. We are seeing warming winters. Winters seem to start a little bit later. It takes a while for the weather to get cold enough to make snow, or for us to start seeing snowfall, or the ground freezing. This time of year, ski areas are sometimes opening later than they planned, maybe by a week or so. We're seeing that on the other end as well, in the spring. So we might be having warmer springs happening earlier than we expect, and that has caused some ski areas to close earlier than planned.

Likewise, with the extreme weather events that we're seeing. Last year, in December, we had this big rain and flooding event that kind of caused us to lose a lot of the snowmaking gains that we had right before the holidays. That really had an impact on us. Then in the spring, we saw some crazy storms where a lot of heavy snow fell, and in some places it was so heavy that it was either more icy or it was so heavy that it brought down trees, which caused power outages. Then ski areas can't over operate in those regions.

So it's definitely having an impact on our industry, but we're pretty resilient, and we have been taking strides and making efforts over the years to try and deal with what comes our way.

Melanie Plenda:

What’s being done to mitigate that impact? 

Jessyca Keeler:

Investments in snowmaking are a really important part of that adaptation for us as an industry, and ski areas are constantly reinvesting in that. Other investments include grooming technology as well — better groomers. There's a lot of work done on the slopes during the summer months to prepare for a season so that you can have less snow on the trails, for example. There’s a lot of different things that ski areas are doing to adapt.

Melanie Plenda:

Your organization also gathers skiing deals. Can you tell us more about those? Are there still discounts, and how regularly is that updated? And when’s the best time to get a deal?

Jessyca Keeler:

So it really depends on what kind of deal you're looking for. If you're a season pass holder — if you know you're going to ski more than, say, five times in a winter and you know you want to go to either the same mountain or different mountains — we do provide information about different season passes. I find that the best time to buy those is usually in the spring, when season one is still going. So if you're skiing in March, you might start to see ski areas advertising to you for the best rates for next season. If you're pretty sure that you're going to ski next season, I would recommend that you get your passes in the spring. It's usually like April, May, maybe into June, it varies by ski area, but those are the best times to get a pass. 

Melanie Plenda:

What does the future look like for skiing in New Hampshire?

Jessyca Keeler:

Like I said, we're optimists, and I would say I fall into that category as well. The ski areas, based on the investments that they've been making at their properties — we're not just talking about snowmaking, we're talking about new lodges, new trails, new mountains, even added to some of the existing ski resorts. We’re just seeing a lot of investment, and I think that points to a healthy industry. The future is bright. With those snowmaking and snow grooming investments that we've made, I think that we're prepared to deal with whatever comes our way. 

Melanie Plenda:

Well, good luck with the season. Jessyca Keeler, president of Ski New Hampshire, thank you for joining us today. 


“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members.These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org

New Hampshire’s growing hunger problem and ways to relieve it

For many, Thanksgiving is an epic feast, featuring a table full of food. But for some, full tables aren’t always a reality. Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, food pantries and local meal programs, released its “Map the Meal Gap 2024” report earlier this year, and it noted that more than 135,200 New Hampshire residents are food-insecure — a year-over-year increase of more than 41,000 people. In total, about 10 percent of New Hampshire residents — and more than 13 percent of children — are food insecure, meaning they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Several organizations in the state are doing what they can to address hunger locally. On this episode of “The State We’re In,” Jenn Morton, of End 68 Hours of Hunger-Nashua and Anne Hayes of Gather talk with host Melanie Plenda on the problems and solutions. 

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

First, Jenn and Anne, please tell our audience about your organizations and how they are addressing food insecurity and hunger in New Hampshire.

Jenn Morton:

End 68 Hours of Hunger focuses on feeding children who face food insecurity at home. There are End 68 Hours of Hunger programs throughout the state. Ours in Nashua distributes food bags to about 17 schools and community centers locally, and we are currently feeding approximately 480 children a week. 

Anne Hayes:

We're a broad spectrum organization. Our mission is to offer innovative programs that build food security in welcoming and dignified ways, and it ranges from a bricks-and-mortar food pantry here in Portsmouth to mobile markets. We run about 40 mobile markets every month going out on the seacoast from all the way down to Seabrook and all the way  up to Somersworth and Farmington.

We also do a lot of food repurposing. We take food that would otherwise go to waste and turn it into meals and distribute about 80,000 of those meals every year, and another 1.7 million pounds of food every year to about 10,000-plus New Hampshire residents and York County, Maine, residents every month.

Melanie Plenda:

Anne, what does food insecurity and hunger look like in New Hampshire? 

Anne Hayes:

If I were to go out this morning in front of our food pantry, there would be about 30 people waiting in line, and it's all ages. It's people who are unhoused. It's seniors on fixed incomes that have felt the pinch of increases in food prices and housing prices. It's families with small children. There was a man in our pantry today with his little two-year-old in the cart. It's a huge range of people, from individuals all the way up to families with eight people in them. It's hard to say what it looks like, because you'd be really surprised at what it looks like.

Melanie Plenda:

Jenn, how big of a problem is this? 

Jenn Morton:

I think food insecurity is kind of a hidden problem in New Hampshire and across the nation. It's something that people don't always want to admit to or talk about.

We often get children that were identified at schools for behavioral reasons. It's not that they come in saying that they're hungry, but they'll come in really tired, and when the teacher asks about how their night was, they will admit to not sleeping so well. And when they ask more about why they didn't sleep so well, it turns out they didn't have dinner the night before, so they went to bed hungry. Food insecurity and hunger doesn't always present as someone saying, “I need food.” It can be an invisible problem that especially children aren't really tuned in to. We have children who are worried or nervous about going home on Fridays because they don't know where their next meal is coming from, and that's where our bags come in. They go home with the children for the weekend so that they know that they can have a source of food while they're at home.

Melanie Plenda:

There was a rise in the number of food-insecure people in New Hampshire last year. What’s fueling that? 

Anne Hayes:

Back in 2020, when the pandemic hit, things went up a lot. We all thought that it would come back down when the pandemic ended, but I think what's happened is, with food prices going up, with housing prices going up, with the end of pandemic era benefits, people are really finding themselves super squeezed. They may have been able to set aside a little bit of money earlier on when those benefits ended, but now that money is gone, and they are forced to come and access a food pantry, which we think is actually a really good idea for people. We love to see people come here first before they end up not being able to pay their rent, not being able to keep their car on the road so they can go to work, those kinds of things. But what we're really seeing is that people are just really being squeezed by the cost of living.

Jenn Morton:

Unfortunately, pay scales have not kept up with the cost of living, especially in New Hampshire. Minimum wage jobs or jobs that are barely making a living wage, maybe $12, $14, $15 an hour is not going to pay rent for a family of four. So there aren’t as many agencies that can help with rent or utility bills, but there are lots of agencies that can help with food. We’re always glad when families are able to reach out and say, “I’m really just struggling this month.” We see it throughout the school year. Our numbers increase in September, October. People just hear about our program, they're like, “No, I'm OK. I can get through this right now.” But when we really see a spike in our bag numbers is January, February, March, when people are deciding whether to pay their utility bills for heat and hot water through the winter, or whether they're deciding to put food on their table. That is especially when our bag numbers get really high, and we're glad that they have a resource to reach out to fill that gap.

Melanie Plenda:

As a community, in your opinion, are we doing enough to ensure everyone has enough to eat? 

Anne Hayes:

I think the community is very supportive of Gather’s work and of the work of other organizations like us. I feel like we have a very, very generous community, both in terms of people who donate money and in terms of people who give their time to help.

I think on the state level, there's more that we could be doing. There's more we could be doing to make sure that people who are eligible are on SNAP. There's more we could be doing by providing breakfast before the bell for students in schools, making it easier to sign up for free and reduced price lunch at schools for children, making it easier for seniors. We did get some legislation passed this year that made it easier for seniors to sign up for SNAP [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program], and that was great, but there's more to be done. 

Jenn Morton:

There were actually several bills in the Legislature last spring that would have expanded the free and reduced lunch program for students. Currently, there are not as many families qualifying for student free and reduced lunch as needed. It's based on the federal poverty income level, and we've definitely been able to expand other programs based on the federal poverty level, such as the Education Freedom Account program. We're giving out money for private schools, and yet we're not feeding the children who need to be there to eat.  So there's definitely ways that we need to support better at the state level.

But, as Anne said, our communities are really pitching in. No one wants to see children hungry in their communities. That has been my takeaway from my eight years volunteering here. We have a lot of volunteers that show up for any event that we plan. We do get a good amount of financial support, but at the state level and federally, there's definitely more to be done. I would love to see a statewide free breakfast and lunch program for students.

Melanie Plenda:

Along those same lines, what can we do? Is there a solution to this problem? 

Jenn Morton:

Definitely. Advocate, advocate, advocate for hunger solutions in your community. Pitch in and volunteer at your local level, but reach out to your state representatives, let them know that you care about the fact that there are hungry people in your community. We can work funding into the budget if that's something that we choose to prioritize. So I definitely encourage anyone to advocate for people, and that would be a great help. Also, local donations — both of actual food goods or monetary donations — are always appreciated to any of your local nonprofit food banks and food pantries,

Anna Hayes:

On the state level, reaching out to your state reps makes a big difference. The Hunger Free NH bill  [in the last legislative session] that we had was pretty much gutted, unfortunately, — there was a lot in there that could have really helped people. I think the more people who reach out and say something to their reps, the more likely it is that people start to recognize the problem.

Beyond that, I would say, definitely, Gather has a ton of volunteer opportunities. We work with between 40 and 50 volunteers every day to distribute the food that we distribute, and we would love to have more support in that way .And donating, because in the end in New Hampshire, more of the weight of this problem falls on nonprofits. So anything you can do to donate your time, talent or treasure is greatly appreciated. 

Melanie Plenda:

How can people help you with your work? What’s the best way to contribute?

Anne Hayes:

We can always use funding to support our work. If you go to our website, at gathernh,org,we would appreciate any contributions that people can make. Also on our website is a button that says “volunteer.” We would love to have people sign up to do that. And then just really helping by reaching out to state reps, reaching out to your neighbors, seeing if you can organize a food drive — participating in those kinds of things really makes a difference for us.

Jenn Morton:

Same here. Our website, end68hoursofhunger.org our website has your local communities listed that have End 68 Hours of Hunger programs. Most of them have buttons to give directly to your local community. Quite a few of them also have buttons to local volunteer opportunities. We also have an Amazon wish list at End 68 Hours of Hunger in Nashua. So all you have to do is visit that website, click through a wish list or a donate button, and you can really make a big difference in the life of a child in your community by helping to end their hunger situation, we really appreciate it.

Melanie Plenda:

Thank you Jenn Morton from End 68 Hours of Hunger-Nashua and Anne Hayes from Gather for discussing this really important topic today. 


“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. These articles are shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative as part of our Race and Equity Initiative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org. 

Amid political anxiety, providers see uptick in requests for long-acting birth control

The demand is fueled by uncertainties about abortion access and insurance coverage for contraceptives, experts say.

By: Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative

Health clinics around New Hampshire have been fielding increased demand for long-acting and permanent birth control options since the presidential election, amid fears that the new administration might curtail access to or insurance coverage of contraception.

At Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which has clinics in Derry, Exeter, Keene and Manchester, appointment bookings for long-acting reversible contraceptives — which include the birth control implant and intrauterine devices known as IUDs — were up as much as 82 percent in the week after the election (compared to the week before), while the number of vasectomy consultations increased slightly. 

Other health centers — including Lovering Health Center in Greenland, Equality Health Center in Concord and Lamprey Health Care, which has locations in Nashua, Newmarket and Raymond — have also seen an increase in calls about birth control options. 

“People feel very strongly that the time is now,” said Sandi Denoncour, executive director of Lovering Health Center. “There’s so much uncertainty and anxiety about what’s to come, they’re choosing a long-acting or permanent option.”

President-elect Trump has said he will not ban birth control and would veto a national ban on abortion. However, the nonprofit Center for Reproductive Rights has reported that a second Trump presidency poses “grave threats to reproductive freedoms.” Project 2025, which has been closely associated with Trump, calls for changes that include ending mandatory insurance coverage for contraception and access to medical abortion. There’s also anxiety that certain birth control methods and abortion could be banned or strictly limited, whether at the state or federal level, Denoncour said.

The result is an urgency for people to get access to long-acting birth control options before any changes can take place, Denoncour said. 

“It’s all very acute to people,” she said. “People are very worried. The anxiety is palpable.”

Lamprey Health Center hasn’t had a substantial increase in new appointments for birth control, said CEO Sue Durbin. However, providers have noticed more calls asking about replacing long-acting birth control before it’s medically necessary. IUDs can last for three to 10 years, depending on the brand. Replacing an IUD early essentially restarts the clock on that time period, ensuring a highly effective birth control option for years to come. 

For some patients, that can provide peace of mind. 

“There really is a lot of anxiety, and a lot of uncertainties in the larger landscape,” Durbin said. 

Ultimately, whether it’s possible to replace a contraceptive early comes down to an individual’s medical history and what their insurance will cover. 

“It would be making a decision on their medical situation, rather than the political situation,” Durbin said. 

Lamprey Health Center began offering vasectomies a little over a year ago, and has seen a steady increase in demand for that permanent form of birth control, Durbin noted. Although the numbers increased this fall, it’s “hard to say whether or not that’s related to the political environment right now.” 

At Equality Health Center in Concord, there’s been “an increase in panic of our patients looking to make plans for their reproductive health,” said Executive Director Jinelle Hall. It’s something she also thinks about for her two daughters, who are 19 and 23. 

“I want to make sure they have the necessary means whether they want to become pregnant or not,” she said. “It’s not just my professional life; it’s my personal life.”

Equality Health Center also reports more worried phone calls from patients receiving gender-affirming care, a trend also seen at Lovering Health Center. There’s a limit to what the health center can do for those patients, Hall said. For example, “we can’t extend scripts” beyond what’s medically allowed. 

Instead, workers at Equality are reminding patients that they can still receive all their typical health care, at least for the time being. 

“We’re making sure our patients understand we’re here for them and we understand they’re anxious,” while also providing “some solid information and advice that it’s business as usual until anything changes,” Hall said.

‘There’s no guarantee’

Delivering that message can be tricky, Denoncour said. 

The exterior of Planned Parenthood's clinic in Keene. Appointment bookings for long-acting reversible contraceptives were up as much as 82 percent in the week after the election, while the number of vasectomy consultations increased slightly at the organization’s four facilities in the state. (Casey McDermott/NH Public Radio)

“One of the challenges of messaging over the past few years, when the [24-week] abortion ban passed in New Hampshire and Roe fell, [is telling] folks, ‘services are still available, but we should be very worried,’” she said. “Services are not protected. There’s no guarantee that these couldn’t change based on federal or state actions.”

Internally, health centers are preparing for possible changes in access to abortion and contraceptives, providers said. Hall also urges patients to channel anxieties into speaking up about the importance of reproductive health care. 

"Your voice has to be heard,” she said. “We cannot sit back. Continue to have conversations with folks who make these decisions. We vote these folks in.”

This year, Equality Health Center is celebrating 50 years of providing health care in Concord, and Hall doesn’t see that changing anytime soon. 

“We’ve gone through some tough times, and we’re about to again,” she said. “We’ll come out on the other side. It’s just going to have some challenges.”

That determination to carry on is shared by other health clinics, including Lovering Health Center. 

"The anxiety we’re hearing from patients, we absolutely feel it,” Denoncour said. "But we can’t act like we’re under threat every day. We’re stubbornly optimistic.” 


These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

The evolution of Black Friday: A conversation with N.H. Retail Association President Curtis Picard

The day after Thanksgiving has long been a huge shopping day, especially here in sales tax-free New Hampshire. But is Black Friday still the shopping extravaganza it was? On this episode of “The State We’re In,” host Melanie Plenda talks with Curtis Picard, president and CEO of the N.H. Retail Association, about the Black Friday phenomenon. 

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

Black Friday, before the advent of online shopping, was crazy — especially here in New Hampshire. For our audience who may not remember, what was it like? 

Curtis Picard:

It's actually such a fascinating history because it goes back quite a few decades. The United States of America didn't have a solid Thanksgiving day on the calendar until the late 1930s-1940s, and it was only under FDR, when he finally heard from retailers like Macy's saying that they needed a solid date for when Thanksgiving should fall. So that really helped cement where we are today, and over the decades it certainly has evolved quite a bit.

I'm part of that generation from the 1980s where shopping malls were everything for retail — the midnight doorbusters and getting that large TV. But it certainly has evolved to where we are now in 2024.

Melanie Plenda:

How has online shopping changed the day? 

Curtis Picard:

I've been involved in retail associations for almost 20 years now. I've seen quite a bit in my tenure. We've seen the evolution just in my time from stores opening at midnight and having these great deals from midnight to 2 a.m. They’ve gotten a lot more savvy about the marketing. They've also expanded the window for when these deals are available to consumers — and that's really what they've always done, which is responding to consumer needs and wants.

So consumers have said that they want greater access to deals. They have more ability at their fingertips now to be able to shop for things online and compare prices. The consumer has always been in the driver's seat, but they're more in the driver's seat than they ever have been.

Melanie Plenda:

As a state without a sales tax, does that offer New Hampshire stores an advantage? Is it an incentive for others to come to the state? 

Curtis Picard:

What really helped evolve that phenomenon was the COVID pandemic. Going into the 2020 holiday shopping season, we worked with  government officials and tried to figure out the best way we could do holiday shopping that was safe for people. What we eventually were able to communicate to folks was you need to spread out the holiday shopping season. We don't want you to come on Black Friday, but we want to expand that window. Consumers really responded to it. So I think, since 2020, retailers have continued to expand that window of holiday shopping, and consumers have now learned that it's OK to do some of your holiday shopping in October or early November. You don't have to wait for Black Friday to do it. 

Melanie Plenda:

So, conversely, has it become a reason for New Hampshire residents to shop from home?

Curtis Picard:

I think the way we think of it now is — and this is also part of the pandemic as well — it wasn't just the large retailers or just the online retailers. Even small retailers had to learn how to better embrace e-commerce and what we call omni-channel. You want to meet your customers however they want to be served, whether that's in person in a brick-and-mortar store, whether they want to be able to online, order online, or pick up at the store, or just shop from home and have things delivered to their house. The COVID pandemic enabled a lot of smaller retailers to offer more of those services. So now, whether you're big or small, chances are, if you want to be successful in retail, you have to respond to customers in that way.

Melanie Plenda:

These must mirror retail trends in general. Can you tell us more about that, and how is the industry adapting? 

Curtis Picard:

That's always one of those things where you can take a look back after the holiday season and see how things do and how much of a predictor it was of the overall economy. But that really changed during the pandemic as well.

When it came to holiday shopping, we started to see a trend, even before the pandemic, of people appreciating their smaller, locally owned stores more. Small Business Saturday has been a thing for a long time, but I think our association and others have always emphasized that you need to support your small local retailers 365 days a year, not just one day out of the year. We had seen that trend before the pandemic, but the pandemic really emphasized it because people saw their locally owned stores really struggling, trying to navigate that pandemic, and I think people really embraced them. That's one of the trends that we've continued to see evolve. 

I also think that retailers benefited in those years of the pandemic because there was a lot of disposable income that was no longer used for eating out, going to concerts, doing experience type of things. People were trending back towards wanting to buy physical things. I think that's shifting back now, now that we're four years past the pandemic — people are feeling more comfortable going to concerts or lavish dinners, travel. It's a competition for dollars as well.

But then after the holiday season, we always take a look at where people actually spend their money. High-ticket items? Furnishings? Electronics? Brand-name luxury goods, or was it more the department stores or the bargain chains? But that's always a look back. It's hard to always predict how things are going to go. 

Melanie Plenda:

What about shopping trends outside the holiday season? How are stores generally adapting to balancing e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores? 

Curtis Picard:

Every retailer is working on mastering that. Some certainly do it better than others, but there's always been the evolution of retail. You're always responding to customer needs and wants. We can say that customers are always fickle, but you have to continue to earn their business, and that never gets easier.

So whether you're a popular New Hampshire-based retailer that's been around for decades, you still have to work at it. The business can't sit back on their laurels and take it for granted. You have to be responsive to customers. You have to keep your eye on different trends and wants and changing interests in the products you're offering. You’ve got to make sure your pricing is competitive, and that's certainly been a challenge more recently, with the inflationary pressures that everybody's been facing.

Melanie Plenda:

What are some creative solutions you’ve heard about to draw customers in?

Curtis Picard:

Retailers are like the best marketers out there. We talked in the beginning about Thanksgiving and the role that Macy's plays, even today. I don't know about you, but in my family, we still sit down on Thanksgiving Day and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, because it's such an icon. Retailers do a really good job, marketing-wise, and they continue to try to appeal to customers and earn their business.

We talked about how now they've expanded the window of the holiday shopping season. We've seen the rise of things like gift cards over the last 10 or 12 years. Gift cards are really great giving tools, but the benefit for retailers is if you give a gift card during the holiday season to somebody, the hope is they're going to come back in January and spend that gift card when that's usually a slower time of year. So those are all marketing tools at retailers' disposal that they try to use, and a lot of them are quite successful.

Melanie Plenda:

Beyond planning our shopping, the success of Black Friday — whether it’s one day or two weeks — has a bigger impact on the retail industry in our state. For our audience, can you talk about that impact and what it means for residents?

Curtis Picard:

A lot of that is tradition. We all look forward to Black Friday. Certainly, media outlets reach out wanting to talk about Black Friday, how it's going and what the crowds are like. But we have that window between Thanksgiving and Christmas — Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, which is the Monday following Thanksgiving, and then you have those other weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

A lot of people don't realize that the full weekend before Christmas is often as busy, if not busier, than Black Friday. So we look at all of those things. The urban myth is that the term Black Friday refers to when retailers turn from unprofitable to profitable. You go from the red side of the ledger to the black side. I'm not sure that's really true. I've also heard stories that it goes back to the 1960s in Philadelphia, and it was just in reference to how chaotic the shopping day became. I don't know what the true story is, but it is within our shared history here in the United States, and it has become quite a tradition that carries on to this day.

Melanie Plenda:

When you look ahead five or even 10 years, what do you think Black Friday will look like? 

Curtis Picard:

That's a good question. I don't want to say it's not going to have an impact, because it's always going to have an impact. It's worked into our lexicon here in the United States and in New Hampshire, but I think what we've seen, customers will continue to be in the driver's seat. I think retailers and consumers have adapted to a longer shopping period, and the ability to get what you want and what you need quicker will continue to develop as well. You know, already there's online retailers that can deliver goods to you the same day. I think you're going to continue to see that expand. Black Friday is not going to go away, it's just going to continue to evolve.

Melanie Plenda:

That was so interesting. Thank you Curtis Picard, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Retail Association, for sharing your thoughts. 

“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

New Hampshire community TV stations scramble for funding as revenue source continues to shrink

Cable franchise fees, which support the stations, have dwindled for years in an era of cord-cutting

By: Patrick Adrian, Granite State News Collaborative

Public access television stations across New Hampshire face growing uncertainty as their funding declines, forcing stations to seek new sources of revenue to support community television. 

“The federal government should be saying that this service is essential for communities,” says Jason Cote, executive director of Manchester Public Television. (Dan Splaine Photography)

Funding for the television stations derives from franchise fees, a charge that appears on a customer’s cable bill. They are an annual payment by a cable company to a municipality in exchange for the use of public property to operate its cable lines. 

But the ongoing preference by viewers to “cut the cord” and instead opt for streaming services, as well as a growing customer preference for more customized and cost-effective television options, have led to a dramatic decrease in cable subscriptions nationwide, including in the Granite State.

Nashua Community Television, a city-owned station with four public-access channels, is currently working with the city's Board of Aldermen to cover “a sizable deficit” this fiscal year, said Pete Johnson, NCTV’s education channel access director. 

The station, which has a $600,000 operating budget, received $383,000 in franchise fee revenues this year — down nearly 7% from last fiscal year. 

“We took a pretty substantial hit this year,” Johnson said. “We knew this downturn was coming (but now) we’ve blown through our reserves.” 

For several years, the station supplemented its revenue with money from a surplus reserve, Johnson said. But that reserve is now depleted. 

Since 2017, cable subscriptions in the U.S. have declined annually by nearly 5% — from 96 million subscriptions to 68 million in 2024, according to IBISWorld, a global research firm. Comcast, the largest cable TV provider in New Hampshire and second-largest in the U.S., reported a nationwide loss of over 1.8 million cable subscribers between March 2023 and August 2024. 

A federal rule that only allows a fee charged to cable services, not to broadband providers, to support community television “hasn’t caught up to the industry,” Nick Lavallee, executive director of Merrimack TV, told the Town Council at a recent meeting. (Dan Splaine Photography)

In Nashua, the revenues from franchise fees have declined 21% since 2017, when the station received $483,000. 

The problem, said community television advocates, lies in the federal government’s funding rules for public access stations, which are 40 years old and outdated. 

“Consumers are switching to other services (through broadband) that are not regulated the same way as cable,” said Mike Wassenaar, president of the Alliance for Community Media, a national trade organization. “The irony is that there is more and more video being watched today but less and less money going toward the public stations that produce local content.”
The funding conundrum

Franchise fees are governed under the Cable Communications Act of 1984, which sets a national policy for the regulation of cable television communications. 

Under federal law, municipalities are entitled to a maximum of 5% of a cable operator’s gross revenues derived from cable subscriptions and related services, such as pay-per-view orders. In New Hampshire, the local government and cable provider negotiate the percentage of this fee when initiating or renewing a franchise agreement. Municipalities may use these revenues for a variety of local purposes, including to fund public, education and government access, or PEG, channels. 

“There should be a related public benefit in exchange for allowing private companies to make money off of public property,” said Owen Provencher, director of Derry Community Access Media and president of the N.H. Coalition of Community Media, a group of nearly 40 public access outlets in the state. 

“There should be a related public benefit in exchange for allowing private companies to make money off of public property,” says Owen Provencher, director of Derry Community Access Media and president of the N.H. Coalition of Community Media, a group of nearly 40 public access outlets in the state. (Dan Splaine Photography)

But the federal rule allows a fee charged only to cable services, not to broadband providers. 

“The law hasn’t caught up to the industry,” Nick Lavallee, executive director of Merrimack TV, told the Town Council at a meeting Sept. 26. 

“One can purchase broadband and run streaming apps to access the same video content as cable television (without paying a franchise fee),” Wassenaar said. “It’s a problem across the country, and unless there’s a change in the federal law, this problem will still exist.” 

Community television advocates believe that federal law should expand the application of franchise fees to all companies that use public right-of-ways to deliver video content, including internet providers and streaming services. 

“The broadband and fiber optics lines are going over the same public right-of-ways as the cable one,” Provencher said in an interview.

Meanwhile, community television stations are already serving a large and growing viewership on internet-based platforms, particularly due to the ability to stream recorded programs, several station managers said. 

Jason Cote, executive director of Manchester Public Television, said a live government meeting might draw between 75 and 100 viewers, whereas the video recording of that meeting online will receive “hundreds of views.”

“I brought up 10 years ago that (internet providers) should be involved in funding public access stations,” Cote said. “The federal government should be saying that this service is essential for communities.” 

The COVID pandemic, in addition to accelerating the market shift toward video streaming, opened new opportunities for public access television to engage audiences. 

Manchester Public TV’s studios are located on Canal Street in downtown Manchester. (Dan Splaine Photography)

For example, Nashua Community TV began covering live school sporting events because the games were closed to the public, Johnson said. The station still provides live game coverage due to its popularity. 

“So we find ourselves busier than ever, because people have come to expect that kind of coverage,” Johnson said. “And those are things that we want to continue for the community.”

‘Not sustainable in the long term’

As revenues shrink, some stations are seeking support from their local governments. This includes requests for additional funding or proposals to raise the franchise fee rate. 

The Merrimack Town Council, at a meeting Sept. 26, discussed whether to include Merrimack TV in the town budget and fund it from local property taxes instead of franchise fees.

The station’s franchise fee revenue this year — $368,000 — is 7% lower than in 2021, Town Manager Paul Micali told the council. A recent study projected that the station may be operating at a deficit in three years, based on the rate of declining funds and estimated cost increases. 

At the meeting, Micali proposed that the council increase the franchise fee rate, from the current 3.75% of cable revenues to 5%, when the agreement is up for renewal in 2029. This increase would not resolve the problem, though it would provide a few additional years of sustainability, Micali said. 

Several councilors expressed concern about increasing the burden on cable subscribers for a station accessed by the broader community.

Among them was Thomas Koenig, who said, “I think that’s wrong. If we need to fund it, I think we (all) need to fund it.”

The council has not yet made a decision on the station’s funding. 

On the Seacoast, Portsmouth Public Media TV which operates PPMtv, announced in July that its channel may shut down operations after 14 years unless the city council renegotiates a 2009 agreement with the station to increase its funding. 

Under that agreement, the city retains $360,000 of the annual franchise fee it receives from Comcast — 5% of the company’s cable revenues — and PPMtv receives the remainder of the revenue. In prior years, the station’s share has averaged roughly between $120,000 and $130,000, said Executive Director Chad Cordner.

But in May, PPMtv learned that its funding share this year would be $86,000 — a 27% drop from 2023 — and that next year’s funding is projected to be a similar amount, Cordner said. The allotted funding is barely enough to pay Cordner’s full-time salary, $46,000, and the station’s two part-time employees, at $20,000 apiece, he said.

The Nashua ETV studio (Dan Splaine Photography)

“PPMtv is tremendously underfunded as compared to other stations,” Studio Operations Manager Jake Webb wrote in an online petition seeking community support. “A more equal split of this fee would allow PPMtv to continue to operate and even grow.”

The station’s Youtube channel has 14,000 subscribers, and its video library has received 4 million total views, Cordner said. 

The station is seeking between $50,000 and $100,000 in additional franchise fee revenues to cover equipment and programming costs, including media education workshops and internships, Cordner said.

Several city councilors, at a meeting Sept. 3, expressed reservations about increasing the station’s funding from a shrinking revenue source.

“Even if we gave PPMtv 100% of the franchise fee, that is not sustainable in the long term because that (revenue) will go down significantly, " Councilor Kate Cook said at the meeting. 

The city’s franchise fees also fund a government channel that streams municipal meetings, which has a budget of over $200,000 a year, Cook said. 

The council directed city staff on Sept. 3 to present recommendations at a future council meeting for ways to sustainably fund PPMtv. 

State solutions 

Despite a strong consensus in support of changing the federal law, several industry members said that is unlikely to happen. 

Congress would need to approve any amendments to the Cable Communications Act. The political divide in Washington already makes bipartisanship difficult, Wassenaar noted.

And many lawmakers would be reluctant to support a fee on Internet services, said Lauren-Glenn Davitian, public policy director at Center for Media & Democracy, a public media advocacy group based in Burlington, Vt. 

The Internet Tax Freedom Act, a federal law passed in 1998, prohibits state and local governments from imposing taxes directly on the internet or online activity, including taxes on email accounts or internet access. The law’s stated intent was to support the internet’s use as a commercial, educational and informational tool. 

Some states, including Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts, are taking steps to aid their public access stations through legislation or direct funding. Provencher said there is currently no legislation in New Hampshire pertaining to community television funding.

In February, the Maine Legislature passed LD 1967, a law that allows municipalities to charge a franchise fee to any video service provider that uses a public right-of-way, regardless of the technology employed. 

The law requires any provider of video, audio or digital entertainment that owns or operates facilities in the public right-of-way to have an agreement with the municipality, said Tony Vigue, a public media advocate in Maine. 

The bill’s stated intent is to ensure that all providers of video services, regardless of the platform, receive equal treatment in respect to franchising and regulating. 

“Just because the technology has changed, the town still owns a public right-of-way,” Vigue said. 

The law, which was not signed by the governor, went into effect in August. The Maine Municipal Association and Maine Connectivity Authority are still drafting a standard agreement form for towns and cities to use, Vigue said. 

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering legislation that would levy fees on streaming companies like Netflix and Roku to help fund community media. 

Nashua Community Television is currently working with the city's Board of Aldermen to cover “a sizable deficit” this fiscal year, says Pete Johnson, NCTV’s education channel access director. (Dan Splaine Photography)

Senate Bill 2771 proposes a 5% fee on digital streaming providers, based on a company’s gross annual revenue in the state. A portion of the fee would be distributed to municipalities to support their public access television programs. The bill, introduced last year, is still under review in the Massachusetts Senate. 

Vermont is considering a similar bill, S.181, which is currently under committee review in the House. That bill would also charge a 5% tax on a company’s statewide revenue. 

Though she would like to see a legislative plan, Davitian said she does not support a streaming tax, which would result in many consumers being charged more than once for the same use of a right-of-way, such as cable customers with add-on streaming channels. 

“There needs to be a tax on the infrastructure, not streaming (services),” Davitian said.

A separate bill, proposing a $15-per-pole attachment tax for each fiber or copper line attached to a utility pole, was abandoned by the House Ways and Means Committee in February. 

The bill received heavy opposition from various stakeholders, including local telephone companies, which said they wouldn’t be able to afford the cost, Davitian said. 

In June, the Vermont Legislature approved a one-time appropriation of $1 million in this year’s budget to help Vermont’s community television stations absorb the impact of declining franchise fees.

That money is intended to be a stopgap as legislators continue to seek a funding solution, Davitian said. “It was an interesting victory,” Davitian said. “We are happy to get the money, but we didn’t get to make a public policy.” 

The money will be distributed through the Vermont Access Network, an organization representing the state’s 24 public access media centers, which operate more than 80 local cable channels in the state. 

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

NH kept $4.8 million in child support from the state’s poorest families last year. Officials say there’s ‘support’ to change that, but no action so far

The state can hold child support to recoup its costs of providing cash assistance to needy families, including more than 13,000 Granite State families last year

By: Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative

Last year, New Hampshire retained more than $4.8 million in child support from about 13,000 Granite State families who are receiving cash assistance from the state, or have received it in the past. 

Although withholding the money aligns with federal law, policy experts say retaining child support to cover state costs has a negative impact on families and makes it less likely that a parent will pay court-ordered child support.

In part because of those issues, half of states around the country — including Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts — have changed their laws to allow child support to “pass through” to families who are receiving benefits. 

Similar efforts have briefly been considered in New Hampshire, but never gained real traction, experts say. 

“There certainly is a lot of support behind having pass-through so the family is receiving [cash benefits] but also the child support that is court-ordered to be paid to the family,” said Karen Hebert, director of the state Division for Economic Stability, which oversees cash assistance and child support.

The lack of action has left New Hampshire’s most vulnerable families without access to money that could help them escape poverty. 

“We want to ensure we’re lifting people up and not constraining them to remain at low-income levels,” said Rebecca Woitkowski, child and family policy director at New Futures, a Granite State nonprofit advocating for improved health through policy changes. “The more we can build up a family, the better it will be for our state’s future.” 

Withholding money that could help cover basic needs

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) provides cash to the country’s lowest-income families. In New Hampshire, families may qualify for TANF if their income is at or below 60% of the federal poverty level, or $1,560 per month for a family of four. 

“TANF families are living at very low income levels. They likely have a number of burdens they’re trying to overcome…” Woitkowski said. “Families don’t want to live at TANF levels. It’s hard.”

To qualify for TANF, federal law requires families to cooperate with the government’s child support program, which helps facilitate court-ordered child support. The state assists a family in finding a non-custodial parent and obtaining child support, often from federal tax returns, said Diana Azevedo-McCaffrey, policy analyst with the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and co-author of a recent report on the issue of retained child support. 

“For these families — most of which are very low income, overwhelmingly led by women, disproportionately women of color — these child support payments make a huge difference for children, families, and parents, not only financially but in other ways as well,” she said.

And yet, “most of the time [the family doesn’t] receive those child support payments,” Azevedo-McCaffrey said. 

Instead, “the state splits [the child support] with the federal government to reimburse itself for the cash benefits provided to the family.”

In fiscal year 2024 (which ended June 30), New Hampshire retained a total of $4,837,163 in child support from families who have utilized TANF, according to data provided by the state Division for Economic Stability, which oversees both TANF and child support. 

That includes $3,526,501 retained from families currently getting TANF, and $1,310,662 from families that were formerly on TANF, but aren’t currently getting cash benefits. 

A similar policy affects child support paid by parents whose children are currently in or were formerly in foster care. In fiscal year 2024, New Hampshire retained $27,642 from those families, according to state data.

In total, the state retained child support from 13,420 New Hampshire families last year. On average, the court-ordered child support paid to these families is $222.89 per month from families currently on TANF, and $200.80 per month from families that were formerly on TANF, according to state data. 

That may seem like a small amount of money to some people, but for TANF families it can mean the difference between housing and homelessness, eating or going hungry, according to Woitkowski. 

“Any amount of money, at that point, is going to be impactful for that family to meet their basic needs,” she said. 

Two policy changes could make a difference

Research shows many benefits to families receiving child support, including more financial stability, lower risk of involvement with child protective services, and better outcomes for kids. 

In addition, noncustodial parents are more likely to pay their court-ordered child support if they know it is benefiting their children directly, rather than being retained by the state, research shows. 

“There’s not much incentive [to pay] for parents who are having child support kept by the government,” Azevedo-McCaffrey said. 

There’s also an emotional and social factor to child support that’s different from other types of financial support.

Child support is “often representative of family relationships and dynamics,” Azevedo-McCaffrey said. “These cost-recovery policies can be very harmful, not only in the sense that they’re depriving families of an income source … but they’re disrupting families and family dynamics and relationships.”

Because of this, states around the country are reconsidering the retention of child support, and are moving to change two policies. 

The first change is to enact legislation that would allow a certain amount of child support to “pass through” to families without being retained by the state. Twenty-five states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, have adopted such policies. Massachusetts and Maine both allow $50 per month in child support to go directly to families even if they’re getting TANF; Vermont increased the pass-through amount to $100 this year. New Hampshire doesn’t allow any funds to pass through.

A second policy would alter the distribution model that states use to allocate child support funds, switching from the model outlined by a 1996 federal law to the model outlined by a 2005 law. The change “switches the payment order, essentially,” paying families their current and then past child support owed, before reimbursing the state for costs associated with TANF, Azevedo-McCaffrey said. 

Nationally, nine states, including Vermont, have made that change. New Hampshire still follows the 1996 law. 

‘A lot of support’ for change, but little action

Hebert, director of the state Division for Economic Stability, which oversees TANF and child support, says New Hampshire has considered changing its policies on retained child support twice within the 20 years that she’s been with the division, but the efforts haven’t led anywhere.

When the state provides assistance to individuals, it has a “vested interest” in covering its costs, Hebert said. At the same time, there’s a desire to get people the assistance they need. 

That’s why there’s no child-support requirement for individuals or families participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): The state wants people who need food assistance to get it, Hebert said. 

Leveraging child support as a condition for SNAP is “just not something the state has ever really been interested in,” she added. And yet, the state continues to retain child support from families on TANF, which has a much lower income threshold than SNAP.

“There are lots of reasons we would want to support pass-through,” Hebert said, citing the national research about parents being more likely to pay child support when the money goes directly to their children.

Still, there’s been no change. One reason is that when the state collects child support for a family that has had TANF, it must give a portion of the proceeds to the federal government. 

Federal law allows states to pass through up to $200 a month in child support (depending on family size) without needing to reimburse the federal portion, Azevedo-McCaffrey said. Three states — Colorado, Michigan and Minnesota — combine several federal policy options in order to pass through all child support to families, despite the federal requirement, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report. 

Making similar changes in New Hampshire “is a state policy and finance decision for the legislature,” Hebert said. 

The other reason New Hampshire hasn’t changed is more mundane: computer and logistical challenges. 

“There’s a lot of maintenance to it in the system that we have,” Hebert said. 

That’s a prominent barrier around the nation, Azevedo-McCaffrey said. Updating the software that states use to calculate TANF and child support distributions is a huge undertaking.

"For some states, the biggest cost is computer reprogramming,” she said.

A bigger issue is also at play, she added: “Sadly, sometimes there is not a lot of political will to change policies that impact people living in poverty.”

Regardless of child support, TANF in NH is underutilized

Aside from issues around retaining child support, there’s widespread “under-enrollment” in TANF in New Hampshire, according to a report from the N.H. Fiscal Policy Institute. Because fewer families are participating in the program, the state has a balance of $74.4 million in unspent TANF funding from the federal government, the fiscal policy center found.

Each state has the power to set its own definition of a “needy family,” Hebert said, so New Hampshire has the power to raise the income that qualifies for TANF, potentially increasing the number of participating families. New Hampshire’s threshold for qualifying for TANF is already among the highest in the country, and greater than neighboring states, but “if the limit were increased, it is logical we could see an increase in utilization,” Hebert said.

The state also disregards certain income when calculating TANF eligibility, she noted. The state is currently running a pilot program to disregard 75 to 100 percent of new income, in order “to mitigate the cliff effect,” which occurs when people suddenly lose benefits after hitting a certain income threshold.  

Only 5,308 individuals participate in TANF at any given time in 2024, well below the 76,922 enrolled in SNAP or the 183,955 enrolled in Medicaid, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute. Both SNAP and Medicaid have significantly higher income allowances, so more people are eligible for those programs.

Participation in TANF declined about 34% between 2020 and 2024, said Jess Williams, policy analyst with the N.H. Fiscal Policy Institute. In part, that’s positive: Families overall are more financially stable due to the state’s low unemployment, and the impact of pandemic-related financial resources, including stimulus checks. 

However, there are plenty of families that could still use TANF, Williams said. Based on U.S. Census data looking at poverty rates, about 25,000 New Hampshire families with at least one child live at or below 60% of the poverty line – an income level that qualifies them for TANF. Only about 13 percent of those families are participating in the program, she said. (Income is not the only qualification for TANF, but offers a benchmark for understanding how many families may qualify, Williams noted).

There are two main drivers of the low participation, according to Williams. 

  • The first is the relatively low benefit amount, compared to the high cost of living in the Granite State. A single parent with two children can receive a maximum of $1,291 per month on TANF, which covers about 15.8 percent of the monthly cost of living in New Hampshire, the report found. “For a family receiving TANF, cash assistance may still be minimal compared to the cost of living in the state,” Williams said.

  • The other reason for low participation is that “the TANF program may not be reaching all families across the state who are eligible,” she said. Families may be unaware that they qualify, or they might have trouble navigating the state’s online application for assistance at NH Easy. “It becomes very confusing for families when they’re trying to apply for services,” Woitkowski said.

The state has worked to make the application accessible, Hebert said, including having a prescreening tool that families can use to see if they might qualify. The tool took less than five minutes when this reporter tried it, much shorter than the time needed to lodge a formal application. Applicants can also reach out to any of the state's 11 district offices for help with the application, Hebert said. 

“We want to make sure we are reaching folks who are eligible for the program,” she said. “We want to make it easy for people so they have an easy and good experience if they need those kinds of services.”

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

What’s next for the state’s education minimum standards?

Legislative committee plans to decide on rules Thursday morning

By Rhianwen Watkins-Granite State News Collaborative

Long-awaited updates to New Hampshire’s education minimum standards for schools, otherwise known as the 306s, are being voted on this Thursday by the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, known as JLCAR. 

On Aug. 14, the State Board of Education approved the first half of the 306s, which was then sent to the JLCAR, which ultimately decided to table the rules until it received the second half of the standards in order to  review the changes in full.

The second half was approved by the State Board of Education on Sept. 16 and is being brought in front of JLCAR this Thursday, Nov 21. 

Reaching Higher, a statewide public education advocacy nonprofit, hosted a webinar on Oct 27, at which its director of public relations, Kelly Untiet, stated that the organization expects JLCAR to vote on both sections of the proposed rules during Thursday’s meeting.

For the rules to pass, they must be approved first by the Legislative Oversight Committee, then by JLCAR. After initially raising multiple concerns about significant areas of the rules, the Legislative Oversight Committee ultimately voted to approve the rules on Oct 27. Now the proposed changes are in JLCAR’s hands.

What are JLCAR’s criteria for approval?

The proposed updates have been the target of overwhelming criticism from educators, including superintendents, teachers, other school administrators, school board members and parents. 

Among the chief critics is Christine Downing, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Cornish, Grantham and Plainfield school districts. She sent the committee considerable written testimony based on comments made at numerous educator review sessions she held across the state. Educators say they’re particularly concerned about the removal of caps on class sizes, wording changes that eliminate requirements for certain program elements, and changes in the qualifications of educators.

On Thursday, JLCAR will review the proposed changes and vote based on four outlined categories: public interest, financial cost, legislative intent and agency’s authority.

What might JLCAR object to?

During the Oct. 27 webinar, Reaching Higher outlined why JLCAR might object to the rule changes, based on these categories:

 • First, are the rules in the public’s interest? Reaching Higher said that, based on the hundreds of pages of public feedback opposing the rules, they may not be. In addition, the consensus among educators across the state is that the rules are unclear and ambiguous in multiple places. Reaching Higher said that could lead to “inconsistent application.”

• The second category concerns whether there is a financial cost that was not outlined in the proposal. Reaching Higher worries that ambiguity and lack of detail in certain areas could result in financial burden for taxpayers. For example, if specific program elements are removed or made optional, then the state may not be responsible for funding them.

• The third category concerns whether the rules support current legislation around education standards, or if they conflict with it. One concern Reaching Higher raised is whether proposed graduation requirements align with state laws. In addition, many educators and even lawyers have expressed concern over whether the proposed rules will meet the New Hampshire Constitution’s requirement for the state to provide an adequate education for every child. This relates to finances. If certain program requirements become optional and are not state-funded, the result could be discrepancies in access to resources among school districts, based on the level of affluence, or lack thereof, in specific communities.

• The final category is whether the proposed standards are within or beyond the authority of the N.H. Department of Education to implement. The department does not have as much authority as lawmakers when it comes to imposing rules. One concern with the revised proposal is that it often refers to “state academic standards” when discussing criteria for what elements particular education programs must cover. Those standards differ from the 306s in that they determine only what students are required to learn, not what the state must fund — which is what the 306s determine. Reaching Higher is concerned that, if the 306s proposal does not define what program requirements must be offered for various subjects — such as an arts education, for example — and instead only refers to the academic standards, there will be questions about to how to deliver these programs and the state won’t be required to fund them. In addition, the academic standards are vastly outdated, with some dating back to the early 2000s. 

Downing is also preparing to testify at Thursday’s meeting about why she thinks the proposed rules changes do not meet the criteria in all four categories.

The JLCAR meeting and hearing will begin 9 a.m. on Thursday in Room 306-308 of the Legislative Office Building in Concord. The proceedings are open to the public. As of this writing, no agenda had been set for Thursday, but it has been confirmed the JLCAR plans to vote on the rules.

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.

Joint Legislative Committee revises education minimum standards on a 6-4 vote Thursday

By Rhianwen Watkins, Granite State News Collaborative

*The original version was edited to clarify the next step in the process.*

Controversial updates to the education minimum standards for New Hampshire’s public schools were passed Thursday by the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, known as JLCAR. Approval came on a 6-4 vote.

The revised rules have drawn sharp criticism from multitudes of educators who contend they remove caps on the number of students in classrooms, muddle the requirements for teaching specific subjects, and make other changes that will water down what it means to receive a N.H. education. 

Educators are also concerned that the document’s removal of specific requirements and adoption of ambiguous wording are an attempt to ease requirements for state funding of public education, which could shift a bigger financial burden onto local taxpayers and worsen inequities across school districts.

Thursday’s meeting included a public comment period on the second half of the rules, in which everyone who testified objected to the proposed changes, citing many reasons. 

Both sections of the document were passed on a 6-4 vote, with Republican members in the majority.

Now that both the Legislative Oversight Committee and JLCAR have approved them, the rules will go back to the State Board of Education for one more final vote before they are officially adopted.

In accordance with a state law, RSA 541-A:13, JLCAR can adopt the rules or object on any of four criteria: if the proposed rules are “beyond the authority of the agency,” “contrary to the intent of the Legislature,” “determined not to be in the public interest,” or “deemed to have a substantial fiscal impact,” according to the statute.

Rules draw public criticism

Among the witnesses Thursday was Christine Downing, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Cornish, Grantham and Plainfield school districts. As the revised rules were being drawn up, Downing held 17 review sessions around the state to gather opinions from teachers and other educators. 

One of her biggest objections to the rules was ambiguity and lack of consistency in wording, particularly referring to State Academic Standards when discussing course requirements. The State Academic Standards differ from the Education Minimum Standards, in that they define only what a student must learn, not what must be included in a given program — that’s what the minimum standards do.

David Trumble of Weare, a lawyer and farmer who ran for the state Senate this year, objected to the revised standards, citing a state law, RSA 193 E-B, which outlines the state’s “accountability for the opportunity for an adequate education.’

Trumble said the law requires schools to provide an adequate education through both input and output-based accountability — “inputs” being the elements that go into a well-rounded education, such as qualified teachers, defined program elements, and maximum classroom sizes; and “outputs” being the ways a student’s success is measured, such as tests and exams.

He argued the revised rules remove “inputs” by eliminating specifics around what is required for educational programs, and the change in definition of an educator to include school personnel other than teachers. Without these “inputs,” he said, the state is not in compliance with the law.

Others raised concerns about comments by Drew Cline, chairman of the State Board of Education, about classroom size requirements. Cline said the revised standards have reinstated limits on class sizes. However, educators argued the document mentions only student-teacher ratios, not specific numbers on how many students can be in a classroom. 

Giana Gelsey, a member of the Oyster River School Board, told the JLCAR members that  “the class size maximums and class size ratios are not the same. Right now in our school district, we are having an issue with the fact that our kindergarten population exploded. And we are actually figuring out how we are going to actually add classrooms to the current elementary schools we have. And a lot of it is actually linked to the fact that we have limits on how many kids fit in the classroom.” 

Sean Parr, a member of the Manchester Board of School Committee, raised similar concerns.

“Class size is very different than student-educator ratios,” Parr said. “Our district has been very careful in defining these things very specifically in our own policies. We feel it’s very important. The research shows very clearly that class size is much more important than student-educator ratios — that actually having a room with 20 students in it and one teacher is far better than having a room with 40 students in it and two teachers, or a teacher and a para. That research is substantial and clear.”  

The consensus among Democratic legislators on JLCAR was that the proposed rules did not comply with the requirements laid out in all four categories of state law, and that the overwhelming opposition to the revisions showed that they’re not in the public’s interest.

JLCAR member State Sen. Becky Whitley urged her fellow JLCAR members to vote against the revisions.

“The quality of our public education has nothing to do with politics,” she said. “It is the foundation of our democracy. It's a constitutional requirement in the state of New Hampshire. There has been countless litigation defining what is an adequate education,” she said.

“That is what's at stake here. This should not be about politics. Yet, we seem to be going in a direction where we are ignoring the vast majority of our educators, our administrators, our parents, all who have major, major concerns with these rules,” Whitley said. “It is our obligation as elected officials to determine and make an analysis about the public interest and that's what we’re doing here.”

Department of Education defends the proposal

During discussion about the first half of the revised minimum standards, Cline, chair of the State Board of Education, emphasized that the revision process had been inclusive, with 13 listening sessions held across the state and educator input taken into account.

“We listened to that feedback. That feedback really helped shape our draft rules,” Cline said. “Christine Downing was tasked with reviewing the draft rules and giving us feedback, which we took. You will see that the draft rules that were the initial proposal in February are vastly different than the final version you have here and that’s because we took massive amounts of input.”

Downing corrected Cline later on during her testimony, saying she was never “tasked” with reviewing the rules, but rather volunteered herself.

“If you look at these, we're really making very minimal changes,” said Elizabeth Brown, an attorney for the N.H. Department of Education, after answering many questions and defending the proposed changes.

Republican members of JLCAR did not raise significant concerns or share much input during the meeting. However, one member commented that many concerns raised by educators and others opposing the changes were based on older versions of the document, not the most updated one.

It was later found during the meeting that the link to the most updated version of the proposal on the Department of Education’s website was not available at the time, because of an error with the link. The link has since been fixed, but remains absent from the Department of Education’s Minimum Standards Page, where all other information from the department on the proposed updates is found.

Readers can find the updates that were approved Thursday on the Conditional Approvals page of the N.H. Department of Education website.

What will education look like going forward?

Ultimately, the new rules will mean more decisions will become the responsibility of local school boards, said Christina Pretorius, policy director at Reaching Higher NH, a statewide education advocacy nonprofit. Pretorius attended Thursday’s meeting.

It is unclear exactly what impact the rules will have until they are implemented, and impacts could differ between districts.

"The significant concerns from educators and school board members have been repeatedly dismissed,” Pretorius said. ‘They've told the NHED and State Board over the past several years that these rules could downshift costs to local school districts, and would exacerbate the inequities while undermining our public schools."

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org