Legislative Session Recap: Housing, School Funding, Gambling, and Marijuana Legalization in Focus,

 By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew,

 NH PBS and Granite State News Collaborative

Housing, school funding, gambling, and marijuana legalization. All these and more were tackled by the legislature this session. This week, Anna Brown, Research and Analysis Director for Citizens Count and host of the podcast $100 Plus Mileage, talks about what was and wasn't accomplished this legislative session . 

Melanie Plenda:

Let's start with the unusual makeup of the house this session. How did having such a close split between Democrats and Republicans impact the legislature?

Anna Brown:

Well, originally, I suspected there would be a lot of partisan rancor. Maybe those hardcore on the right or hardcore on the left would be able to really drive a wedge on some issues. But I was wrong. Most of the hot button highly partisan bills were in fact set aside in favor of focusing on legislation that was more likely to get bipartisan support, or was a top priority for legislative leaders. So for example, the House Education Committee had many bills related to the so called Education Freedom Account Program, which allows students to take a per pupil share of state education funding and spending it on private or homeschool expenses. There were many bills related to that people on the left wanted to limit the program or increase oversight. People on the right wanted to expand eligibility or the mountains of money that were going into the program. The education committee actually recommended tabling the vast majority of those bills, which is a way to set aside a bill without having debate without having a full vote. And just basically moving on to other issues. There was also a really bipartisan lead from the majority and minority leaders, Jason Osborne and Matt Wilhelm. They started the session with a co-sponsor bill for marijuana legalization. And I think that, them working together really set the tone, “What about the amount of legislation that was affected by the makeup? How productive were they?”. There was slightly less legislation than I expected this year starting in the session. And I think that legislators edited themselves a little bit because they knew those very partisan fringe issues. We're not going to move forward. So it seems that there was like I said, a little bit of self editing going into the legislative session. Wow. That's interesting. So as you mentioned, the two party leaders Jason Osborne and Matt Wilhelm, work together 

Melanie Plenda:

What about the amount of legislation was that affected by the makeup? How productive were they?

Anna Brown:

There was slightly less legislation than I expected this year starting in the session. And I think that legislators edited themselves a little bit because they knew those very partisan fringe issues. We're not going to move forward. So it seems that there was like I said, a little bit of self editing going into the legislative session.

Melanie Plenda:

Let's talk about the budget bill that was passed this session. Budget bills seem so innocuous, but they never are. So especially here in New Hampshire. Can you tell us about some of the highlights in that bill? And what does it mean for people?

Anna Brown:

Sure, this was an incredibly historic budget, because it was very popular among both Democrats and Republicans. It actually passed on a voice vote at one point, which basically means it was so popular that legislators could pass it just by saying yay, in a chorus, which was notably louder than the nays, so they didn't even need to count the votes. Overall, lots of wins. Here, there's a new school funding formula that increases state support for schools. There's more money for housing development, a pay raise for state employees, seven year authorization for expanded Medicaid, a repeal of the interest in dividends tax, and more. Those are just the big highlights. And then there are some smaller policy changes that didn't get as much news coverage, but are also really interesting. There's a new requirement for law enforcement to post notice on their websites before setting up an immigration checkpoint. This is particularly relevant near the northern border with Canada. There are also new limits on the governor's power to declare an emergency. That's a response to the ongoing emergency related to COVID-19, which went on for several months in I believe, even years, there's also $1 million to develop a civics tech textbook for New Hampshire students in grades K through 12. And lastly, the budget looks and lastly, the budget lifts some campaign donation limits as well.

Melanie Plenda:

What about housing, an issue plaguing New Hampshire and the rest of the country with the high cost of housing and the low stack available, what initiatives that the legislature put forward?

Anna Brown:

First of all, the state budget does include 25 million for the Affordable Housing Fund, and then an additional 10 million for the InVEST New Hampshire Housing Development Fund, which has fewer restrictions related to affordability. So the idea is you can just increase housing stock across the board. The most interesting provision to me, though, is what's called a housing Champion Program. This was very popular in the Senate, less so in the house. The idea is that if cities and towns adopt certain land use regulations, water infrastructure, public transportation, and so on, that helps the development of workforce housing, those towns and cities could get preferential access to state funds. So the idea is this is basically a carrot for the state to say, Hey, how about you work on that infrastructure and zoning to welcome more housing critics in the house, we're concerned that this was a way for the state to play favorites among cities and towns. But ultimately, the program was included in the budget because we all acknowledge housing is a crisis right now in New Hampshire.

Melanie Plenda:

One of the more controversial proposals in the legislature this session was the parental bill of rights that didn't get through to the governor's desk. What did those proposals entail and what happened?

Anna Brown:

There were two big parent rights bills, we had HB 10, which was the House version, and SB 272, which was the Senate version. HB 10 is interesting, because it actually made no mention of gender as introduced. It laid out many existing parental license rights and state law and then added some more enforcement, some oomph to those existing laws. SB 272, on the other hand, specifically would have required teachers to disclose information about a student's gender identity or sexuality if a parent asked, and opponents were concerned, this would threaten the privacy rights of students, especially if they had a hostile parent. 

And that's one reason why SB 272 also had an exception if school personnel had quote, unquote, clear and convincing evidence that a student might be abused or neglected by a parent. Ultimately, both of these bills were defeated in the house, however, with the very slim majority, arguing that we need to protect the safety of students and their privacy. And this bill is inviting attacks on teachers and schools. Those were the general arguments, just a couple of Republicans broke with their party to vote against the bills, and the Democrats mustered enough attendance so that neither bill ultimately passed. It's interesting Governor Sununu did not really weigh in on either bill. He's open to them as a concept. But I think that if we're going to see these bills, or some version of these bills reappear next year, for example, in the state senate, then I would think they probably need the support of Governor Sununu to really get across the finish line.

Melanie Plenda:

And there were also bills addressing gender equality. This session, though nothing was passed. So what were some of the proposals discussed and how might they come up again,

Anna Brown:

There were actually several bills that were retained in committee in the House, which means that these committees can work on the bills over the summer, and then they'll issue a recommendation in the fall. So then there will be a vote often right away when legislators come back in January. So four of those bills for example, HB 264, would allow a sex chain on a birth certificate without a court order. hB 368 would add protections for gender affirming health care, HB 396 would protect differentiation between male and female sex and HB 619 would ban gender transition, care for minors and ban gender identity conversations in school. So as I said, the retaining committee, these bills aren't dead. They are absolutely coming back next year. So I think the parent Bill of Rights was just the very tip of this conversation, and there's going to be a lot more next year.

Melanie Plenda:

So the perennial favorite marijuana legalization came close this session, though all the states around New Hampshire are legalizing cannabis. It's not legal here. Despite the fact as you mentioned, it had support of both party leaders. What does that mean for the next session? Do you think

Anna Brown:

There was a real game changer near the end of the session, when Governor Sununu announced ‘surprise surprise’ he would support marijuana legalization if it was a state run model similar to how we do our liquor stores. So there's a study committee of that issue over the summer. There's also a bill that's in a House committee that would set up state run marijuana stores basically. So this issue is absolutely going to move forward. And the house we know is on board. The House has voted for all sorts of versions of marijuana legalization state run private with taxation legalization without any sales. So now the question is really whether the Senate will get on board and I do think they will have a lot of pressure now that Sununu has finally said with the right bill, this is the way we can do it.

Melanie Plenda:

Let's look ahead to the next session. What are your predictions? What do you think will come up again, there?

Anna Brown:

I'm definitely looking at the housing and childcare issues, because there were those special committees that were set up. We've also touched on some obvious ones like marijuana legalization, gender issues. But one thing that didn't get as much attention this year as I thought it might was energy related bills. Yes, there were some bills that went forward related to bio power related to residential solar panels related to what appears on your electricity bill. But I'm very interested in what the state is going to do related to the renewable portfolio standard, for example, which is set to expire in 2025. Or is there going to be something related to Reggie, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, something else with offshore wind? Let's not forget a year ago, we were all hit with a huge increase in our electricity bills. And it looks like those bills are going to be coming down for most of us in August. Now that there's new rates coming in, but like I said, this was an issue that I expected more on. So I think that they'll dig in next year.

The State We’re in a weekly digital public affairs show is 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.

Juicy Garland; Protests and Intimidation: Drag Story Hour Targeted by NSC 131, Community Responds with Resilience and Solidarity

By Rosemary Ford, and Caitlin Agnew

NH PBS, Granite State News Collaborative

Click here to watch the full conversation on The State We’re In

On The State We’re In, Juicy Garland who performed at the Teetotaller Sunday Drag Story Hour as well as capturing clips of the group protesting before and during her story hour talks about what happened.

Melanie Plenda:

Thank you so much for being here. So Juicy. Can you tell us about your background? How did you get into drag performance? And how did you come to do the story hour on Sunday? 

Juicy Garland:

Yeah, so I had always been interested in drag. I was always a fan of Drag Race. But I actually held off from doing drag for a long time. Part of that was limited resources. Part of that was limited time. But I had friends who started doing drag and who encouraged me to do it around 2018, 2019. So I really took a deep dive in 2019. And then, over the pandemic, I really took a deep dive, started sewing and started working on my makeup and started performing as soon as the pandemic started to ease up. And then, as I was performing, I started doing brunch at Teetotaller. And they invited me to start doing story hours because they felt like my drag was family friendly. And they had been looking for someone who could be family friendly, and who could tailor what they were doing to a different kind of audience than an adult audience. So I was eager to do it. Because I love working with kids, I used to work with kids with disabilities, I used to want to teach and I went into the industry instead. And because of that, I was thrilled to be able to do it and started doing that in November of last year.

Melanie Plenda:

Excellent. And let me ask a little bit about it sounds like you sort of got into drag in 2018. Over that time, what did you learn about drag? I mean, it really is an art form. And I think sometimes that gets lost in these conversations. So maybe we can talk about that a little bit like what is it as a form of expression or as an art form? What is it for you? 

Juicy Garland:

Yeah, so I've always struggled with my self image and my self expression. And I saw it as an outlet for me to really find an alternative way to be myself. But also, I don't know, I'm the kind of person who likes to find boundaries and find out where the edge is, and then push that boundary every single time. And I don't know, my favorite drag queens in history are people like Devine, who really do extreme things with their art and just go well beyond that boundary of acceptability. But also, I don't know, I also love camp. And I love Queens like Ben dilla crem, a famous Drag Race Queen, who really do goofy smart things, aesthetically. And that's something that I've always really just wanted to be able to do. In addition, I don't know, I see gender as a big old joke. We all put ourselves into neat and like convenient boxes. So we're comfortable with the roles that are assigned to us. And I think that often, these labels that we apply to ourselves are really for the convenience of other people. So they're comfortable knowing where we stand. And there's something I think useful and important and interesting, about challenging what those neat little boxes, say about us and say about other people. And drag is a way to challenge those ideas and find new ways of reshaping them. 

Melanie Plenda:

So that kind of brings us to Sunday, so what happened during the story hour on Sunday. And when did you become aware of the protests? 

Juicy Garland:

Yeah, so I show up early. When I get ready for this particular event, I put my face on. And then I drive up to Concord because I don't live in Concord. And it's tough to drive an hour and so I drive up in my face, I take my suitcase with my drag queen in a box. And I then go into the cafe and I get into the rest of my costume. Then I go downstairs and most of the space is set up there's a microphone with an amp. And then there are the chairs arranged, the cafe has excellent management so I don't have to worry about a thing. 

And then I go sit down, I arranged my books at that morning, there was this amazing small family there was this mother with her adult kids, they had just moved to New Hampshire I believe last week, the two kids were adults, the younger had just matriculated into Dartmouth College in to study I believe genetics and biology. The older had just finished school in genetics, and was actually going to work doing genetics research at Dartmouth College. And they were there, moved in from the Bay Area to just be at Dartmouth, and they wanted to see a drag queen. So they came to my show as we were talking because I come from a background in the sciences in my day job. 

These organized men in khaki cargo pants, the goal of them to wear cargo pants, and their uniform T shirts with their little Neo Nazi symbols and their masks and their hats started to make noise and bang on windows and start shouting obscenities and slurs. So immediately this family of three left the space smartly. I am glad they did. And I decided to immediately document what these goons were doing. So I took a brief video, which is what I ended up posting online. And then I stopped that video and immediately sprung into action to touch base with Liam, the manager of the cafe, which we immediately discussed, how do we keep these kids safe when they arrive because none of the other families had arrived yet. And then we assessed we could keep them safe. We made a plan on how we would modify the event. We executed that modification, I remained downstairs to maintain the attention of the fascists outside as they were seen heiling and shouting obscenities. And then after we had arranged the event, we had confirmed with the families who had arrived that they did want to continue with the event. I moved to the alternative space within the cafe. And we hosted the event. 

And despite the noise that these fascists made, after the police arrived, they were moved away from the windows to make sure that they didn't cause any damage to the cafe. They were moved to the front sidewalk where the street is. So that way while they could execute their First Amendment rights, as stupid as they are for these people, they have that right. They were disruptive, but we were able to keep these kids effectively oblivious of the problem. Although they were aware of the noise. We kept these kids safe, the most important part because the event is of course about them. And I was able to not only entertain these kids and read stories about family to them, because it was Father's Day, and that was the theme we had chosen. But I was also able to make sure that the parents were comfortable, and that the parents felt safe as well. And we read through every single story I brought. And I was able to have a great time with these families, and they left happy and thankful. 

Melanie Plenda:

So what was going through your mind? I mean, I know I hear you kind of went into action mode where you were taking care of these different steps. But what was going through your mind either as it was happening, or even once the dust settled? Like, what were you thinking about?

Juicy Garland:

Honestly, for me, and maybe this is a uniquely weird thing for me. And this might come from my background. For me, when I'm faced with a crisis, I immediately go into problem solving mode. And this is something I saw in Liam, the manager of the cafe, he did exactly the same thing. We met with each other, we both had the same, like look on our face, which was, let's solve this problem and figure it out. We did that. And then I think the biggest struggle for me was maintaining the compartmentalization to execute on that. There was a moment I distinctly remember, I don't remember which story it was. But I was like turning a page. And the fascists outside were loud. So I could hear individual words, they were chanting, they were chanting things, like, get off our streets get off our streets, they were clearly organized. These were different people than who had protested before. Before the protesters were effectively lazy is the best word, we had to describe them previously. 

Liam and I had ultimately joked about it. We had been less worried about our safety and organizing anything to like, prevent them from arriving because they had stopped arriving. These were different people. But then also, they chanted, F, slur, F, slur, F slur, that was, in the back of my mind, like part of my mind, recognize that consciously. At the same time I'm reading, like, the first book I read was like, Heather Has Two Mommies, which I did as a joke to myself, I do that a lot, where I'd have a joke that only I know. And no one else gets it. And I'm thinking it's funny. So that's fine. But I'm like turning a page in one of these books. And I'm making a funny voice and entertaining the kids. And I'm like, saying something to make sure that the parents are laughing along with their kids, and that everyone feels good and happy and is having fun. And in the back of my mind is just that word being chanted at me. And like maintaining the compartmentalization to be able to execute on making sure people are safe and feeling safe, was tough. 

But I had a very busy day. So not only did I have the event that I had to execute on successfully, which we did, and then immediately everyone left, one family stayed for a little while, and I chatted with them. And it was wonderful. I love these people, the community of Concord is amazing. I immediately got out of drag, I packed everything away, I got a bite to eat. I planned the next event with Liam like, he and I are both like the same people. We both immediately had the conversation. Not do we do this, again, that never once was discussed. It was when do we do this again. And then immediately after I got in my car, I drove right home as fast as I could to my partner in Massachusetts. I finally sat on my couch in the dark, and was able to have the space to just sort of emotionally react to the whole day. And at that point, I was allowed to feel rage. 

And I just did that for an hour just being angry at the goal that these idiot fascist goons had to think that they could stop me from just letting some kids have fun and hear stories about different kinds of families. Like they even had the power to achieve that end. And they did not. And I won. Yeah. Well, and you talk about doing this again. But I mean, you know, are you talking about keeping the family safe, keeping the kids safe? Or were you afraid for your safety and even going forward? I mean, of course, like that has to be a consideration Right? Like, I'm not dumb. Like I'm a smart person. I know that my safety is at risk. These are violent dangerous people who were dumb enough to put that at risk, clearly. But at the same time, we live in a dangerous time where there's never been more important for me to be an advocate for my own and other people's rights when other people are in a similar position to me. 

And I am already putting myself out there as a loudmouth stubborn person in a wig. Just sticking out like a sore thumb being queer and brightly colored. And I'm not about to stop that. Because even if I tried, I couldn't, I tried that when I was 13, struggling with the fact that I was gay, and it didn't work then. And it's not going to work now, no matter how hard I try. And, ultimately, I feel like it's an obligation for all of us to recognize that Fascism is a problem. And it's not going to go away if we stop pretending to be gay. And passive activism isn't enough. Like we have to put ourselves out there and show them that we're not going to stop being queer because they want us to. And obviously, if the families of Concord don't want to show up, I can't make them. But I'm going to continue putting myself out there to welcome them if they want to keep coming back.

Melanie Plenda:

What, if anything, would you say to this NSC 131 Group and the other groups that are like them,

Juicy Garland:

Ultimately, their views, their fascism has no business in Concord or anywhere else in this country. We fought a war about 80 years ago over this. And I think we settled that pretty harshly with them, then. And I don't think that has changed. There is no space for that kind of bigotry, or that kind of violence anywhere in our culture. And there is no room for tolerance of that kind of viewpoint. We cannot allow that kind of fascism to inhabit any kind of space in our country. It does not belong here. My grandmother lost brothers to that fight. And how many of our grandparents lost family because of that fight? We're not about to tolerate that kind of violence and nonsense now, when we still have family missing because of it. 

Melanie Plenda:

So what generally should people know about attending story hour and what would you like to say to parents and kids who might be thinking of coming?

Juicy Garland:

So, ultimately, I do not broadcast when it's happening again, publicly, online. And that's ultimately because it's meant for the local community and I don't want to publicize it, to keep it as safe as possible, right? So if you are local, go to Teetotaler and make sure that if you are interested in going seek that information out from the cafe itself. I let them manage that information directly. And I have every ounce of trust in Teetotaller to do what they can to keep this event as safe as possible, ultimately use your own discretion. But I have no doubt that there will be additional support and resources from the local peacekeepers, and I'm assuming the local police as well after the last event. There will be plenty more advanced support in order to make sure that this group and others can't disrupt the next event like they did this one. And I am eager to see the next one, simply because I know it will be far more safe and secure than the last one because we will be far more prepared. 

The State We’re in a weekly digital public affairs show is 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.

Wheels to Work program remains in limbo in New Hampshire

Since 2017, initiative that provides used cars to low-income families has failed to win state support for funding

By Mark Quirk-Granite State News Collaborative

On Feb. 1, early in the 2024 legislative session, the N.H. House of Representatives rejected House Bill 1520 by a slim 193-184 vote. The bill was aimed at reviving the state’s long-dormant Wheels to Work initiative.

The program had been sustained for 15 years with both state and federal support by the Good News Garage — part of the regional Ascentria Care Alliance nonprofit. It repairs donated cars and gives them to low-income individuals and families “striving for self-sufficiency,” according to its website. But while the program is alive and well in Massachusetts and Vermont, it has been stalled in New Hampshire since 2017.

Rep. Joe Schapiro, D-Keene, the bill's primary sponsor, emphasized that he’s pursuing pilot projects to assist marginalized communities. Transportation challenges are a persistent problem, so Schapiro embarked on the initiative to bridge those gaps.

Shapiro’s bill sought $220,000 from the state, to be matched by federal money, to create a family assistance car ownership pilot program within the state Department of Health and Human Services. The objective was to provide 20 vehicles to adult recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families — TANF for short.

Schapiro argued the program would save the state money by helping people move off state benefits and remain gainfully employed. He said the recipients would be screened and complete the New Hampshire Employment Program to develop financial literacy, employment readiness, and knowledge about automobiles. 

The New Hampshire Employment Program, overseen by Health and Human Services, provides financial assistance, employment opportunities and job training to low-income families.

But not everyone agreed with Schapiro’s reasoning. Rep. Leah Cushman, R-Weare, who opposed the bill, said she believed the estimated value of $20,000 for each vehicle was high, and even if the recipient were to get off state benefits, it couldn’t be established that the savings would offset the amount the state invested. 

Cushman also said she was concerned about how recipients would pay for repairs to the vehicle and about how the program would prevent fraud.

Cushman’s argument apparently won the day, and the bill was moved as inexpedient to legislate, essentially killing it for the session.

“We are disappointed, of course,” said Tom Kupfer, marketing manager for Good News Garage. “We hear from residents in New Hampshire every day. We would love to be able to give out cars in New Hampshire again.”

Good News Garage accepts donated vehicles from all six New England states and eastern New York. The organization performs any needed repairs to the vehicles and awards them to people striving for self-sufficiency. It also operates in Massachusetts and Vermont, where the nonprofit began in 1996.

According to a 2017 report by the Health and Human Services Bureau of Improvement and Integrity Financial Compliance Unit, the program was saving the state about $155,110 a year.

At that point, Good News Garage was awarding about 100 cars a year and the report cited a savings of $1,551 per recipient per year. It also showed recipients were less likely to go back on state benefits once they received a vehicle. At the time, the used vehicles were valued at $5,000 each.

Kupfer said the report “verified exactly what our hope was with this program. It confirmed all these things.”

Mercedeze Moore of Newport, Vt., a mother of three, received a used SUV in 2021 — the recipient of Good News Garage’s 5,500th car. At the time, she said the car “is going to open up so many more opportunities for my family.” She said she previously had to walk her children well over a mile to get to child care and then walk another half-mile to her job. (Good News Garage screenshot)

Executive Council opposition

But at about the same time, Executive Councilor David Wheeler pointed out that Good News Garage had been operating without a used car dealer’s license for 10 years, something Good News Garage leadership said it was unaware it needed.

Wheeler had opposed spending $2 million in federal funds on the program — an appropriation he described as “the most wasteful contract I’ve ever seen,” according to a Union Leader article published in 2016.

As a result of that opposition, Good News Garage ceased operations in New Hampshire in the summer of 2016, and said it would be “actively pursuing” a dealer’s license.

Then-Gov. Maggie Hassan voiced her support for the program at the time. She said having a vehicle helped people get off welfare and keep a job, which she said saved the state about $18,000 a year per family. 

The state stopped funding the program in 2017. This session’s HB 1520 was the first time money has been requested since.

Since then, visitors to Good News Garage’s New Hampshire website have been greeted with the message: “Our New Hampshire Wheels to Work program is inactive at this time while we wait for the state to renew its contract for program funding. State support is the only way we’re able to feasibly award cars to NH residents. While we still graciously accept vehicle donations from NH residents, we are only able to award cars to neighboring residents in MA and VT at this time. We hope to be able to help Granite State residents again someday soon!”

Both Kupfer and Schapiro say there has been talk about the state starting a program run through New Hampshire auto dealers, but nothing ever came to fruition.

Karen Hebert, director of the Division of Economic Stability at Health and Human Services, pointed to the department's mission to foster self-reliance and independence — a goal exemplified by the Wheels to Work initiative. 

"It was an innovative idea to help people gain self-sufficiency,” she said of Wheels to Work, highlighting the program's goal to empower individuals. 

Despite the setback in February, Hebert noted recent efforts by the Statewide Coordinating Council for Community Transportation and the various regional coordinating councils across the state to launch keepnhmoving.com. 

That website offers a range of resources and has the goal of allowing Granite Staters to easily locate transportation options tailored to their needs, filtering options by community, region and transportation type.

Meanwhile, the people at Good News Garage — which does now have a used car dealer’s license that’s good until March 2026  — and Ascentria hope a lawmaker will take up the mantle and request funding for Wheels to Work in the 2025 legislative session.

Given the approaching budget year, Gilberto Calderin, director of advocacy for Ascentria, said he thinks there’s a good chance of that happening.

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

Public comments on minimum ed standards revision are overwhelmingly in opposition

Only one of over 200 responses to Department of Education proposal favors changes

By Rhianwen Watkins, Granite State News Collaborative

The N.H. Department of Education’s proposed update of minimum standards for public education is drawing significant backlash from the public, at least according to the overwhelming opposition contained in over 200 written comments sent to the department.

The public comment period on the proposed changes to the minimum standards – known as the 306 rules – came to a close April 30. A total of 204 written testimonies were sent to the state Board of Education and made public on the department’s website. All except one of the 204 written accounts were in opposition to the current revisions.

The department’s proposed revisions of the minimum standards, which are updated every 10 years, have received intense opposition from educators and other stakeholders since they were released Feb. 15. The overwhelming majority of speakers voiced their opposition at the board’s two public hearings in April. 

In addition, attorneys in the Office of Legislative Services, an arm of the N.H. Legislature, voiced several concerns about the proposal – including its constitutionality – in a draft reviewing the proposal for legal compliance.

The main points of concern in the public comments sent to the board included potential removal of state public education funding, eliminating caps on classroom sizes, shifts in wording from “shall provide” to “may include” – which educators assert makes certain program elements optional – and the overall impact on student achievement going forward.

"While neighboring states move ahead with forward-thinking proposals and programs, the NH Department of Education seems determined to drag us backward and squash our kids' chances of reaching their potential," wrote Richard Popovic of Nelson. 

Sara Lewis, a music teacher at Josiah Bartlett Elementary School in Bartlett and interim principal at Pine Tree Elementary School in Conway, had similar sentiments.

“Our neighbors in Vermont are doing just the opposite,” she wrote. “Increasing funding to put MORE money toward students who have been historically marginalized and discriminated against.”

MaryEllen Reinself of Enfield echoed concerns over New Hampshire’s educational standing.

“When compared with other states, New Hampshire has a very strong national ranking for the quality of its public education. These proposed revisions to the 306 Rules threaten to eviscerate public education in New Hampshire,” she wrote.

Catrina Annis of Berlin raised concerns over the future of her children’s education in a district with lower funding.

"As a parent of two children in the Berlin Public Schools in the county of COOS how dare you attempt to reduce the standards in place for our children."

Asked why she felt motivated to provide testimony, Annis replied to the Granite State News Collaborative in an email:,  “Our taxes are high yet our schools are in disrepair and our students and staff have to make do with lower quality materials and supplements … not only are we significantly poorer, we are receiving less help from the state then they are obligated to provide.”    

Despite Kent Hackmann’s granddaughter being in her last year of public school, he also expressed concern over the future of New Hampshire’s education.

"I am 86, a vet … and the grandfather of a student completing her senior year in high school. I am a firm believer in the role of public school education," he said.

Greg Eaton of Winchester communicated his worry over potential impact on taxpayers.

“This is a horrible idea as a way for the State to save money. Education is not the place to make those changes and cuts,” he wrote. “The direct potential effect on us as parents in a small NH Town is frightening.”

Another motivator to publicly comment was due to the removal of “acknowledgement of “diversity” from the standards and instead replacing it with “respect for differences.”

Jacob Bennett of Chester took particular issue with this.

“Deleting ‘diversity’ from existing language in Ed 306.06 cannot be understood as a mere editorial decision but a fundamental shift away from requiring affirmative policy and toward allowing passive ‘respect for differences,’” he wrote.

Some commenters specifically called out Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut and state Board of Education Chairman Drew Cline.

“This is a blatant misuse of power and a reminder that Commissioner Edelblut is trying to dismantle New Hampshire’s public schools. The fox guarding the henhouse, indeed,” wrote Mel Hinebach of Concord.

"I am outraged by the deceit, the outright lies, and most of all, the anti-democratic agenda so obviously promoted in the 306 revisions. Cline has a mission to impose his own conservative philosophy onto New Hampshire's educational system, thereby harming public schools in his fervor to transfer badly needed public money to private, often religious schools and homeschooling,” said Kris Flather of Hanover.

"These revisions threaten to hurt our students by redefining and watering down what is considered an essential, required, and adequate education in New Hampshire,” wrote Sean Parr, a member of the Manchester Board of School Committee and chair of its Education Legislation Committee

When asked later why he felt compelled to include his voice in the conversation, he replied, “The Ed. 306’s are something that we as a board have been pretty unanimous about the whole time and I thought it was important to go on the public record, expressing that.”

He also emphasized the disconnect between two state bodies, the Department of Education and the Office of Legislative services.

The commissioner and board have repeatedly emphasized their belief that the document is in the best interest of students, but educators, parents and taxpayers continue to fear the impacts of the revisions if passed.

"This weakening of our public schools seems to me to be part of a national campaign by extremists to dismantle one of the cornerstones of our democracy," said Charles Rhoades of Dover.

Liz Tentarelli of Kearsarge left the Board with an important message and plea.

“You have the opportunity to turn down these suggestions,” she said. “If a diploma from a NH high school is to stand for anything, you need to discard these vague 306 standards and start anew, with expert and professional input from those who will use them to teach. Remember where your responsibility lies: with the schools and the students, not with Mr. Edelblut.”

The only person to write in favor of the proposal was Luke Felthun of Bedford. He said he felt that keeping the wording change of “may” from “shall” when referencing program elements was a good decision. 

“This may not be an ideal approach but is nevertheless an improvement as many of the requirements increased student and teacher workload without adding meaningfully to learning,” he said.

In addition to the individual public testimony, Christine Downing, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Cornish, Grantham and Plainfield school districts, submitted testimony from her own educator review sessions, in which she and educators across the state came together on multiple occasions to analyze the dept’s proposed revisions. 

Within the 13-page testimony, Downing outlined important educator recommendations for the board to consider.

Educators who attended Downing’s sessions found that not all minimum standards had actually expired. The standards must be updated every 10 years, but from time to time certain sections are individually updated within those 10 years, leading to varying expiration dates. Downing’s team recommended putting the most focus towards the standards that are about to expire and creating more time to come to agreements on the ones whose dates are not as pressing.

The Department of Education issued a statement responding to the heated criticism in the public comments that were submitted:

"The New Hampshire Department of Education appreciates and welcomes the public feedback that has been received. It is clear that, given the substantial public interest, there are strong feelings and significant input regarding the vast importance of updating the Ed 306 Minimum Standards Rules. This is understandable and not unexpected given the significant impact of the rules, which is evident based on the 30-year history of previous attempts by the New Hampshire State Board of Education to update and revise minimum education standards for public schools - most notably similar issues that were raised in 1992 that captured nationwide attention.”

The department provided two links to New York Times articles from August and November 1992 regarding previous education standards revisions in New Hampshire that caused considerable public concern. At the time, the state school board at first voted to eliminate virtually all minimum state education standards and allow districts to set their own. The state board eventually backtracked on the plan in the race of immense opposition.

“We are pleased that this has been a robust process with active participation from the public, and we are excited for the State Board to move forward with its responsibility of rulemaking. The State Board is in the process of reviewing public input and will take all comments into consideration during its revisions to the rules," the department’s statement concluded.

On June 11 at 10 a.m., Commissioner Edelblut will be present for a public meeting of  the Legislative Oversight Committee for the Education Improvement and Assessment Program to further discuss the revisions. The meeting will take place at the Legislative Office Building in Concord, in room 205-207.

The meeting will also be livestreamed for people who cannot attend in person. 

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

N.H. schools go beyond academics in crafting a ‘portrait of a graduate’

With community input, districts emphasize ‘equally important’ real-world skills to prepare students for their futures

By Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative

Earlier this year at Franklin High School, a group of cheerleaders got together to present their physics project. But there was no PowerPoint or test papers. Instead, the girls used cheerleading and stunting to demonstrate principles of the science. 

A poster that accompanied a presentation by cheerleaders at Franklin High School, demonstrating a real-world application of physics principles. (Courtesy of Franklin High School)

Jule Finley, curriculum coordinator for the Franklin School District, said she was blown away by the confidence the students showed and the depth of their knowledge as they responded to questions from the teacher. 

“It wasn’t just memorized to plop some answers on a test and forget it two days later,” Finley said. “They know that information, and they will not forget it because they’ve connected it to something they are passionate about.”

The physics presentation is just one example of a project-based, real-world approach to learning that Franklin is trying to foster, Finley said. 

This year, the high school was able to be more creative and flexible with its curriculum because the district adopted a “portrait of a graduate,” a document that outlines the life skills that the community wants graduates to have, including attributes such as resourcefulness, wellness and responsibility — all of which were on display during the physics presentation, Finley said. 

With the freedom to work toward those goals, teachers are thinking outside the box about how they deliver their lessons and assess students’ learning, she said, and students are more engaged than ever. 

Portraits of a graduate, also called portraits of a learner, are relatively new in the Granite State but have been used around the country to define what communities want from their school systems. The portraits serve as a vision statement for school districts and are an important part of competency-based education — an approach that emphasizes real-world applications of academic skills.

The Miford School District is among at least eight around the state that have crafted their own ‘portraits of a graduate.’ (Milford School District)

The idea is catching on in New Hampshire, with at least eight districts around the state — including Conway, Hampton, Milford, Nashua and Newport — crafting their own portraits of a graduate, many with help from the New Hampshire Learning Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to competency-based education. 

These documents provide guidance for school districts to equip students with particular skills and evaluate their progress in obtaining them, educators say. 

“The portrait of a graduate really is a great North Star … because everyone can answer, ‘What do you want our graduates to know and be able to do?’” said Laurie Gagnon, program director of the CompetencyWorks initiative at The Aurora Institute, a national nonprofit focused on competency-based learning. 

Interest in portraits emerged in New Hampshire about three years ago, amid concerns that students didn’t have the life skills they needed to function as adults, even if they met the academic requirements for graduation, said Carolyn Eastman, director of personalized learning at the New Hampshire Learning Initiative. She has worked with six school districts on their portraits of a graduate.

Parents, teachers and employers recognized that, beyond academics, “there are a set of skills that are equally important to success after high school,” Eastman said. Portraits of a graduate allow communities to list those skills and assess them, aiming to increase students’ likelihood of success. 

“We want to make sure [students are] prepared and ready for whatever future they’re going into” after graduation, said Nate Burns, principal at Nashua North High School, who is helping lead his district’s development of a portrait of a graduate. 

What skills should graduates have?

Creating the portrait often starts with a basic question: What should graduates be able to do by the time they walk across the stage to accept their diplomas?

When communities ask that question — as Franklin did through community forums, meetings with local businesses, and even polls of residents at the town dump — common answers often arise, Gagnon said. Life skills come up, such as financial literacy, cooking and the ability to tap into community resources, but so do so-called dispositions, such as being resourceful, community-oriented, collaborative or resilient. 

Franklin’s portrait of a graduate touches on six characteristics: a commitment to community; learning; resourcefulness; responsibility; wellness; and humanity, which the document defines as “recogniz[ing] the impacts others have on me and my impact on others.”

The Henniker School District has crafted a portrait with three tenets: envisioning a graduate who is a “respectful collaborator, effective communicator, and knowledgeable problem solver and creator.”

All of this may sound abstract, but when they work well, portraits allow school districts to structure their educational approach to facilitate these skills, Gagnon said. 

“It’s important it doesn’t just stay as a poster on a wall,” she said. “You’ve got to say, ‘What are we doing to help our learners become what we’re envisioning for them?’ That can drive lots of changes in the system.”

That’s what’s happened in Franklin, according to Franklin High Principal David Levesque. 

“This year, we’re embedding it into everything we do,” he said. 

 The Franklin School District crafted its ‘portrait of a graduate’ after a series of community forums, meetings with local businesses, and even polls taken at the town dump. (Franklin School District)

The result has been more interdisciplinary learning, such as field trips into the community and an increase in extended learning opportunities — internship-like programs that allow students to explore different career paths. 

One government class attended city council meetings and formed a mock council to better understand how local government works. In another class, students prepared a YouTube video to teach others about mindfulness, building their communication skills, their understanding of wellness and their grasp of technology. In a class that paired physics with sports, the cheerleaders were just one example of hands-on presentations.

“That’s the direction we’re trying to get to, where we’re not just using a paper or a trifold” poster to assess learning, Levesque said. 

In response, he said, the school has seen improvements in students' attendance and engagement. “The portrait of a graduate thing has saved us this year,” he said. 

An approach for the entire school system

In Nashua, the team working on the document has opted to call it a portrait of a learner, rather than a graduate, because if the ideas aren’t implemented until high school, “it’s kind of too late,” Burns said. 

Instead, he wants the Nashua portrait to be used from preschool all the way until graduation. Eventually, the document will provide not only guidance, but a framework for assessing students and measuring their growth in non-academic skills in much the same way their academic progress is monitored. 

“Prior to this … we didn’t have a way to report out on it, and we definitely weren’t speaking the same language” about non-academic skills, Burns said. 

Nashua’s document is still being drafted, but Burns says it emphasizes critical thinking, grit and relationship-building. 

Nashua is “not spending a ton” on the process, but creating a portrait of a graduate can be expensive. Franklin has spent $650,000 on the effort since 2019, which includes site visits to other schools around the country and students' experiences in the community. The funding was provided through grants from the Barr Foundation, a Boston-based nonprofit focused on education reform, among other initiatives. The same foundation provides grant funding that the New Hampshire Learning Initiative uses to support districts in creating their portraits. 

Other states have a statewide portrait of a learner. The New Hampshire Learning Initiative has crafted a portrait of a New Hampshire learner that includes five skills: critical thinking and problem-solving; communication; collaboration; adaptability; and learner’s mindset. However, the portrait isn’t part of state graduation requirements or the state’s minimum standards for public school approval, known as the 306s. 

Because of New Hampshire’s emphasis on local control, “the majority of the work is happening at the local level,” said Eastman. “While we have a statewide portrait, we know that local supersedes states.”

With that in mind, Eastman expects to see more communities creating a portrait of a learner. 

“Life skills have become very important to the kids, the parents and to the community,” she said. 

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

Teachers accuse education department of secrecy in drafting standards for public schools

By Rhianwen Watkins, Granite State News Collaborative

The minimum standards for New Hampshire schools are going through their every-10-year update, and educators across the state have voiced strong opposition to many of the proposed changes.

The criticism is somewhat similar to comments contained in a recent review of the proposed standards by the Office of Legislative Services that found the proposed standards  may violate the state constitution.The office  provides advice on legislation and rules to the N.H. Legislature.

Beyond that, they have accused the N.H. Department of Education of hiding information from the public, and leaving educators — the ones arguably most knowledgeable on the topic — out of the process.

The minimum standards document outlines the required elements for educational programs, for graduation, for class sizes and for other important standards that schools and educators will be held to for the next 10 years. 

The document also directly affects communities, as the requirements outline what aspects of education the state government will pay for. Any costs that are not deemed a requirement in the document will become the responsibility of local taxpayers.

That is why educators have been so focused on the document and worried about its potential implications.

A background summary 

In 2020, the Department of Education gave Fred Bramante, director of the nonprofit National Center for Competency Based Learning  a $50,000 contract to form a team to draft an update of the minimum standards, often called the 306 rules. 

Two years later, in November 2022, Bramante and the 13 members of his team presented their update to about 50 educators at a two-day event in Laconia. Among them was Christine Downing, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Cornish, Plainfield and Grantham school districts.

After reading the draft, educators immediately expressed alarm and argued that the two-day event did not provide enough time to give a fair response.

After hearing overwhelming criticism from educators and frustration over the fact that they’d been left out of the drafting process, Bramante formed a new group, which included Downing and three other teachers union members.

The new team drafted a revised version of the document, and Downing sent it to the department of education on Jan. 22, 2023. 

Less than a month later, the Department of Education released a new version — using the document it got from Downing, but with immense edits, including important changes in wording and deletion of multiple sections.

Christine Downing; image from video for Kearsarge Regional School District.

Downing and the other educators objected strongly to eliminating limits on class sizes, changing “certified teachers” to “licensed teachers,” and changing the word “shall” to “may” throughout the document when referring to specific education requirements, which they say makes those requirements optional rather than mandatory.

Bramante has a different outlook from the educators. He said that, overall, he’s content with the document the state agency came up with, and said the State Board of Education is “under no obligation to accept anything we recommend.”

Questions over the contract

Downing left the team Feb. 8 when she learned Bramante’s National Center for Competency Based Learning had been awarded an extra $25,000, on top of its original $50,000 fee in November 2020.  

The NCCBL had already been given three unpaid yearlong contract extensions prior to the amendment for the additional $25,000. 

The contract extension states, “The NCCBL continues to provide direction and leadership in the revision of Ed 306. The original contract initially included provisions for public outreach. However, the scope of our public outreach and engagement with stakeholders has significantly exceeded our initial expectations, and these efforts are still ongoing. As a result, our vendor, NCCBL, has had to extend their outreach activities beyond what was originally agreed upon in the contract.”

“Where is this so-called public outreach?” Downing asked. “I don't see it.”

Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut disagrees. 

“I think that this has been and continues to be maybe the most transparent process around a set of rules,” Edelblut said. “I think it's appropriate, given the content of the rules, the importance of these rules, that we have been so transparent and open.”

He said more than a dozen listening sessions were held across the state, where educators could raise concerns with the department. 

However, multiple educators have complained that many of those sessions were held during the day, when parents were at work and educators were teaching, and therefore unable to attend. 

That included the two most recent hearings on April 3 and 11, both which started at 1 p.m. The one on April 11 was part of the board’s monthly meeting.

Megan Tuttle, executive director of NEA-NH, put in a written request to the state board to move the time of the April 3 hearing, but that request was denied.

“I'd love to see the State Board of Ed hold an evening meeting, so educators could come to it without having to get some coverage or putting schools in a position where they have to be without their educators,” Downing said.

In addition, the department held no virtual online sessions, where people from distant points could tune in to the discussions.

Edelblut noted that Downing’s series of educator review sessions should be considered part of the transparency process.

Frank Edelblut, New Hampshire’s education commissioner. Photo courtesy of National Assessment Governing Board.

“I don't get paid by the Department of Ed,” Downing said. “I don't get paid by NCCBL. They don't own my work. I own it, because I'm doing it completely as a volunteer — as a 30-plus-year educator who's concerned about how our public schools are under attack.”

Downing also questioned why Bramante’s NCCBL needed three contract extensions.

“As a taxpayer, I'd be going, ‘Huh — over three years ago, a sole-source contract was issued to an organization, and we're over three years later, and they still haven't done it,’” she said. “A real question needs to start going around this whole sole-source contract, and again, with this new round of funding that was issued.”

Right-to-know requests denied 

Over the past couple of years, multiple right-to-know requests over the educational standard revisions were denied by the Department of Education.

In November 2022, Reaching Higher NH asked to see the most recent version of the standards document, but Elizabeth Brown, attorney for the education department, said any reports received from the NCCBL are “draft agency documents” and exempt from disclosure. 

Reaching Higher disagreed.

 “We believe that any changes to the Minimum Standards are a matter of public interest, as they serve as the foundational rules that govern all of our public schools,” the organization stated on its website. 

In October 2023, multiple news organizations — including the N.H. Press Association, the Granite State News Collaborative  and the N.H. First Amendment Coalition — filed a right-to-know request, asking the NCCBL and the Education Department to release any documents drafted in their meetings about education standards, citing New Hampshire’s right-to-know law.

The department again denied the request.

How is the 306 revision process different from 10 years ago?

David Ruff, executive director of the Great Schools Partnership, said the revision process 10 years ago was very open and inclusive of educators.

Ruff said the standards update was not contracted out to a consultant. Rather, the Education Department — with a commissioner and board members who are not involved in the current changes — updated the standards with the help of a “task force” that included school superintendents. 

Ruff said his role was to facilitate meetings with educators to hear their feedback.

“There was a series of outreach gatherings in the field to get opinions from educators across New Hampshire,” Ruff said. “I know that a lot of the people who were on that task force reached out on their own to talk to people in their spheres of influence.

“I would describe the whole process as pretty engaging, pretty thoughtful, and really focused on how to improve learning for kids,” Ruff said. “I think (the department) did a nice job of reaching out to get input from the field.”

When asked whether there were concerns that changes in the document could result in state funding cuts, Ruff said that wasn’t a “sticking point” because people thought their concerns were “being addressed.”

Overall, Ruff felt the process was “pretty straightforward” and “standard” for updating a public document.

“Great accolades to the department and the people on that task force for really buckling down and getting some good work done,” Ruff said.

So, why has there been so much conflict during this round of updates 10 years later?

Legislative efforts to change the process moving forward 

“It appears that the board and Commissioner Edelblut have tried to commandeer the process of drafting minimum standards. And in doing so, they've tried to avoid input through educators and parents,” said Andru Volinsky, lead lawyer for the 1990s court cases that established that the state government was constitutionally required to pay for an “adequate education” for every child in the state.

While Edelblut says educators have been very involved in a highly transparent revision of minimum standards, educators and some legislators disagree.

“We, as educators, really had to fight to get our way to the table,” said Tuttle.

“I believe sunshine is the best disinfectant,” said Volinsky. “And the more the process is hidden, the more suspicious we should be.”

“Frankly, if we did not have Christine Downing, devoting untold volunteer hours to working with educators and gathering data, suggesting language and revisions, we wouldn’t even have a clue that we do have about what the commissioner and the state board are trying to do,” said state Rep. Hope Damon, D-Croydon, a member of the House Education Committee.

 Downing thinks that, going forward, state laws need to be strengthened to ensure educators have a role in setting state minimum standards for education. She proposed amendments to two bills, HB 1163 and HB 1107, that would establish a 306 commission to review the updates on school minimum standards every 10 years.

The amendments would define exactly who must be part of the commission, including a specific number of principals, school administrators and teachers representing all grade levels. That would ensure that educators have a role in the entire process.

However, neither amendment has gained much traction in the Legislature, and Downing says she doubts they will “see the light of day.”

What did Downing’s group find?

Nevertheless, lots of progress was made during Downing’s extensive educator review sessions, which outlined issues with the board’s most recent 306 revisions.

Educators found that not all sections of the current document from 10 years ago have the same expiration date. Although a large number of the current standards are up for revision, multiple sections are still valid.

Standards around English language arts, technology and engineering ed programs, and language programs were last updated in 2016, making them valid until 2026. 

Seven more sections were updated in 2019, and therefore don’t expire until 2029. The final four sections were updated last in 2022, and therefore are valid until 2032. 

Why do the sections have varying expiration dates?

Even though the large part of the process happens every 10 years, sometimes questions are raised around certain sections within those 10 years, and those sections get individual focus and can be updated as seen fit.

Downing questioned why the public has not been told of this, and why there is such a push to revise all of them at once, instead of prioritizing the ones that have actually expired.

Downing’s official recommendations to the state included taking more time to work on revisions that have not yet expired, providing an opportunity to update them in a way people can agree on.

The public comment period ended April 30, and the next step is for the State Board of Education to send its final proposals on minimum standards to the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules in June. 

Whether the board decides to implement recommendations from Downing and educators across the state will be known once their final draft is made public.

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

Housing is one way to improve health, and life in general

By Kylie Valluzzi and Scott Merrill, Granite State News Collaborative

New Hampshire’s housing crisis is about a lot more than having a roof over your head. It also involves economic growth, job creation and tax revenue. 

And now, a new awareness is developing: the profound impact of housing on well-being and health care. There’s a growing realization that making affordable housing more available could be a key to enabling Granite Staters to lead healthier lives.

Housing is one of several “social determinants of health” that some researchers believe have a greater influence on people's well-being than traditional health care.

In New Hampshire, 40.7% of residents have at least one social risk factor known to affect health outcomes and 15.6% have three or more factors, according to the Census Bureau’s 2021 Community Resilience Estimates for Equity. 

Risk factors include poverty, age, disability, access to health insurance, housing security and race. 

In Hillsborough County, New Hampshire’s largest county, 61,974 people have three-plus risk factors, the report says; that’s 14.7 percent of all the residents of the county. Of New Hampshire residents between ages 35 and 64, 41,000 have no health care coverage.

Across the state, a network of researchers, policymakers and health care providers is working to address how these risk factors affect health outcomes for New Hampshire residents.

At the University of New Hampshire, the Carsey School for Public Policy is setting up a community loan fund to improve health conditions; plans are to address affordable housing and other social determinants of health. 

The fund is being modeled after a program at the University of Vermont, said Michael Swack, director of community development at the Carsey School’s Center for Impact Finance. 

Patients with housing insecurity — that is, people unable to pay rent or utilities, or who need to move frequently — have above-average rates of respiratory disease, chronic illness, and challenges with medication management. On the other hand, people with secure housing report fewer hospital visits and, when they go, shorter hospital stays, Swack said, citing UVM’s research.

One question on the minds of the UVM researchers, Swack said, was “’Who were the most expensive patients?’” 

“They found some of those patients included people experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness,” he said.

UVM Medical Center in Burlington launched several initiatives to address housing insecurity among patients. One was Bonvouloir House, a medical respite program run by the Community Health Centers and funded by UVM Medical Center. It offered a clean, safe environment for recovery from medical procedures or ailments for five years until it was abruptly shut down in 2023. 

Over its tenure, the program served more than 200 patients and saved the hospital system an estimated $9 million. However, in July, the program was abruptly shut down because of challenges in meeting the increasingly complex medical needs of its residents. 

Lessons learned

The New Hampshire effort has learned from this start and stop in Vermont. In contrast, Swack said, the Carsey School’s initiative is broader than one hospital and is rather a coalition of hospitals, community development organizations, health centers, government agencies and funders. The project is creating a fund that will be capitalized from multiple sources and fund multiple projects.  

“Projects affecting health outcomes can range from housing, decarbonization of buildings, including health centers and schools, to transportation, telemedicine, healthy food and more,” Swack said. “We hope to create a portfolio of investments across the state that contribute to positive health outcomes.”  

Going forward, the fund will be managed by the N.H. Community Loan Fund, a nonprofit community development financial institution that has successfully invested in communities across the state for over 40 years. Swack hopes that this fall, the fund will be open to investments, after which specific projects will be outlined. 

Another key player in the community loan fund’s development is the N.H. Hospital Association, whose involvement sprang from the work being done by Swack and others at the Carsey School.

“We were interested in creating a model for investing in social determinants of health, and what we’re doing with this fund is creating a model for investment that has never been done on a state level,” said Steve Ahnen, the hospital association’s president and CEO. 

Things that affect people’s health are often outside the hospital system, he said, such as a person’s culture, background, environment, housing, education, and other factors such as food insecurity.

 “As health care systems transition from a ‘sick-care’ system to one based on keeping people healthy — health promotion — we need to think more broadly than the four walls of a doctor’s office or clinic,” he said.

Driven by data

One way — but not the only way — that hospitals can address health promotion, Ahnen said, is to invest in housing. 

“I don’t think there’s a hospital in New Hampshire that isn’t looking at ways to deal with housing,” Ahnen said, referring to the need hospitals and communities in many parts of the state have for workforce housing and affordable housing.

“One thing we found was that a lot of hospitals have a lot of land,” Swack said, and land donations or long-term leases could help create affordable housing. “One of the biggest drivers of affordable housing costs is land, and using the N.H. Community Loan Fund means we don’t need to develop a whole new infrastructure for our fund.”

“The things that are driving health outcomes are things that we as a community need and are responsible for,” Ahnen says. “Hospitals do community needs assessments and work with community partners, but the reality is no one single entity can solve all problems on their own.”

Part of the hope for the loan fund, Ahnen says, is that it will bring stakeholders together outside of hospitals. 

“Insurers are a group we are very interested in talking with,” he says. “For them, a healthier population can mean more control in spending.”

While housing is a central issue for hospitals, Ahnen says transportation, child care and food insecurity also need to be addressed. “We’re looking at ways to partner together on major issues,” he says. “If we all work together, I’m optimistic we can have some impact.”

Ahnen says that, moving forward, the group wants to be driven by data to determine where the greatest challenges for health outcomes exist. 

“The good news is that we have a growing consensus around looking at these issues in a systemic and sustainable way,” he says. “There are great opportunities to partner with businesses and, if we can get multiple entities involved, we can have an even greater impact.”

The Marion L. Phillips Apartments in Claremont, owned by the Claremont Housing Authority. Courtesy photo

Against the wind

Efforts to address New Hampshire’s affordable housing crisis, such as the Carsey School’s initiative, are facing some difficult headwinds.

In its annual report issued in June 2023, the National Low Income Housing Coalition ranked New Hampshire the 13th most expensive state for renters, with a $29.86 hourly wage needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the state’s average fair market rental rate of $1,553 a month. 

Of 153,349 renter households in New Hampshire, 36,782 fell below 30% of area median income and 68,108 households were below 50% of area median income. 

According to the N.H. Housing 2023 Residential Rental Cost Survey Report, the state’s rental vacancy rate of 0.8 percent for all rentals indicates an off-balance market for tenants and landlords. A vacancy rate of 5 percent is considered balanced, according to the report.

“45% of New Hampshire renter households are paying 30% or more of their household income on rent,” the report said. “Lower-income families are likely to be paying an even higher percentage of their household income towards rent.” 

And buying a home is a struggle for many, as well.

From 2000 to 2020, state median household incomes rose 73 percent while new home prices climbed 111 percent, according to a N.H. Association of Realtors report.

In August, the Realtors’ affordability index fell to 59, the lowest on record. That means the state's median household income is just 59 percent of what is necessary to qualify for a median-priced home under prevailing interest rates.

The median price for a New Hampshire single-family residential was $490,000 in August 2023, up 9 percent from August 2022, the highest ever for the month, and the second-highest of any month in state history.

“To make up for the current deficit of housing units and return the state to a healthy housing market, 88,400 new housing units will be needed by 2040,” the Realtors’ report says. “To maintain the state’s homeownership rate of 71%, 58,000 of these units should create homeownership opportunities and 30,000 should be rental units.

On the bright side, according to a July survey done by the Saint Anselm College Center for Ethics and Society, 78 percent of New Hampshire voters think their communities need more affordable housing to be built and 58 percent want more affordable homes in their own neighborhoods.

The percentage of people who think New Hampshire should change its planning and zoning laws to allow for more affordable housing has more than doubled since 2020, to 60 percent, according to the survey.

Max Latona, a philosophy professor who runs the Center for Ethics and Society at Saint Anselm, said the lack of affordable housing is holding people and communities back from achieving their potential, and building affordable housing is something communities ought to do. 

“This basic lack of housing is undermining our well-being at a community level and at a social level. We need more housing to help us flourish,” Latona said.

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

Debate over Nashua asphalt plant is a ‘classic case’ of environmental justice

By Scott Merrill and Kylie Valluzzi, Granite State News Collaborative

Last June, neighbors in Nashua celebrated an environmental victory: City officials had rejected a proposal to build a hot-mix asphalt plant in the city’s North End, a neighborhood that historically had been a mix of industrial and residential.

City zoning laws would allow the plant to be built in that neighborhood, but the Nashua Planning Board found that the “transitioning nature of the neighborhood” toward residential justified rejection of the asphalt plant.

Critics argued that the asphalt plant proposed by Newport Construction Corp. would have been in the wrong place, a residential area that includes low-income communities and communities of color, as well as schools, businesses and churches. The case has ignited a fierce debate about environmental justice and the true cost of progress. 

Today, however, the neighborhood’s victory remains in doubt, as the fight continues on several fronts.

First, Newport Construction has filed suit challenging the planning board’s decision, contending that the city’s own rules should have allowed construction of the asphalt plant. 

Second, the N.H. Department of Environmental Services’ Air Resources Division is reviewing the company’s air permit application to see if the asphalt plant would comply with state and federal air pollution standards. 

As these fights continue nearly one year later, the people who live in the area argue they should have more of a say in what’s acceptable in their neighborhood, and object strongly to the proposed asphalt plant.

“Who wants to live or work in a place where the daily experience is overshadowed by the coming and going of dump trucks and tractor-trailers and is set to the soundtrack of crushing rock and diesel motors? The City of Nashua in 2022 is not the same as the city of 1952,” Rob Pinsonneault, an environmental science teacher at Bishop Guertin High School for 14 years, wrote in an opinion column published in the New Hampshire Union Leader in December 2022.  “It is the wrong industry in the wrong place at the wrong time.” 

“People who live in that neighborhood deserve better.”

New Hampshire is the only New England state without an environmental justice law or policy protecting socially vulnerable people from the burdens of development and ensuring environmental benefits are equitably distributed.

Even so, a growing stream of organizations — hospitals, health care workers, legal experts, community rights organizations, and other individuals from around the state — are working to uphold environmental justice principles and to find solutions for difficult problems involving sustainability and quality of life.

That’s what happened in Nashua last year, when the proposed asphalt plant was rejected.

A ‘classic case’

“This is a classic case of environmental justice,” said Tom Irwin, vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation of New Hampshire. His organization joined the fight opposing the asphalt plant, as did 350 NH Action, a state group advocating for climate justice, plus members of Nashua’s faith community. 

Also in the fight is environmental attorney Amy Manzelli, whose clients include Riverfront Landing LLC, an apartment complex that is fighting for the right to intervene in Newport Construction’s appeal of the planning board ruling. It was denied the right to intervene by the N.H. Superior Court in March, and has appealed that ruling to the N.H. Supreme Court.

Manzelli says it would be a “tremendous deprivation of justice” if the Conservation Law Foundation and Riverfront are not allowed to intervene. 

“The city will do justice to the city's interests,” she says. “But the only one who can do the best justice by Riverfront is Riverfront, the one who has millions and millions of dollars at stake.”

A Supreme Court hearing on the appeal is expected by this summer.

Last June, the Nashua Planning Board rejected the Newport Construction application for a permit, citing concerns about balancing the health burdens and the benefits of construction for those in the community and finding that the plant’s permit would violate the city’s site plan ordinance, which is tied to its master plan.

“We’re just making the people who are most marginalized sick,” said Tonia Knisley, a Nashua resident who’s been speaking against the plant since she heard of it in 2022. “And it doesn’t matter how much you disguise a smell of a chemical; you’re still inhaling the chemical. It’s still affecting your body.” 

Knisley lives on Burke Street, a mile from the proposed plant site. Her grandchildren attend Dr. Norman W. Crisp Elementary School, seven-tenths of a mile from the site.

The neighborhood is not unfamiliar with “waste-site situations,” she said. Behind the elementary school sat a dump in the 1960s, which has long since been filled and is now home to the school’s track. But she suspects toxins from the dump caused health problems.

"My opinion is that I don't want it. It's in the middle of a residential neighborhood and, historically, that has never been a good combination,” she said. 

“In my opinion, it should not be built in that area,” said Angela Mercado, director of Nashua’s Community Engagement Training Center. “We should think and add parks or more housing. That area is very close to the main streets; it has many neighborhoods around. 

“Nashua is growing and has many newcomers, the rents are so off the market, and we need affordable rent and recreational parks for our community, instead of the asphalt plant that would create traffic,” Mercado said. 

‘Nobody knew what was happening’

Efforts to stop Newport Construction’s proposed asphalt plant at 145 Temple St. began in the spring of 2022, when state Rep. Alicia Gregg, D-Nashua, began knocking on people’s doors in her ward to explain potential problems with the plant, including noise and air pollution.

“This is a community that is already marginalized, and I knocked on every door and nobody knew what was happening,” Gregg said. “One woman who came to the door with an oxygen tank became emotional when we spoke about the issue of air pollutants, and I encouraged her to do something. I reminded all the people I met that they are the real experts in their neighborhood.”

Manzelli argued to the Nashua Planning Board last year that the plant would not be consistent with Nashua’s master plan, “Imagine Nashua.” 

Nashua’s planning and zoning ordinances state that site plans must be “consistent with the goals, objectives and strategies adopted as part of the city’s master plan,” Manzelli said. She argued to the planning board that residents of the Temple Street neighborhood were particularly vulnerable because they trail state averages on various socioeconomic measures.

People with less than a high school education in the Temple Street neighborhood are 2.6 times higher than the New Hampshire average, the unemployment rate is 2.25 times higher than the New Hampshire average, people of low income are 2.6 times higher than the New Hampshire average, and people with limited English proficiency are five times the New Hampshire average.

“The developer is never going to say they didn’t care about ‘those people,’ but the fact that they disregarded this residential community and described it as the perfect site for an industrial hot-mix asphalt plant demonstrates they didn’t care for these people,” she said. “Nashua as a whole is one of the most diverse communities in the state.”

Manzelli’s client and the Nashua city government had economic studies performed that showed the plant would have driven down nearby property values by millions of dollars. 

“A lot of these homes around the plant are not owner-occupied; they’re renter-occupied,” she said. Landlords taking an economic hit could need to increase rent, or sell. “These folks would be very, very, disproportionately affected by any decreases in value,” she said.

Environmental issues she raised included the plant’s impact on water resources, given how much of the neighborhood was covered by impervious materials — concrete, asphalt and buildings — paired with the substances proposed to be stored, transported, used, and manufactured. 

“People were concerned about all of the possible impacts from the plant,” Manzelli said, such as pollution, traffic, and a decrease in property values.

Defining environmental justice

Environmental justice work takes place in an interdisciplinary field of community advocates, lawyers, public health experts, business leaders, and others committed to principles of justice. The issues they raise range from heat-related illnesses, dangerous roadways, food insecurity, unsafe housing, air, noise, water pollution, and many more. 

The term environmental justice emerged in the United States in the 1980s and has two distinct uses. The more common use refers to a social movement by which fairness is addressed regarding environmental burdens and benefits.

The other use refers to an interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes theories of the environment and justice, environmental laws and their implementations, environmental policy and planning, and governance for development and sustainability.

Over the last 10 years, towns and cities across New Hampshire have drafted statements focusing on sustainability, equity and quality of life. Rights-based ordinances have emerged that express a community’s desire to protect health and safety of people and ecosystems. 

Nashua’s master plan includes a statement that all people in the city “should have access to resources that enable a healthy, safe and vibrant life” that is aligned with the city’s site planning ordinance, which steers land use policy. 

Creating a community network

Soon after Arnold Mikolo learned about the asphalt plant proposal, he went to work identifying people in the Temple Street area who would be affected by it. Mikolo, a Conservation Law Foundation environmental justice community advocate, participated in forming an advisory group that included others willing to help organize the community. 

Citizens Against the Asphalt Plant, started by community activist Jo Anne St. John with the help of Rep. Gregg, Mikolo, Pinsonneault and others, met at St. John’s house in the lead-up to the planning board meetings that began in 2022. 

Pinsonneault completed a Ph.D. earlier in his teaching career and now is completing a master’s degree in environmental law and policy at the University of Vermont Law School. St. John introduced Pinsonneault to the Conservation Law Foundation and the asphalt plant issue last year. 

St. John “heard about my background and said, ‘Boy, do I have an issue for you,’” Pinsonneault recalls, since the asphalt plant would be only a couple of blocks from his home on the Merrimack River. 

St. John, who has been active in Nashua politics since she and her husband moved to the city from Massachusetts in the 1970s, became involved with stopping the asphalt plant after reading an article about it. She connected with Irwin at the Conservation Law Foundation, who suggested she meet Mikolo. From there, she reached out to Pinsonneault and Gregg.

Pinsonneault and his wife moved to Riverfront Landing on Bancroft Street in part, he says, to support the neighborhood rejuvenation.

In his December 2022 opinion column, Pinsonnealt took issue with Newport Construction’s argument that nuisances like noise, traffic and pollution would be accounted for and counterbalanced by increases in jobs and other benefits to the local economy. He argued the plant’s economic advantages would be outweighed by health burdens placed on residents, and the effects on businesses and property values. 

St. John says she was very disappointed by a meeting in late September, held by the N.H. Department of Environmental Services to address rules for future public hearings regarding Newport Construction’s appeal. 

“They’re focusing on air quality issues and people will only be able to speak about this aspect,” she said, and not about emissions from trucks or other issues. “These are people who aren’t going to understand a lot of the technical language about air pollutants. They’re not going to be heard. It seemed like an insult to the public.”  

Gregg, a domestic violence survivor, says she understands the dangers of voices not being heard. 

“We need to look at things more broadly and from our own communities’ perspective,” she says. She didn’t go door to door in 2022 to win votes, she said; rather, “I wanted to hear people’s voices. And throughout this process we wanted to show respect to the planning board, and we did.”

Newport Construction Corp. is continuing its effort in Hillsborough County Superior Court to build an asphalt plant at 145-147 Temple St. in Nashua. File photo by Nashua Ink Link

Building a belief in the system

Manzelli says that, for her, the asphalt plant issue is primarily about justice in general and restoring people's faith in the system. 

“In my career, the importance of these cases isn’t so much on environmental justice, but on justice,” Manzelli says. “In cases like this, I hear people say things like, ‘I didn’t know this was possible.’ Cases like the one in Nashua make people want to participate in government more.”

Manzelli says the Nashua case allows people to see that “not every developer’s application is going to be rubber-stamp approved.”

“Ultimately, it’s about building that kind of belief or that kind of faith in the system, and this is what's going to help people facing environmental burdens.”

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

Breaking barriers: New state plan aims to improve public transit and cut emissions

By Kylie Valluzzi, Granite State News Collaborative

The Friendly Bus offers transportation in Keene, provided by Home Health Care and Community Services. Provided photo

In 2010, Ethan Crossman, age 10, moved from Rutland, Vermont, to Barnstead, New Hampshire. As a child, he remembered Rutland to be a walkable city; he walked to school every day with his friends and biked around the neighborhood.

But when he moved to Belknap County, just south of New Hampshire’s Lakes Region, it was no longer possible for Ethan to walk to school or the store, or bike to and from friends’ houses; they were just too far apart. Ethan felt isolated. Everything was 30 minutes away, he said.

As he got older, “it was always a struggle to have enough money to have a car running and the cars would break down,” Ethan said. “Most of our conversations would be about coordinating, ‘Oh, how do I get a ride here?’ and ‘How do we figure out how to get there?’ and ‘This car’s in the shop.’”

It’s no secret that rural America is lacking in public transportation systems. But for people like Ethan to build a successful life, and to help deal with transportation emissions that are worsening the climate crisis, accessible transportation options are vital.

That’s why the N.H. Department of Environmental Services' new Priority Climate Action Plan stresses the support and expansion of public transportation options in New Hampshire.

Culturally, Ethan said, driving is a cornerstone of American society. But not everyone can drive or has access to a car. Ethan’s mom and brother, for example, both have disabilities. His brother is unable to drive and his mom drives only out of necessity. 

When he attended the University of New Hampshire in Durham, Ethan said he realized that “life is more pleasant when you don’t have to be scrambling for money, scrambling to try to get a vehicle running, and just not having that feeling of isolation.”

“I just want to live in a society where everyone can participate, rather than those who are able-bodied enough and have enough money to drive,” he said.

Better funding for public transportation would also be a step to reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, transportation is New Hampshire’s largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. As reported previously by the Collaborative, 45.9% of N.H. greenhouse gases were caused by transportation. About 40% of that was from passenger cars alone.

Public transit in NH, currently 

According to the N.H. Department of Transportation, there are 12 local bus systems in New Hampshire, including intercity service that connects New Hampshire communities to the larger region, and specialized services for seniors and individuals with disabilities.

Yet only 34 of 244 population centers have a regular fixed bus route. Over 40 communities lack any transportation services at all, according to a 2022 report from the N.H. Transit Association.

For long-distance travel, passenger rail service in New Hampshire is provided by the Amtrak Downeaster with stops in Dover, Durham and Exeter, and by the Vermonter, with a stop at Claremont Junction as well as Vermont communities in the Connecticut River Valley. But for getting to work or visiting your mother, rail service is not a solution.

In 2021, New Hampshire ranked 48th among the 50 states for total public transportation funding, including local, state and federal allocations. It was the only New England state that year to allocate no state funds for general public transit operating support.

Since then, the Granite State was allocated $24.3 million through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve public transportation options in fiscal year 2022 and 2023. The state would “expect to receive approximately $126 million over five years” under the law to improve public transit. But that is still a small figure in comparison to the $532.2 million allocated for roads, bridges, roadway safety, and major projects.

On the other side of the river

This year, Vermont allocated $48.8 million to support public transportation, as well as $43 million for rail projects and $27.9 million to continue implementing programs to reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector, as reported by trucking news magazine Land Line.

Vermont has 13 local and regional public transportation service agencies, including one regional authority, one transit district, two towns and nine private nonprofit corporations.

Green Mountain Transit of Chittenden County is one of those agencies and provides over 2.5 million trips each year, mostly in the greater Burlington area. In 2020, GMT partnered with the Special Services Transportation Agency to create the O&D Transportation Program, O&D being “Older Adults and Persons with Disabilities.” 

The service operates in addition to Vermont’s other agencies to fill gaps in other services such as fixed-route transit, non-emergency medical transportation or ADA (Americans with Disabilities) transportation. O&D transit relies on volunteer drivers in private vehicles, but also uses various vehicle fleets of ADA-compliant vans, sedans and minivans. The program depends on the involvement of local partners: agencies tasked with providing services to riders and making the local contribution to funding, and transit providers who maintain and operate the vehicles.

GMT has an estimated operations and management budget of $17.8 million for fiscal year 2024, according to the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission’s Transportation Improvement Plan. Of that, $9.6 million comes from federal grants and $2.3 million from state funding. 

Southeast Vermont Transit operates the MOOver, which serves Windham and southern Windsor counties, both located on the New Hampshire border. MOOver provides free door-to-door transportation for riders age 60 or over and for persons with ADA-defined disabilities.

Why should we invest in public transit?

According to the American Public Transportation Association's Transit Savings Report, people who ride public transit instead of driving can save an average of $13,000 annually, or $1,100 a month.

Additionally, in New Hampshire, a 2021 study by the Rockingham Planning Commission and Strafford Regional Planning Commission found that every $1 invested in the transit services provided by Cooperative Alliance for Seacoast Transportation (COAST) generated about $4.08 of activity in the local economy. 

Expansion of public transit was also a key recommendation in the state’s 2024 Plan on Aging. In 2030, a third of New Hampshire’s population will be 65 or older. A lack of public transit can make it difficult for older people to participate in civic life, see loved ones, get to a doctor’s office, or obtain other services, especially in rural areas. 

There are five urban transit agencies across the state, including Nashua Transit System, which provides service to nine communities within the Greater Nashua and Milford regions, and Manchester Transit Authority, which is the primary transit provider in nearly a dozen communities ranging in size from New Boston to Manchester. 

Additionally, COAST serves the Seacoast region, Wildcat Transit serves the University of New Hampshire and nearby towns, and CART serves Chester, Derry, Hampstead, Londonderry and Salem.

Five agencies serve the state’s rural communities. Yet, access is still scarce. Even today, Ethan’s conversations with his family revolve heavily around transportation.

“When I talk with my dad nowadays, the majority of the conversation is about what [car’s] broken and how are we going to come up with money to fix it,” he said.

What the PCAP suggests

On April 1, the N.H. Department of Environmental Services applied for federal environmental funding, requesting almost $50 million to fund six measures, including $5 million for support and expansion of public transportation options. 

According to the grant application, the money would be used to distribute “subawards to eligible entities that manage public transportation in the state.” Subawards would be based on adding or maintaining passenger miles of public transportation and achieving the goals of the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program within the grant’s time frame. The state will not learn until July whether it will get any of that money.

Even a small increase in investment could be life-changing, Ethan said. 

“If something existed where my mom could visit her friends or go to the store on a bus, that would increase her quality of life,” he said.

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

Legislature’s lawyers say revisions to minimum education standards could violate the N.H, Constitution

Legal concerns echo policy worries being voiced by critics

By Kelly Burch

The N.H. Department of Education’s proposed revisions in New Hampshire’s minimum standards for public schools may violate the state constitution. 

That’s according to written feedback on the standards, known as the 306s, provided by the Office of Legislative Services, an arm of the N.H. Legislature. 

Reviewing a draft proposal for legal compliance, the office flagged more concerns than are typical in a rules review, according to Christina R. Muñiz, senior committee attorney with the office’s Administrative Rules Unit. Those concerns include a potential constitutional issue, which is “pretty rare” to see in the rulemaking process, she added. 

The 306s, a set of administrative rules that govern the minimum standards for public school approval in New Hampshire, have been under revision since 2020. The process typically takes place every 10  years. After paying a contractor $75,000 to facilitate a revision, the state Department of Education introduced its own draft of the 306s in February, and accepted public comment on that document. Granite Staters provided more than 200 pieces of written testimony in response.

Despite that, the draft proposal is moving toward formal adoption. The review by the Office of Legislative Services is typically done before an updated version is introduced to the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (JLCAR), which can approve, conditionally approve, or object to the rules. Neither the office nor the committee is concerned with policy; instead, they focus on ensuring that the rules work as intended under New Hampshire law. 

Despite that, the concerns highlighted by the office align closely with those expressed by educators and members of the public who have been critical of the 306 update. The fact that the same issues arose from both a policy and legal standpoint is “really powerful,” said Christina Pretorius, policy director for Reaching Higher NH, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on education in the Granite State. 

“It really goes a long way in showing that, regardless of your political background, your views on education … that fundamentally there are some serious and very legitimate concerns with this rule proposal,” she said. 

Undermining an adequate education?

Muñiz said the possible constitutional issue centers on changing the word “shall” — which is legally binding — to “may” — which is not—  in “most of the rules.” That seemingly small shift “may create a situation where you don’t have a constitutionally adequate education throughout the state,” she said. 

The New Hampshire Constitution requires the state to fund an adequate education — the subject of over 30 years of lawsuits. Critics of the 306 revision have previously expressed worry that the change could result in less education funding from the state, since fewer subjects would be required. 

Ultimately, the state Supreme Court would need to consider the question of constitutionality, but a finding that the rules are unconstitutional is “a possible outcome,” Muñiz said.

The office’s review highlighted other legal concerns, including the fact that the rules seem to redefine “equity,” tossing aside the current accepted definition. That made portions of the rules on equity unclear, according to Muñiz.

“If a word has a definition, use that definition — don’t make up a new one,” she said.

Educators have expressed concerns about changes in sections on equity throughout the revision process, saying they could water down protections for vulnerable students.

Next steps

With the initial review complete, the Department of Education will likely adjust the draft before submitting a final version for legal review. That must happen at least three weeks before a meeting where the JLCAR — made up of five state representatives and five senators — is set to consider the rules. 

Once the Department of Education brings the updated rule proposal to the joint committee, the committee cannot reject it for policy reasons. It can object in only four circumstances, which are outlined in New Hampshire law:

• If the rule isn’t within the authority of the agency

• If it isn’t within the intent of the Legislature

• If it is not in the public interest

• If it has an economic impact that hasn’t been explained

Critics have said they may try to stop the adoption of the rules based on the public interest provision. However, under the law, that provision cannot be used to make policy objections; instead, it’s used when a rule is unclear or cannot be uniformly applied. 

“It’s not contrary to public interest just because people don’t like it,” Muñiz said. 

Although public comments are now closed on the draft proposal, the public can submit written or verbal testimony to the JLCAR once the 306s are on a meeting agenda, Muñiz said. The feedback must be related to the four outlined circumstances for the committee. 

Pretorius, of Reaching Higher, said it’s important for the public to continue to stay engaged, not just at the state level but with their local school districts. Meanwhile, Reaching Higher is continuing to compile and make public the written feedback from community members and educators.

“We’ve seen a number of very specific recommendations that can make the proposal stronger and advance a vision of a high-equality education system in the state,” she said.

Read the Office of Legislative Services’ Documents

Follow the Granite State News Collaborative’s series on Competency-Based Education to stay up-to-date on this developing story. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

What the science says about food waste

By Michael McCord, Granite State News Collaborative

Just as New Hampshire has yet to run a comprehensive food waste characterization study, the same could be said nationally. A landmark 2023 EPA study laid out over three decades of research about the impact of food waste and its connection to methane emissions. The study is unique in part because, as the EPA acknowledges in its summary, “there is no other peer-reviewed national reference point for the amount of methane emissions attributable to food waste” in American municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills.

Some of the findings include:

• In 2020, food waste was responsible for approximately 55 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions in MSW landfills across the country.

• An estimated 58 percent of the fugitive methane emissions (i.e., those released to the atmosphere) from MSW landfills are from landfilled food waste.

• An estimated 61 percent of methane generated by landfilled food waste is not captured by landfill gas collection systems and is released to the atmosphere. Because food waste decays relatively quickly, its emissions often occur before landfill gas collection systems are installed or expanded.

• While total methane emissions from MSW landfills are decreasing due to improvements in landfill gas collection systems, methane emissions from landfilled food waste are increasing.

• For every 1,000 tons (907 metric tons) of food waste landfilled, an estimated 34 metric tons of fugitive methane emissions (838 mmt CO2e) are released.

• Reducing landfilled food waste by 50 percent in 2015 could have decreased cumulative fugitive landfill methane emissions by approximately 77 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents (mmt CO2e) by 2020, compared to business as usual. 

(Carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, or CO2e, measures how much total greenhouse gas has been released into the atmosphere, which includes carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide. Methane, according to the EPA, is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere)

In layperson’s terms, as food waste in an anaerobic (covered, minimal air circulation) landfill slowly decomposes, it creates methane-producing bacteria that is either captured through landfill collection systems or naturally released into the atmosphere as a gas. The best illustration is the often-told story of the lettuce head taking 25 years to decompose while it produces methane all that time. By comparison, food waste in a compost bin can take as little as three weeks to fully decompose. 

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

Solving New Hampshire’s food waste problem one step at a time

By Michael McCord, Granite State News Collaborative

Joan Cudworth had a burst of show-and-tell inspiration in the summer of 2018.

Cudworth, who was then solid waste supervisor for the town of Hollis, came to the select board meeting with a partial solution to tackle the rising costs of trash disposal. She wanted town leaders to fast-track a pilot program to cut down on the amount of food waste being sent to landfills.

“We were looking to reduce trash and taxes,” Cudworth said. “I knew it was a small step. but it was important to get buy-in from the select board.” Cudworth composed at her home and learned how little trash remained after the composting and recycling. She came to the meeting with a transparent, medium-sized bowl containing a week’s worth of food scraps from her house – lettuce, strawberry tops, radish tops, fruit scrapes, rice, egg shells, cucumber and potato peels. The show and tell worked.

Packalina, Hollis transfer station composting mascot

“I remember people were fascinated by the possibilities,” Cudworth said. The select board immediately approved money for two Department of Public Works employees to attend the Maine Compost School. By 2019, the pilot program was up and running and collecting around 50 pounds of food waste a week (local schools were already running their own compost programs) at the transfer station. Residents who stopped by were greeted by a composting mascot named “Packalina.”

Cudworth, who became the public works director in 2020, says the total of food waste collected now tops 200 pounds weekly. That may not seem like a lot but, like compound interest, it adds up – to 10,400 pounds annually, which means that the town of about 8,000 residents has diverted more than five tons of food waste from landfills while decreasing climate-harming methane production from food waste fermenting in landfills.

“We are still experimenting and still learning. We don’t know how many are coming to the transfer station or how many residents know about the program,” Cudworth.

Food waste a state priority

Paige Wilson, waste reduction and diversion planner at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services

Paige Wilson, waste reduction and diversion planner at the N.H. Department of Environmental Services, has been busier than normal since the state passed its first food waste ban last summer. The law will go into effect on Feb. 1, 2025. It is focused on entities that generate as much as one ton of food waste a week. That food waste will be prohibited from being sent to landfills. Over the past decade, lawmakers in the nearby states of Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut have enacted varying levels of food waste disposal bans.  

“Food waste is something we all have in common, and composting is a low-hanging-fruit solution,” Wilson said.

It’s also a solution that needs a major expansion of infrastructure. Wilson is the education outreach and planning person, and her job is to assist commercial and municipal organizations, so she sees firsthand that food waste diversion in New Hampshire needs a major expansion of public and private infrastructure for a more sustainable path.

“There are a lot of factors that go into a sustainable (food waste diversion) program: budgeting, staffing, feasible space” for larger-scale composting, she said. 

Another issue will be addressed in the coming year. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that state residents put more than 180,000 tons of food waste into landfills — about 24 percent of all waste. But no on-ground studies have been done to better approximate the actual amount. Wilson said more comprehensive studies have been funded and will be launched – by literally sorting through trash.

“We’ve never had a state (food waste) characterization study on the amount of food. We will do one now by literally hand-sorting through 250 pounds of waste to get data,” Wilson said. Because the state has made food waste a priority, a diverse constituency of summer camps, municipalities, hospitals, schools, hospitals, nursing homes and any organizations that generates food waste has heard the call and reached out to find out what they can do.

“What you are seeing is a huge resurgence of interest in solid waste and recycling,” said Rep. Karen Ebel, D-New London, the prime sponsor of the bipartisan food waste ban legislation and chair of the state’s Solid Waste Working Group. “I feel like we are making progress.”

In particular, she said, it was a positive step that 50 percent ($500,000) of the state’s Solid Waste Municipal Fund appropriated by the legislature to food diversion efforts will include staffing and grants. 

The cost of infrastructure

It’s not easy to come up with a solid estimate on the cost of building out a food waste recovery infrastructure.

According to Paige Wilson, “New Hampshire will need infrastructure investments all along the food recovery chain, but the costs vary so much depending on where you’re at in the chain. The price tag for buying a refrigerator at a food bank looks different than the costs of purchasing equipment at a composting facility. I’d say it’s going to take millions of dollars to build the needed infrastructure across New Hampshire, in order to reach our disposal reduction goals set in statute (25 percent reduction in landfill solid waste by 2030 and 45 percent reduction by 2050).”

Reagan Bissonnette, executive director of the Northeast Resource Recovery Association, agreed that it will cost millions, but patience, innovation and more legal requirements will be needed.

Reagan Bissonnette, Executive Director of the Northeast Resource Recovery Association

“Infrastructure money is not enough. Other states have found that without a landfill ban on some food waste in place, it’s difficult to have enough food waste supply to make an investment in infrastructure financially viable in the long term,” she said. “An example is the Waste Management Core facility in Massachusetts. Even with a statewide food waste ban in place, it took longer than they expected to get enough supply from businesses and others to get the facility operating at capacity.”

Vermont, said Wilson, is “a New England state to learn from because they’re in a territory right now that is unknown to the rest of us. A statewide food waste disposal ban that applies to everyone comes with a lot of learning curves, new systems, and innovation.”

Over the years, said Bissonnette, Vermont has implemented tiered food waste disposal bans over time. They started with banning disposal of food waste from large generators of waste (like hospitals and universities), then slowly lowered the generation amount until all food waste, even from residential homes, cannot be landfilled.” 

Making composting work

At its Kingman Farm research facility, the University of New Hampshire in Durham has one of the largest compost-creating operations in the state, and it has been operating since the mid-1990s. Colleen Stewart at the New Hampshire Food Alliance (which is part of the UNH Sustainability Institute), said UNH had one of the first campus compost programs in the country. In 2023, UNH dining halls sent 386,260 pounds of food pulp to Kingman Farm composting rows, which creates nutrient-rich soil. That soil is used by students to create crops for some of the produce served at UNH dining halls.

In a June 2023 UNH Today article detailing the composting program, Anton Bekkerman, director of the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at Kingman Farm, said “the program here at UNH really highlights that even without large investments into infrastructure and labor that a composting program can be implemented by the Granite State’s smallest towns and village to ultimately reduce waste and provide a nutrient-rich additive to gardens and farms.”

The topic of food waste diversion was front and center during two days of workshops in April hosted by the Northeast Resource Recovery Association. Reagan Bissonnette, NRRA’s executive director, said her Epsom-based organization has been targeting food waste diversion for the past five years, in addition to more than four decades of recycling educational efforts. She said about 50 people from municipalities and businesses from across the state attended the four workshops, which were co-hosted by the N.H. Department of Environmental Services and the Maine Compost School.

Bissonnette said among the many points covered at the workshops – which were free, courtesy of a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant – participants learned a few surprising truths about food waste:

• Most wasted food is generated by households (almost 43 percent), not manufacturers or retailers.

• In 2022, roughly 38 percent of the U.S. food supply went unsold or uneaten.

• Preventing wasted food has a bigger positive environmental impact than composting wasted food.

Composting 101: Participants at recent NRRA food waste diversion workshop

“One town concluded that they need to send a mailer to their entire town to effectively get out the word about their existing composting program,” she said.

The topic of food waste diversion will  be the focus of a keynote panel at the NRRA annual conference in Concord in June. Later this year, she said, NRRA will conduct its first bus tour focused on waste diversion programs at various landfills and transfer stations.

Citizen involvement

Not unlike Joan Cudworth in Hollis, Paul Karpawich was inspired to do something positive to tackle the climate change crisis as a lone citizen. 

“I feel that people can be overwhelmed about climate change,” said Karpawich, who had migrated north from Massachusetts and was living in southern New Hampshire town of Brookline when he began looking at the bigger picture of long-term sustainability. The veteran of the high-tech industry said he “kind of gravitated” to food waste diversion in part because “food waste is so prevalent in our society,” and it was something everybody could do.

Karpawich had no title and few contacts, but he persevered, and in 2022 created the New Hampshire Food Waste Diversion and Sharing Initiative with the help of small grants from the World Wildlife Fund and U.S. Department of Agriculture. The program is a collaborative effort between individuals, schools and towns to develop best practices that reduce food waste and prevent it from going to landfills.

Evan Ford, UNH Kingman Farm manager with compost pile in 2023 (UNH courtesy photo)

More importantly, he focused on elementary and secondary school students to get them involved early. “By taking small concentrated steps this can be a catalyst for students, schools and towns to create a long-lasting paradigm shift for a transition to a more sustainable future,” he said. He has seen the impact of schools institutionalizing their efforts, with a few school boards allocating budget funds for the pickup of composting loads.

The initial success of the program has led to more grants and increased ability to jump-start food waste diversion programs at schools. The initiative has spread from the elementary school in Hollis, the first participant, to schools in Northwood, Bethlehem, Hopkinton (where Karpawich now lives) and others. He said the educational aspects of the program (math, science and environmental awareness) have been matched by a remarkable level of dedication by students who get involved.

“When kids do this, they are very present, not looking at their phones. I have seen at the elementary and high school levels that they become very passionate and take ownership of the programs at their schools,” he said.

Find out more: NRRA offers a Waste Reduction and Diversion Toolkit, a list and links to almost 20 municipalities offering food diversion and composting programs, and a list of farms and pick up services serving New Hampshire.

The EPA is awarding between $10 million and $20 million in Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change grants for multi-faceted projects addressing a range of pollution, climate change, and other priority issues, including food waste diversion. This application period goes through November.

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

For the first time, education commissioner speaks publicly about minimum standards revision, but he faces skepticism

At meeting, Manchester school board members voice frustrations to Edelblut

By Kelly Burch-Granite State News Collaborative

MANCHESTER—After an hour-long public conversation with the commissioner of the N.H.  Department of Education, school board members in Manchester – the state’s largest school district–  remained frustrated by a lack of clear answers and unconvinced that proposed revisions to the state’s minimum standards for public schools, known as the 306s, will improve education in the Granite state. 

Despite that, the state Board of Education plans to finalize the revisions as soon as next month. 

“It’s problematic that [the commissioner] often said that the revisions raised the bar on education, and yet the feedback from hundreds of constituents all agree that in fact it lowers the bar,” said Sean Parr, a member of the Manchester Board of School Committee. “That’s a real problem, when there’s this big disconnect between that claim and what is actually in the revisions.”

The 306s are undergoing a once-in-a-decade update, a process that educators say has lacked transparency and resulted in a document that could weaken public education in the state. The Manchester school board echoed those points in a March letter announcing its opposition to the current draft of the revisions. The board invited Edelblut to Monday’s meeting to respond. 

“It’s important to acknowledge we’re not the only ones who are concerned about these rule changes,” Parr said at the Monday meeting. "Hundreds and hundreds of citizens have expressed the same concerns.”

After more than an hour of questions, James O’Connell, vice chair of the school committee, said he remains “distrustful of the process,” and asked the commissioner to express his commitment to the state’s public education system. 

“In the end, we want a great public education system, and Mr. Edelblut… you’re not always viewed as the greatest champion of public education,” O’Connell said.

In reply, Edelblut demurred. 

“I am a champion of children,” he said. 

Downplaying concerns

Throughout the session, Edelblut seemed to downplay concerns, saying, “This  is just one of those processes that can be noisy.” 

He said that some worries expressed in public comments were “not germane” to the discussion of the revisions. He also dismissed concerns outlined by Reaching Higher NH, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to education in the Granite State, as “generalities” that weren’t “actionable.” 

Most concerning to Parr, he said, was that “there was no guarantee from [Edelblut] that the public would see the final draft before it was submitted” for formal approval and implementation. 

The state board released a draft document on Feb. 18, and has since held public comment sessions, but has not made a revised document public. Despite that, lawyers with the Office of Legislative Services are already reviewing a draft of the document to ensure it complies with the law. 

“Process-wise, what actually might be revised at this point, because we’re all concerned about a lot of the changes there,” Parr said at the meeting. 

The commissioner deflected.

“The bottom line is we did not get answers to our questions,” Parr said after the meeting. 

In a follow-up email, a spokesperson for the Department of Education declined to say when the public can expect to see a final draft or public feedback that was collected, but added that the Board of Education “will adopt a final proposal maybe in June or July.”

At a Monday meeting, members of the Manchester Board of School Committee peppered N.H. Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut with questions and concerns about his department’s proposed changes to the state’s minimum standards for public schools, known as the 306s. It was the first time Edelblut has spoken publicly about the ongoing revision process. (Andrew Sylvia/Manchester Ink Link)

Class size requirements, equity and funding

One of the prominent concerns during Monday’s meeting was over the removal of specific class size limits. Edelblut argued that the new wording specifies that class size limits should be set locally, based on students’ needs and other factors. 

“We’re trying to say, ‘Let’s make thoughtful decisions about this,’” Edelblut said. 

Committee members pushed back, saying that with no maximum class sizes outlined at the state level, local factions on school boards could choose to increase class sizes drastically. 

“I am concerned that there could be another instance of a small ideological faction coming into authority in one district and significantly underfunding or changing policies and standards …” said Board of School Committee member Chris Potter. “In cases like that, do you think that these are truly adequate for our students?”

Potter added that he was particularly thinking about the town Croydon, which slashed its school budget by half in 2022, a move that was later reversed after community members advocated for a revote. 

Committee member Liz O’Neil asked how the state could evaluate class sizes “with fidelity” when no maximum size is included in the standards. Edelblut replied that districts would need to prove to the board of education that their class size decisions have “a logic model behind it.”

Edelblut also addressed concerns over equity and the adjustment of some language in the document. Around equity, he said that the draft of the 306s aims to close achievement gaps without wading “into the identity politics” by listing marginalized populations. 

“If I’ve got LQBTQ+ students who are struggling, I need to help them, but if I have LGBTQ+ students who are not struggling, that are succeeding, then I don’t need to group them together … ” he said. “The grouping needs to be focused around the students who are behind, not the students based on their other identity that they may have.”

Yet, to address concerns, the board is considering changing the definition of equity to include “individuals or groupings of individuals based on their identified needs,” Edelblut said. 

Finally, Edelblut clarified the decision to switch the term “certified educator” to “licensed educator” in the document, which he said was done to keep the language in line with state statutes. 

“People saw the word certified crossed out and maybe missed the fact that we had inserted licensure and maybe thought we had eliminated it, which is not the case,” he said. 

Committee members expressed concerns about language being shifted from “shall” to “may” –  changes that “open the door to suggest ‘may not,’” said committee member Julie Turner. If subjects including arts, physical education, social studies and electives are optional, the state may not be required to fund them as part of an adequate education, the subject of ongoing lawsuits in the state, committee members said. 

Edelblut replied that the formula for calculating an adequate education is outlined in statute, not in the minimum standards, but that answer did not satisfy the committee. 

“The funding concerns were not assuaged,” Parr said. 

In order for the 306 revisions to formally be adopted, they must be approved by the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (JLCAR) after a final draft is submitted by the Board of Education. The JLCAR committee “has limited influence,” Parr said, but can reject rules for four precise reasons, including if the rules are not in the public’s best interest. 

“I think it’s really important, because what’s been established by the comments … is that the revisions are not in the public’s best interest,” he added. 

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

Lawyers and lawmakers assert the Department of Education is on the verge of violating the law

By Rhianwen Watkins. Granite State News Collaborative

New Hampshire’s state funding of public schools is the lowest in the nation, despite the state Constitution requiring the state government to finance an adequate education for every child.

The arguments over state school funding have raged in the courts since 1989, with no resolution. Local property taxes, which can vary largely from one community to the next, are still paying around 70 percent of the costs of running public schools.

Now, the N.H. Department of Education is updating its minimum standards for public schools, a process that occurs once every decade, and lawyers and educators assert that the department’s revised minimum standards will reduce funding even further.

The revisions, they say, water down the requirements for an adequate education and shift even more responsibility onto local taxpayers to fund public schools.

And, the critics assert, the state is ignoring rulings by the state Supreme Court that date back more than 30 years — rulings that ordered the state government to obey the state Constitution.

Especially concerned is Andru Volinsky, one of the lead lawyers for the Claremont case, in which the Supreme Court ruled school funding in New Hampshire was unconstitutionally low, and ordered the state to adequately pay for its public schools.

“This agency, the New Hampshire Department of Education, is going well beyond its authority in trying to adopt regulations that conflict with the controlling statutes,” Volinsky said. 

David Trumble, a retired lawyer who ran for state Legislature in 2022, told the State Board of Education April 3 that, because of the Supreme Court rulings, its revisions of the minimum school standards would be considered “invalid.”

Understanding state law

Trumble says the Department of Education is on the verge of violating a state law, RSA 193-E.

The N.H. Department of Education website  states that the department must “operate according to the duties and limitations outlined in New Hampshire statutes.” 193-E is one of the statutes listed.

This statute defines how a school must demonstrate that it’s providing an adequate education through both “input” and “output” accountability. 

“Inputs” are the elements that go into providing a well-rounded education, such as qualified teachers, good facilities, classroom supplies and resources, maximum class sizes, specific program elements required for each subject taught, and per-pupil operating costs.

 “Outputs” are the ways in which student achievement is determined, such as assessments and testing.

Until the Legislature amended the law in 2018, the statute required only one or the other-either input or output– when proving accountability. However, now the statute requires both.

“It is only through a combination of both input and output accountability that we can ensure that we are living up to the constitutional duty to provide an adequate education,” Trumble told the state board. “The proposed regulations eliminate and unravel these input-based accountability measures.”

In particular, Trumble pointed to changes that would remove maximum classroom sizes of the revised minimum standards, eliminate a requirement for certified teachers for arts, music, health and physical education, and changing the word “shall” to “may” when referring to elements of certain programs, making those elements optional rather than mandatory, and therefore removing state responsibility to fund those elements.

Trumble argued that removal of those “inputs” violates the 2018 update of RSA 193-E.

“Taken together, this set of regulations is a major change in educational policy,” Trumble said. “It replaces a statutorily required system of both inputs and performance accountability with a vague performance standard. It replaces our understanding of what a school is — classrooms with teachers ... mandatory curriculum — with vague performance standards and no clear replacement model of what a school would look like.”

Trumble added that the N.H. Supreme Court ruled in 1981 that government agencies, such as the Department of Education, can “fill in details” of statutes, but that they cannot change statutes. Anything an agency puts forward that tries to modify the law would be considered “invalid.”

Volinsky voiced similar statements, specifically in the change from “shall” to “may.”

 “It's pretty clear that in using terminology that's not defined and switching from the mandatory to the discretionary, (the department) is working to undermine the principles that come from the (Claremont) case,” Volinsky said. “And that's not the role of an agency. Agencies are designed to pass implementing regulations that follow the statutes, not that conflict with the statutes.”

Some members of the House Education Committee also spoke out against the proposed revisions of minimum standards.

“I can tell you that the Democratic caucus of the House Education Committee is extremely concerned,” said Rep. Hope Damon, D-Croydon.

“I am blown away by the degree of changes being proposed here. … This isn’t just administrative cleanup, or housekeeping to clarify rules. This is an absolute turn (in policy),” Rep. David Luneau, D-Hopkinton, said at the most recent House Education subcommittee meeting.

“One of the things that strikes me about all this is, where are the lawyers from the Attorney General's Office?” said Volinsky. 

“They should be, for everyone's benefit, advising the department and the state board that the things they're proposing violate the constitutional requirements set out in the 2002 Claremont decision, and are leading the state into another court battle.”

When asked about the legal requirements for the education minimum standards and specifically whether they are in compliance with RSA 193-E, Deputy Attorney General, James T. Boffetti declined comment. 

How did we get here?

In 1989, the public high school in Claremont, N.H., lost its accreditation because it did not have enough money to keep up with required safety regulations, let alone provide an adequate education. 

Funding from the state government was a fraction of the cost of educating students, and the city’s taxpayers did not have the means to make up the difference.

As a result, Claremont and four other low-funded N.H. public school districts sued New Hampshire’s state government, in a case known as Claremont School District v. Governor of New Hampshire. 

In 1993, the N.H. Supreme Court ruled that the state Constitution guarantees students a right to an adequate public education. In 1997, the court found that New Hampshire’s school funding system was so unfair — with tremendous disparities from one town to the next — that  it was unconstitutional. 

Overall, state funding was the lowest in the nation, providing just over 8 percent of total public education costs — so low that, if New Hampshire tripled its state funding for schools, it would still be the lowest. The court ordered the Legislature and governor to define what constituted an adequate education, and to pay for that adequate education with taxes that were equal across the state.

That has never happened. 

So, in 2006, the Supreme Court again found the school funding system unconstitutional. In response, then-Gov. John Lynch tried unsuccessfully to amend the state Constitution, to eliminate the requirement that the state government fund an adequate education for every child.

Decades later, state funding for schools remains highly variable from one community to the next. And, though the state funds now cover around 30 percent of public school costs, it remains the lowest in the nation for state education funding.

With the state’s education minimum standards up for their decennial revision, the topic of school funding has taken a front seat.

Commissioner’s response to criticism over funding

When asked about criticisms over funding, state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut said that he thinks there is lots of “misinformation” about the document and the revision process, and encouraged people to read the document for themselves before jumping to conclusions.

“We've received a lot of feedback from individuals who have not read the proposal. They only listen to what someone said about the proposal, which is not true,” Edelblut said. “We want their actual comments, not just them repeating misinformation talking points to us, because it's more difficult for us to respond to that, because it's not accurate.”

Reaching Higher, an education advocacy nonprofit, along with teachers union members, superintendents, and others in the community, including Volinsky and Trumble, have all attested that they’ve read the document and are speaking out against the proposed changes. 

Christine Downing, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Cornish, Grantham and Plainfield school districts, also held a series of educator review sessions at which teachers across the state extensively read the proposed changes together and highlighted areas of specific concern.

When asked, Edelblut did not comment on allegations of alleged intent to remove funding, instead commenting on how he felt the process has been very “transparent” having had over 13 listening sessions and working with educators.

Educators including Downing, Megan Tuttle, director of NEA-NH, and members of Reaching Higher, have countered this saying they had to push to have their voices heard.

 “We were not involved as an organization until the end of last fall,” said Megan Tuttle, referring to the over three-years long 306 drafting process. “We fought to get our way to the table.”

 A follow-up email was sent to the commissioner, asking for him to comment again on allegations of removing funding as well as violating RSA 193-E, however he was unavailable to comment. 

Chairman Drew Cline was also contacted but unavailable. 

What’s next?

For the revised minimum standards to pass, they must be endorsed by the Education Oversight Committee and the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules. 

Legislators and community members are now waiting to see whether the Department of Education will change the proposed revisions based on feedback, or if the State Board of Education will decide to put the existing draft through to the committees for final approval in June.

Volinsky emphasized that people who oppose the changes should reach out to representatives on both committees, as well as the governor, to oppose their adoption.

A final draft is expected in May.

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

N.H. Educators voice overwhelming concerns over State Board of Education’s proposals on minimum standards for public schools

By Rhianwen Watkins, Granite State News Collaborative

Teachers, school superintendents and members of the public are criticizing the State Board of Education’s proposal for updating minimum standards for public schools, saying it would weaken education and reduce state funding, forcing taxpayers to finance further school costs. 

Since the board’s proposal was released Feb. 15, educators have been analyzing it during review sessions led by Christine Downing, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Cornish, Grantham and Plainfield school districts. Many of their concerns were raised at the state board’s listening sessions on April 3 and 11.

At the meeting April 3, only two people spoke in support of the board’s update, one being Fred Bramante, a consultant hired by the N.H. Department of Education to draft updated standards for the state board to consider. 

Bramante worked with several New Hampshire educators to produce his draft, but the board’s Feb. 15 version made significant changes that altered its wording and removed certain sections. 

More than 15 educators and residents criticized the department’s document during the hearings April 3 and 11.

School Board concerns

Micaela Demeter, a Dover School Board member, said April 3 that the proposed changes would “walk back the state’s responsibility to define an adequate education, which then absolves the state of its future responsibility to pay for that adequate education.” 

“If this responsibility is largely left to local school boards, an adequate education may look different in each district, thereby exacerbating the deep inequities we know exist in our state at this time,” she said. 

This “absolution of responsibility” puts more burden on property taxpayers who are already funding more than 70 percent of local school costs, she said. 

Among objections from the Dover School Board, Demeter said, is shifting language from “teaching students” to “facilitating learning,” which she said is vague and could remove the expectation that qualified teachers must be the ones orchestrating classroom content. 

Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, in an opinion column published April 15 in the N.H. Union Leader, wrote, “These types of changes are important since they shift the focus to the ultimate objective — learning. This does not take away from the important work of teaching and instruction, but rather acknowledges that those are not the only way that our students are learning the essential knowledge and skills needed for success.”

Educators argue that the wording change would water down what it means to provide an adequate education.

Class size debate

Demeter said the Dover board also opposes eliminating caps on class sizes — a concern that educators across the state have echoed.

In Section 306.14 of the document, the words “class size,” along with a list of maximum class sizes for each grade level, have been struck from the standards. Instead, the document states local school boards shall establish “student-educator ratios” that are appropriate for each “learning opportunity and learning level.”

Edelblut responded to that criticism in an interview after the hearings.

“If you're teaching reading to a cohort of second-graders that are struggling readers, you're going to have a different class size than you are if you're teaching reading to fifth-graders who are proficient in reading,” Edelblut said.

“If you think about it, when you are embarking on an endeavor to teach students, the first question that you ask is not, ‘How many kids should I put in the class?’ The first question you ask is, ‘What am I teaching?’” he said. “The last question you should be asking yourself is, what is the cohort of students that I'm going to be working with?”

Educators across New Hampshire have raised concerns that removing the specific limits on class sizes, and asking local school boards to determine “teacher-student ratios,” could result in less state funding. In reality, they say, that means districts in relatively wealthy school districts could afford to keep class sizes low, while others that can’t afford an adequate number of teachers would be left with much bigger class sizes, and a less desirable learning environment.

“If it means that we have to go back to class sizes, that may be the case,” said Edelblut. “The board will make the ultimate determination.”

“Shall” to “May”

Greg Leonard, social studies teacher at ConVal Regional High School in Peterborough, said April 3 he worries the revised standards could cause “irreparable harm” to New Hampshire’s children, and said the state board hasn’t produced evidence that its proposals are built on solid research.

“Where is that research-based evidence that eliminating class size requirements improves student learning?” Leonard said. “Where is the research-based evidence that removing educator certification requirements improves student learning?” 

Brian Balke, superintendent of School Administrative Unit 19 in Goffstown, raised multiple concerns, including a wording change from “provides” to “may include” in reference to a list of components in the of Holocaust and genocide curriculum. 

“I don’t understand why that is,” said Balke, who chairs the N.H. Commission on Holocaust and Genocide Education.

The wording change from “shall” to “may” runs throughout the document, which worries educators, who say that, in legislative language, “shall” implies the program element is a requirement and “may” makes it an option.

Effects of past budget cuts

Chris Prost, a Croydon Planning Board member, testified April 11 to discuss the effects of their town’s past budget cuts. 

“I think for a lot of people the impact of these changes is very undefined, but our town got a glimpse into what they may mean for smaller communities,” he said.

In March 2022, Croydon’s state education funding dropped by more than 50 percent, a huge budget cut that resulted in elementary school curriculums and teachers being replaced by Prenda Pod Learning, which Prost as “online learning overseen by unlicensed guides under the direction of a licensed teacher who was maybe not going to be on-site.” 

That pod learning model was recommended by the N.H. Department of Education, despite it not having been used as the default education model in any town before, Prost said.

In an interview after the listening session, Prost said that, as a father of children soon to be heading into the public school system, he worries what the future of their education may look like.

Robert Malay, the school superintendent of Keene-based School Administrative Unit 29, told the state board April 3 that revising the education minimum standards is “perhaps the most important thing that you will do during your time on the board.”

School districts around the state are waiting to see if the State Board of Education will amend the proposal for state minimum standards, or forward it as is to the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules for final approval.

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

N.H. legislators continue to ignore three-year-old school-funding recommendations

A legislative commission’s report endorsed changes to the current system, but related bill remains sidelined

By Kelly Burch-Granite State News Collaborative

As decades of litigation centered on funding an adequate education for Granite State children linger on, New Hampshire lawmakers still have not addressed a potential solution outlined by a bipartisan commission they established over three years ago.

The New Hampshire Commission to Study Public School Funding, awarded half a million dollars to study the issue when it was created by the Legislature in 2019, spent a year exploring the state’s school-funding formula. Its recommendations appear in a report written by the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy that was released in December 2020.

Since then, none of the recommendations outlined in the 2020 report from the Carsey School has been adopted, frustrating commission members who say the study provides a framework for increasing students' achievement, easing the burden on New Hampshire’s taxpayers and providing a more equitable framework for school funding. The report and accompanying legislation have gained attention amid ongoing discussions about adequate education funding, prompted by the state’s revision of the minimum standards for public school approval, known as the 306s.

“It is the most comprehensive, most integrated, most complete plan for public education funding reform … that the Legislature has seen for a long, long time,” said Bill Ardinger, a lawyer and Gov. Chris Sununu’s appointee to the commission.

“The commission report comes to a fundamental recommendation that the most important thing for public education policy in New Hampshire is for the state to measure and make sure that every child in every community has a chance for a good, quality public education,” Ardinger said.

The New Hampshire Commission to Study Public School Funding report ‘is the most comprehensive, most integrated, most complete plan for public education funding reform … that the Legislature has seen for a long, long time,” says Bill Ardinger, Gov. Chris Sununu’s appointee to the commission. Legislation that emerged from the report remains sidelined, despite ongoing court cases related to the issue. (Courtesy photo)

Redefining an adequate education

The biggest shift in the commission’s report is a definition of adequacy as the amount of funding needed to give each student in New Hampshire “the opportunity to achieve the average statewide outcomes.”

Right now, students in districts with higher poverty rates have lower academic success than the statewide average. 

“Students educated in poorest communities [have] the poorest educational outcomes,” said Bruce Mallory, senior fellow at the Carsey School and project manager for the Commission to Study Public School Funding. 

That’s a product of the current funding system, said Rep. David Luneau (D-Hopkinton), who chaired the commission and recently introduced legislation based on its findings. “How we define adequacy is contributing to the disparities in student outcomes across the state.”

About 60% of public school funding in New Hampshire comes from local property taxes. New Hampshire ranks last in the nation for the percentage of educational funding provided by the state, according to the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute.

Commission members found this system to be “upside down,” Mallory said. The poorest districts are paying the highest rate on property taxes to fund local schools, yet still aren’t able to fully fund education because the property values in those areas are so low compared to towns with median or high property wealth, he said. 

This disparity has garnered national attention. In 2022, the New Jersey-based Educational Law Center ranked New Hampshire the second most “regressive” state in the nation when it comes to distributing school funding. 

Bruce Mallory, senior fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy, was project manager for the Commission to Study Public School Funding. (UNH photo)

The wrong question?

Debates about the state’s role in paying for public school education center on two decisions in the 1990s by the state Supreme Court in a case brought by five school districts, led by Claremont, which determined the state has a constitutional obligation to fund an “adequate education” for all students. 

Last November, a judge hearing a different lawsuit brought by the ConVal school district ruled the amount of an adequate education must be at least $7,356.01 per pupil. That’s a substantial increase over the state’s current base funding of $4,100 per pupil. 

Yet commission members feel that ruling does little to address funding inequities in New Hampshire. 

“It’s not one-size-fits-all,” Luneau said. “We’re going to have to get out of that mentality to properly funding our schools.”

Ardinger agreed.

“I’m not sure in the ConVal case they asked the right question, or answered the right question,” he said. The state’s role, he argues, “should be to provide disproportionate support to those communities of greatest need.” 

Wealthy communities like Bedford don’t need the same support from the state as high-poverty districts like Franklin or Claremont, Ardinger emphasized, and treating all communities as equal just reinforces student achievement gaps across the state. 

“The state’s role must take into account the obvious differences among local communities in terms of providing aid and support to the communities with the greatest challenges,” Ardinger said. 

There is an example for this approach to funding.

“New Hampshire is not going to be the guinea pig on this,” Luneau said. “All we have to do is look one state to the south."

Facing similar litigation around school funding, Massachusetts adopted the Foundation Budget school funding formula. Under this formula, state aid is awarded based on need. For example, Lawrence, one of the poorest districts in the state, receives more than 90% of its educational budget from the state, while Westwood, a more affluent district, receives less than 20% from state funding. 

The system is not perfect. Low-income districts like Lawrence still spend much less per pupil than more affluent districts, according to the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. For example, in 2018, per-pupil spending in Lawrence was about half what it was in Cambridge, an affluent community. 

To address that, Massachusetts lawmakers approved $1.5 billion in additional education spending in 2021, with the express goal of closing student achievement gaps between poor and wealthy districts. The 34 neediest districts in the state will each receive an average of $25 million in additional funding by 2028. 

To Ardinger, the Massachusetts example underscores the need for an equitable — rather than equal — approach to adequate funding. He believes the idea that the state must provide a set amount of funding to each pupil is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to provide an adequate education. 

“To me, nothing could be worse than a rule that says the state … must provide the same amount of money per pupil in every community,” he said. “Something is terribly broken with that rule.”

Legislation based on the Commission’s report 

Although funding challenges in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have common roots, Ardinger says the Massachusetts courts explicitly called on the state to address inequities, whereas the New Hampshire courts “didn’t go that far.”

Without a clear judicial imperative, “the Legislature ended up slipping around and sliding around. It didn’t have that strong kick in the pants from the court,” he added. 

However, legislation based on the commission’s report has been introduced in the House of Representatives twice, most recently earlier this year as House Bill 1586. Representative Luneau introduced that bill, called the Foundation Opportunity Plan, and although it failed to advance, he plans to introduce it again next year.

The legislation defines adequacy in terms of student outcomes and distributes funds to ensure each district can provide equal opportunities for its students to achieve average outcomes. That means lower-income districts get more state funding. 

“That really unlocks the opportunity to have good outcomes for kids in Newport and Claremont and Pittsfield, [just] the same as in Hanover or Hopkinton,” Luneau said. “It’s breaking out of that uniform funding model and getting to a need-based funding model.”

Adopting the model faces barriers, including the stagnation of the current school funding system, reluctance from affluent communities, and the associated cost, said Dick Ames (D-Jaffrey), one of the bill’s sponsors. 

“One of the hurdles is the recognition that an adequate education is expensive,” he said. “We have to figure out how to fund it, and that is the larger challenge. I’m hopeful that we can find a way, but I’m not sure.”

More affluent communities — which generally enjoy lower property taxes — would likely see an increase in property taxes under the legislation. This includes the district that Luneau represents, but he believes that ultimately providing an adequate education to all New Hampshire students is critical for all constituents in the state. 

“At the end of the day, these are the people who drive our economy,” he said. “We need to make sure we’re doing something that’s equitable and fair for students in all these towns.”

The commission’s work was nonpartisan, Luneau said, but the recent bill was sponsored by four Democrats. Luneau hopes to work on the legislation with Republican colleagues over the summer and fall before reintroducing it next year. 

“That work will be bipartisan in nature, wiggling around some things to make sure we have strong bipartisan support,” he said. “We want something that cities and towns and school boards and families can count on for the next 20 years.”

There’s “a tremendous amount of wisdom” in the commission’s report and resulting legislation, Mallory said, adding, “I would hope all of the effort is not for naught.”

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

New Hampshire lags behind other states in dealing with greenhouse gases from vehicles

By Kylie Valluzzi, Granite State News Collaborative

Emissions from motor vehicles are the single largest source of greenhouse emissions in New Hampshire, according to the 2024 Priority Climate Action Plan. 

Yet New Hampshire, unlike every other New England state, has not adopted California’s low-emissions vehicle standards. Legislators rejected establishing those standards in 2023, and they show little interest in adopting them now.

Carbon dioxide makes up the majority of New Hampshire's greenhouse emissions, a primary cause of global warming. CO2 accounted for 92% of those emissions in 2019, a total of 15.8 million metric tons — and 46.5% of that came from cars and trucks. Vehicle emissions are also the biggest contributor to ground-level ozone, another greenhouse gas, which is created by a chemical reaction of nitrous oxide, volatile organic compounds and ultraviolet light, according to a report from the N.H. Department of Environmental Services. More than 63 percent of nitrous oxides and nearly one-third of volatile organic compounds are produced by vehicle emissions.

If heat-trapping emissions like those continue at the current rate, New Hampshire’s climate is likely to be more like South Carolina’s by 2050, according to The Nature Conservancy. 

Nationally in 2019, transportation accounted for 33% of greenhouse gas emissions, and so could be one of the biggest parts of the solution to the climate crisis. But while other states have acted with urgency, New Hampshire has lagged, even though 45.9% of N.H. greenhouse gases were caused by transportation.

What are California’s low-emissions vehicle standards?

California has unique authority to set its own emission standards because it adopted vehicle regulations that preceded the federal Clean Air Act of 1970, prompted by air-quality problems related largely to motor vehicles. Although states other than California are not permitted to develop their own emissions standards, Section 177 of the federal Clean Air Act authorizes other states to adopt California’s standards that  are tougher than federal requirements. 

So far, 12 states have adopted California’s standards – every New England state except New Hampshire, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Has NH considered adopting CALEV?

When it comes to CALEV legislation in the Northeast, “we’re the donut hole,” said state Rep. Rebecca McWilliams, D-Concord. She was the primary sponsor of House Bill 92, which last year came within 25 votes of being passed by the N.H. House of Representatives.

The bill would have set “innovative vehicle emissions standards” under Section 177 of the Clean Air Act. 

According to the introduction to HB92, vehicles sold in New Hampshire already comply with the California emissions standards because federal and California standards have been harmonized through 2025. However, consumers cannot benefit from the eight-year, 80,000-mile extended warranty provisions of the California standards because New Hampshire has not formally adopted the standards. The extended warranty would cover emissions-related component repairs — such as  catalytic converters, transmission control modules, powertrain control modules and/or engine control units — for vehicles up to eight years old or up to 80,000 miles, whichever came first. 

And, the introduction states, New Hampshire car dealers cannot obtain some types of vehicles because manufacturers allocate them only to CALEV states, thus limiting consumer choice of these vehicles. Further, the bill states, adopting California’s standards would allow New Hampshire to benefit from reduced emissions after 2025, when the federal and California emissions standards will no longer be in alignment. 

The bill, introduced in December 2022, came within 25 votes of passing in the House but met strong Republican opposition and ultimately failed, 194-171, in March 2023. Republicans made up 187 of the nays; the others were six Democrats and one independent.

House Republicans contacted for this report did not comment on their decision to turn down the bill. But in a statement issued following the March 9, 2023 vote,  Rep. Doug Thomas, R-Rockingham, called the bill “extremist legislation.” 

“We should let the free market dictate which cars consumers purchase,” he said.

During that March 9 House session, Thomas said, “We don’t need this amendment. For one thing, it’s not ready, it’s redundant; we have a lot of studies out there already to provide the same information. Please, we don’t need this amendment.”

Rep. McWilliams said members of the N.H. Automobile Dealers Association overwhelmingly want to join CALEV standards because now it’s difficult for them to get electric vehicles and hybrids to sell — those cars are going to surrounding states that have already adopted CALEV standards. Manufacturers such as Ford and General Motors are moving in the direction of EVs, and dealers want to stay abreast of market changes, she said.

However, Dan Bennett, president of the N.H. Automobile Dealers Association, wouldn’t go so far as to endorse HB92. Rather, he said, “NHADA believes that incentivizing behavior, especially given the natural market demand for hybrid and fully-electric vehicles, would be more impactful on lowering emissions without creating new government mandates.”

Beyond the ranks of car dealers, some companies already offer rebates that help make electric vehicles more affordable. The New Hampshire Electric Co-Op, for example, offers an incentive to ratepayers for installing up to two Level 2 or larger charging stations at their homes – they usually cost between $400 and $700. While the incentive is up to $300 per charging station  and $600 per customer, the installation costs can be considerably higher, depending on the age of the home, available amps and location of the charger in relation to the circuit box. 

In addition, EV buyers may qualify for a federal tax break of up to $7,500 if they buy a new, qualified plug-in EV or fuel cell electric vehicle. 

What’s going on in other states?

Nearby states that have adopted California’s regulations report economic benefits from adopting the CALEV standards.

For instance, Vermont adopted CALEV standards in 1996. According to Drive Electric Vermont, a statewide public-private partnership of policymakers, industry leaders and citizens working to accelerate transportation electrification, $1.1 billion was spent in Vermont on taxable gasoline and diesel sales in 2010. Had that travel had been  powered by electricity, the cost would have been $275 million, saving over $800 million in one year, according to the organization’s website.

“Those funds and a large portion of the electricity cost would have remained in Vermont and with consumers,” the website reads. 

Going electric also keeps money in consumers’ pockets, studies say. On average, rural Vermont drivers saved $519 in 2018 by switching from gasoline to electricity, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. And according to the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, the average total cost of ownership over 10 years for an electric all-wheel-drive SUV crossover is $3,300 cheaper than the gasoline version of the same vehicle.

As of January 2024, there were 12,754 EVs in the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles registration database, up 44% from 2023. In 2019, there were 2,985 EVs registered in the database. 

Future of transportation emissions in New Hampshire

In another effort to encourage Granite Staters to buy electric, Rep. McWilliams introduced HB1472 in February of this year, a “cash on the hood” program that would give point-of-sale rebates to EV buyers. The bill, which would dedicate $3 million from proceeds from the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency Fund, has been postponed indefinitely.

“It’s about making the marketplace a little bit more financially viable for people who would consider switching,” she said of her proposals. “We get to decide as legislators what (the market) direction is and we get to create incentives and occasionally roadblocks, in this case mostly incentives, to direct the market.”

As for HB92, Rep. McWilliams says she will likely propose a similar bill in the future. In the meantime, she urges N.H. residents to call their representatives, call their senators, and have a conversation about where the market’s going. 

“Talk about it,” she said, “because I think a lot of times these things get swept under the rug and there are a lot of platitudes that you hear during election years — a ‘let the market decide’ attitude.”

Climate Action Plan, revisited

Last August, the N.H. Department of Environmental Services received a $3 million grant from the EPA to update the state’s 2009 Climate Action Plan. The agency plans to use the existing plan “as a framework to start and will focus on actionable measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with an eye toward desired grant opportunities,” according to the agency’s website.

On March 1, the state identified priority projects within the Climate Action Plan. Consistent with 2009 findings, the transportation sector is still the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, and those emissions have remained relatively constant for the past two decades. 

In its effort to reduce those emissions, New Hampshire is prioritizing the deployment of electric charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, providing incentives for consumers to buy electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and supporting expansion of public transportation options. 

Unlike the 2009 Climate Action Plan, the new plan does not mention adopting CALEV standards. 

“I don’t believe we have 10 years to wait for this transition to happen,” McWilliams said. “I think that we’re in a climate emergency now, and so these decisions that we make as policymakers need to be bold and they need to actually have impacts on our local air emissions and market direction.”

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

Educators concerned about state approach to updating minimum school standards

Educators worried about edge toward privatization, less state funding, and greater discrepancy between districts 

By Rhianwen Watkins, Granite State News Collaborative

Educators are worried that the state’s proposal to update education minimum standards could have significant negative repercussions for New Hampshire's public schools. 

Educators fear that the changes, unveiled by the New Hampshire Department of Education could lead to murkier standards, a push toward privatization, and steer less money to school districts already in budget distress.

On Feb. 15, the NH Department of Education issued its proposal for updating minimum standards, which educators say vastly differs from a consultant’s recommendation filed Jan. 22. The standards will be in place for the next decade.

Educators are worried.

“All I know is that, if what is proposed becomes rule, it will cause much discrepancy among public schools in the state of New Hampshire,” said Christine Downing, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Cornish, Grantham and Plainfield school districts.

New Hampshire’s state government is obligated to fund an adequate education, but the proposal to update minimum standards is “going to widen that gap. It’s going to continue to set the haves and the have-nots apart. I don't think that's what we want in New Hampshire,” Downing said.

• Dueling drafts on updating school minimum standards

  In November 2020, the New Hampshire Department of Education signed a $50,000 contract with the National Center for Competency-Based Learning (NCCBL), a nonprofit based in Durham, to facilitate a revision of the state's education minimum standards.

  The standards, often referred to as the 306s, are updated every 10 years and are intended to hold all public schools in New Hampshire accountable to the same rules.

  Fred Bramante, director of NCCBL as well as a two-time candidate for governor and former chair of the State Board of Education, made public a draft prepared by his original 13-member team in March 2023. But teachers unions and educators around the state took issue with the draft, saying teachers had been allowed little input on how schools would operate for the next decade.

  Christine Downing, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Cornish, Grantham and Plainfield school districts, organized a series of review sessions for the draft standards, gathering input from multiple teachers and union chapters across the state. 

  In November 2023, Bramante agreed to meet with Downing to help reconstruct the document, along with Megan Tuttle and Irv Richardson of the New Hampshire chapter of the National Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, and Mark McLean of the New Hampshire School Administrators Association. The new team consisted of Bramante, four of the original task force members, and the four educators. 

  However, Downing decided to leave the team as of Feb. 8, after learning that the NCCBL had received a $25,000 extension of his original $50,000 contract, while she was doing her portion of the work without pay. 

  Downing said that on Jan. 22 she submitted the new draft on behalf of the team  to the Department of Education. However, less than a month later, on Feb. 15, the Department of Education introduced its own version of the document for updating the minimum standards — a version that educators found differs significantly from the task force draft.n text goes here

April 3 is the tentative date for a State Board of Education public hearing on the proposed education minimum standards, otherwise referred to as the 306s, according to a department spokesperson. 

Attending will be Fred Bramante, director of the National Center for Competency Based Learning in Durham, the nonprofit contracted to update the 306s, along with Downing and teachers from across the state who are encouraging parents, local officials and the public to join in.

The state board will also meet on March 11 and 14, with comment periods available to the public.

The Funding Fight

The minimum standards are only one front in educators’ decades-long battle for adequate school standards, funding, and equity among school districts. 

Earlier examples include the 1997 state Supreme Court ruling in the Claremont case, finding that school-tax burdens varied so dramatically from district to district that the discrepancies violated the state Constitution, and the similar 2019 ConVal case, which found the state had “failed to meet its constitutional obligation of funding an adequate education.” 

In November 2023, Rockingham Superior Court Judge David Ruoff ruled that the state’s base adequacy rate — the minimum amount the state is required to provide for each student — should be raised to $7,356 per year, because the current amount of $4,100 does not meet constitutional requirements for an adequately funded education. However, even that number is far below what schools actually spend — just over $20,300 per student, according to the N.H. Department of Education. The difference is made up by local property taxes.

And now, the argument has moved into the minimum standards that schools are required to meet. 

Wording and definitions

Teachers’ main concerns with the proposal to update state standards include changes in definitions.

In the task force draft, “we'd taken very thoughtful deliberation on definitions,” Downing said. “And the first thing I noticed is a lot of those definitions were reduced down to these ‘lay' terms that lost all their significant meaning.”

For instance, the word “instruction” was replaced with “learning opportunities.”

“Switching from 'schools must offer instruction' just to 'schools must offer opportunities' — that opens the door to potentially interpreting those in a very different way,” said Christina Pretorius, director of Reaching Higher NH, a nonprofit that advocates equity in the school system through public education policy and community engagement.

A similar use of the word “opportunity” changes the requirements for differentiated learning — that is, tailoring instruction to meet students' individual needs. The original phrasing — “Provision of differentiated instruction for students based on learning styles, needs, and interests” — was changed to “opportunities for students to receive timely, personalized, and differentiated support based on their individual learning needs,” Pretorius pointed out on page 25 of the document (click here, or see link below).

A “provision” for differentiated learning is very different from an “opportunity” for differentiated learning, Pretorius said, and she questions what that could mean in terms of meeting students' needs in the classroom.

Another key change in multiple areas of the document: Replacing “shall” with “may.”

One instance, on page 46 of the document, deals with requirements for arts education. The original wording stated that “the local school board shall require that an arts education program for grades 1-12 provides …” followed by a list of necessary components for an arts curriculum. The updated version now says that an arts program “may include” those components, which Downing said makes those components optional.

She emphasized that the change to “may include” means relinquishing state responsibility to fund arts programs as part of adequate education funding. 

Downing said many of the changes in definitions make them less specific and more “gray” for educators. She thinks the changes could be an attempt to make the document more understandable for parents and other members of the public, and “I get that certain people want to make this a public document that the public can understand,” she said. 

“But the first priority of this document is to define, to the very people who have to implement it, what constitutes an adequate education. This document needs to be written so that it's clear to educators and school leaders what it means.”

Downing favors explaining to the public what these terms and phrases mean, so people can understand the “edu-speak,” rather than watering down the wording. 

Pretorius also suspects the wording differences are an attempt to broaden the privatization of public schools. In her view, cloudy wording not only makes school standards less clear, but also could remove some responsibility for the state to fund public schools.

She emphasized that removal of the word “local” from many definitions could have significant repercussions for local control over community schools. Currently, she said, local school districts can decide on specific course offerings and graduation requirements, as long as they align with state minimum standards.

For instance, “right now, districts create their own local graduation and district competencies,” she said. Those could include specific course offerings, internship requirements, or community service, she said. 

“There's a lot of concern in districts around what that means for local control,” she said. “What does that mean for my school district? What does that mean for our own ability to make decisions that work the best for our communities?”

What will high school look like?

Another change in the state's document, on pages 31-32, “removes structure around what consistent high school programming looks like,” Downing said. The proposed standards struck out a section outlining that 43 courses should be the minimum number a high school offers in its course of study.

“Nobody [the department] contacted knew why the 43 exists,” she said. “I spoke to the commissioner after the meeting and I told him, you should have contacted me; I could have told you why the 43 courses existed.”

If you add up all the classes needed for a well-rounded education in a number of areas — including math, science, social studies, arts and English — “you come pretty close to having 43 courses on your program of studies as a high school,” she said. Removing that specific number, she said, was “concerning.”

Pretorius also expressed concern about removal of some cross-references, such as one on page 46 of the document involving arts education in elementary and middle school. 

“By removing that cross-reference, does it mean that the arts education that a school has to provide for elementary grades one through eight doesn't have to align to those requirements later in the rules?” she asked. “And what does that mean for the state to have to pay for?

“By watering it down, does that open the opportunity where now organizations can come in and they can sell arts education courses and school districts are required to accept them?” she asked. “When it comes to privatizing, I think there's a big question of, what are the implications for programs like Learn Everywhere? You know, does this set up a market for organizations to come in and sell courses? And sell ‘learning opportunities’?”

Megan Tuttle, head of the New Hampshire chapter of the National Education Association — the teachers union — said another example involves other learning opportunities students can use, such as Advanced Placement courses and dual enrollment in college courses. The issue, for her, is the mention of specific online programs such as the Virtual Learning Academy and Learn Everywhere on page 6 of the document.

“We always say, when coming up with bills and laws, that you shouldn't be listing a specific program because these are minimum standards that are going to be in effect for 10 years,” Tuttle said. “We have no idea if those programs are going to still be around. They might be, but they might not be.”

Removal of important sections 

Downing said other sections were not just changed, but completely “wiped out.”

“I remember that we had received some feedback from the original team that worked with Fred (Bramante) about how to really define what a competency-based assessment was,” she said. “It looked like all of that had gone out. So we're saying we're advancing competency-based education through these rules (but) I felt what I looked at took us back years.”

Educators also worry requirements on class sizes were eliminated on page 17 of the document. The current standards list specific teacher-student ratios to abide by; the new document leaves that as a local decision.

Downing emphasized that, though districts do want local control, they still want to know what the baseline standards are — while not dictating how districts have to meet those baselines. 

“But when you put baselines like this in place, that are so wide open, you’re talking about inequities across districts,” she said.

Downing worries that varying teacher-student ratios across districts could mean discrepancies in funding and student achievement, as well as teacher burnout.

“We know that class sizes are so closely tied to student outcomes,” Pretorius said. “Kids do better with smaller classes, when they have more intimate, personal interactions with their teachers.”

Those were only a few of the many sections stricken from the department's latest draft.

Bramante and state officials defend their efforts

Despite educators’ concerns, Bramante and state leaders emphasize that their only goal is to improve public schools.

“I would assume that every board before me and this board has the intent to create a stronger, more robust school system,” said Ryan Terrell, a State Board of Education member from Nashua. “This whole process is something that's meant to go back and forth between the board and the public at large. And that's what's happened to that document leading up to this. And it'll continue happening with the public within the sessions that we have.”

Downing and Tuttle  took the opposite stance, expressing that they felt the process was not open enough with the public or educators. Additionally, the drafting process took place out of public view for the first two years. Bramante previously states that there was no requirement for public input at that point in the process. 

Terrell added that the department has a longstanding relationship with Bramante because of his experiences when he chaired the State Board of Education.

Bramante said he is not upset that the draft from the state education department does not fully follow his team’s recommendations. He thinks the department's document is about 75% in line with the report his group submitted Jan. 22.

“In large part, it's going down the same path that we're recommending,” Bramante said.

He acknowledged concerns about eliminating requirements on class sizes and high school graduation, but emphasized that the state board is “under no obligation to accept anything we recommend.”

“They could throw the whole thing in the trash. They clearly haven't done that,” Bramante said. “They've clearly said yes to the majority of what we submitted. And so now we've got 25 percent more. It's an important 25 percent, so I'm not making light of it. But, it's the state board's document and they have the right to do whatever they want with it.”

Terrell said that he has not had a chance to analyze either the contractors’ or department’s documents enough to make comments on how he thinks the two compare, or to respond to specific educator concerns. 

Attempts were made to contact other board members, but all either declined to comment or were unable to be reached.

Commissioner Frank Edelblut’s administrator, in an email, said the commissioner was unable to take a phone interview to respond to specific educator concerns, but provided the commissioner’s following statement:

“Many educators and education leaders from across the state have committed thousands of hours in constructive dialogue to move the ED 306 rules and strong educational standards in New Hampshire forward. We are excited to enhance learning and enter the formal rulemaking process so that we can continue to have meaningful and constructive conversations about how to best serve the children of New Hampshire,”

He continued, “Our expectation is that many stakeholders from groups across the state will participate in our public hearing and public comment periods so that many voices, not just one vocal group, are added to the already robust discussions and input that have been occurring throughout the past three years to strengthen minimum standards.”

Terrell encourages people to attend the next board of education meeting where the 306s are expected to be discussed, tentatively scheduled for April 3, and to take time to review the document beforehand.

“Sometimes, we have folks that are actually really passionate about education and they have good intentions,” he said. “But, sometimes they actually are just misinformed about where we are in the process, or what the process has been for a certain amount of time or what precedent is being set.

“In my experience, everybody on our board is going in and trying to do the best for kids that attend public schools in the Granite State,” Terrell said. “And we'll have disagreements about how we get there. But that's been my experience so far. Everybody just wants to make it better for the public school district.”

Educators prepare for next public hearing

Downing, Pretorius, Tuttle and other educators differ with many of the recommendations from Bramante and the state education agency. They think the department’s document is vastly different from what the Bramante group proposed and would have severe repercussions if adopted as is.

Downing was planning to hold her own educator review sessions, separate from the Bramante team, on March 6 and 7 at multiple schools around the state over the two days. More than 200 people signed up to attend. In addition, she plans a Zoom session on Saturday, March 23, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., which is open to the public. She plans to invite registrations for the online session within the next week.

Bramante said he also plans to meet with his team in March as well, in preparation for the State Board of Education meeting tentatively set for April 3. Those team meetings will not be open to the public, but the BOE meeting is.

For her part, Downing urges, “Listen to your educators. Their job is getting tougher and tougher by the day. And they deserve a voice in this process.”

Citations

Where to find specific concerns in Department of Education’s draft of updated minimum standards: 

• Wording of “provision” changed to “opportunity” for differentiated learning, page 25

• Concerns about arts education programs and wording of “shall require” changed to “may include” followed by list of components, page 46

• Removal of 43 course requirements, bottom of page 31 to 32

• Concern about listing specific programs like VLACS and Learn Everywhere, page 6

• Removal of class size requirements, page 17

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

Company whose proposed asphalt plant was rejected by Nashua fights on in court

By Kathryn Marchocki, Granite State News Collaborative

March 12, 2024

A Nashua company whose proposal to build an asphalt plant in one of the city’s oldest industrial districts was rejected last year by the Planning Board is persisting in its battle in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

In an appeal filed last year in Hillsborough County Superior Court, 145 Temple Street LLC-Greenridge LLC — an entity formed by Newport Construction Co. — seeks to reverse the Planning Board’s denial of its site plan application. The court’s new Land Use Review Board scheduled a July 15 hearing on the merits of case.

Last June 15, the Planning Board voted to block Newport Construction from building an asphalt plant at 145-147 Temple St. in one of the Gate City’s oldest industrial districts – a site where the company has been operating a highway road construction company for nine years. The proposed plant’s location is a key to both the company’s appeal and the city’s defense of the Planning Board’s decision.

Meanwhile, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services’ Air Resources Division is continuing to review the company’s air permit application to determine if the proposed asphalt plant would meet all applicable state and federal air pollution standards, division administrator Catherine Beahm said at a Feb. 12 public information session in Nashua. If DES finds the plant can be built and operate in compliance with these requirements, it will issue a draft permit, which will be followed by a 30-day public comment period and public hearing. 

The two proceedings -– while taking place simultaneously -– are separate. The result of one will not impact the other, though the plant’s owner would need to prevail in both venues to move forward with the project.

“These are two separate requirements. The city’s decision to deny the application before the Planning Board does not impact the state’s review of the application for the air permit. In addition, the state’s decision on the air permit application does not change the Planning Board’s decision,” Beahm said, according to a recording of the information session.

The Planning Board’s vote last June 15 to block the proposed plant followed considerable opposition from residents, who claimed it would emit harmful emissions, odors and increase noise and heavy truck traffic in their neighborhoods. It would “devastate the neighborhood, and plunge property values for miles surrounding the plant, and permanently undermine the goal of the Master Plan to revitalize the area,” the city wrote in its response to the appeal.

The DES Air Resources Division currently is conducting a “technical review” of the permit application, which includes reviewing emission calculations, said Padmaja Baru, the division’s new construction and planning manager. She could not estimate how long the review would take.

If the proposed plant is approved, it would become the 27th hot mix asphalt manufacturing plant permitted to operate in New Hampshire and the eighth to be based in a city, according to DES air permitting data. City-based asphalt plants currently are located in: Keene, Lebanon, where there are two, Concord, Franklin, Portsmouth and Rochester, according to DES.

Newport Construction Corp. is continuing its effort in Hillsborough County Superior Court to build an asphalt plant at 145-147 Temple St. in Nashua. (Nashua Ink Link file photo)

Hot mix asphalt

Noting considerable public interest in the proposed plant, DES officials said they held the information session to explain how it evaluates an air permit application and identify criteria outside their regulatory authority, such as traffic, noise, truck exhaust and odors. 

Those attending the Feb. 12 session expressed concerns about possible adverse health effects from the air pollutant emissions from the plant, questioned how carefully emissions would be monitored, and the prospect of large trucks idling on the property and traveling on city streets. 

“This proposed plant is not in my area. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t concern all of us in the city,” said state Rep. Susan Elberger, who represents Ward 1.

Baru said state law requires DES to review all air permit applications. Given public interest in the proposed plant, DES asked for and was granted an extension to review the application, which was filed Jan. 30, 2023, Baru said. 

Hot mix asphalt is used as paving material for road. The paving material is a mix of approximately 95 percent gravel, sand and stone that is bound together by asphalt cement. Asphalt cement is a product of crude oil. It is heated and combined with the gravel, sand and stone mixture at a hot mix asphalt facility. The hot mix asphalt is loaded into trucks and taken to a construction site.

Asphalt plants must meet all state and federal health-based standards to contain toxic air pollutants “at the property boundary of the facility and beyond,” and conditions to do so would be written into any draft permit, Baru said.

“People living near a hot mix asphalt plant might smell odors from the plant. However, the risk for adverse, or bad, health effects is very low,” according to the DES fact sheet.

Additionally, Baru said DES maintains about 13 air quality monitoring stations throughout New Hampshire, including one in Nashua. Of the other 12 monitoring stations, the two closest are in Londonderry and atop Pack Monadnock, southeast of Keene. The stations monitor particulate matter, ozone levels, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. 

If DES grants the proposed plant a draft permit, it would be followed by a 30-day public comment period and a public hearing, Baru said. A final decision would later be issued which either side could appeal to the state Air Resources Council. 

The proposed asphalt plant would sit on a site at 145-147 Temple St. in Nashua, which Newport Construction argues has long been a mixed-use industrial/residential district.

Dueling arguments

The four-acre145-147 Temple St. site where the proposed asphalt plant would be located is located near the center of one of Nashua’s “oldest and largest General Industrial zoning districts” where “asphalt manufacturing is a use expressly permitted by right,” attorneys for longtime Nashua resident Richard A. DeFelice said in his July 17, 2023 appeal of the Planning Board’s decision. DeFelice is president of 145 Temple Street LLC and Newport Construction Corp., a highway road construction company that has been operating at 145 Temple St. since 2013. He did not respond to several requests for comment.

The appeal petition called the Planning Board’s ruling unconstitutional, unreasonable, unsupported by the evidence and the result of multiple errors of law and fact.

In denying DeFelice’s site plan application, the Planning Board said the plant was inconsistent with the goals and objectives of the city’s master plan; would generate excessive traffic that would be qualitatively different from vehicles that serve existing industries and businesses; and that it is inconsistent with surrounding residential uses and the “transitioning nature of the neighborhood” towards residential uses.

Attorneys Jennifer L. Parent, John F. Weaver and Thomas W. Hildreth of McLane Middletown law firm in Manchester, who represent DeFelice, maintain the Planning Board ignored the law and advice of the city’s planning staff concerning the limits of site plan review when applied to a permitted use while erroneously elevating the function of the master plan. 

The 43-page appeal petition also claimed the board “impermissibly engaged in ad hoc decision making, simply deciding that it does not like the proposed use despite the facts that it is expressly permitted under the zoning ordinance, fully compliant with the terms of the zoning ordinance, and substantially similar to numerous current and recent industrial uses in the district.” 

The appeal sets the stage for a classic test between a planning board’s ability to place restrictions on allowed uses so they better fit in a neighborhood versus denying a use because the board or community doesn’t like it.

“There is a difference between, ‘We don’t want this in our town. Keep it away, Planning Board.’ And, ‘You need to look closely at these particular issues involving traffic, fumes or things like that’,” says Roy W. Tilsley Jr., an attorney with the Bernstein Shur law firm in Manchester who specializes in land use law but is not involved in the asphalt plant case. 

“These are arguments that go to the limits of what the Planning Board can and can’t do. They are the right type of arguments for an appeal like this,” adds Tilsley, who has been working with land use issues for more than 30 years.

Tilsley, who notes he doesn’t know if the facts of the case are true and cannot predict its outcome, adds: “the appeal document articulates a reasonable basis for appeal … Here they have a leg to stand on.”

The Newport Construction Corp. petition cites more than a dozen current and recent industrial and commercial companies operating within a half-mile of 145-147 Temple St. They include Newport Construction, Ripano Stoneworks, Inner City Materials and Speedy Junk Removal. Additionally, Redimix Concrete operated its concrete batch plant at nearby 16 Commercial St. for more than 50 years, ending in 2018, the appeal says. These companies rely on large commercial dump trucks and other multi-axle vehicles to deliver product to and from their sites just as an asphalt plant would, the appeal claims.

It also claims the Planning Board’s ruling rested in many errors. They include ruling that the proposed plant is inconsistent with the surrounding residential uses, ignoring the district’s decades-long history of functioning as a mixed-use neighborhood with industry, housing and commerce co-existing compatibly. They board also ignored evidence that the plant is a permitted use that is fully compliant with the zoning ordinance, will not produce excessive odors, dust or fumes and will operate in compliance with air permit conditions issued by DES’ Air Resources Division.

And the petition claims the city erroneously applied Transit-Oriented Development overlay district (TOD) requirements to the site plan review. The area does not have a transit station, which is required for the area to be considered a TOD overlay district, the appeal says.

The city denies this – and other claims – in its response to the appeal. It notes there is a “bus stop directly in front of 145 Temple Street,” and that there are “numerous transportation routes, systems, facilities and resources in and around the District.” Nashua City Transit routes show one bus route – the Nightside North route – stops at or near 145 Temple St. 

The city’s claim that 145-147 Temple St. lies within the TOD appears to be a key argument for denying the site plan. The city notes that combining the requirements of the General Industrial zone and TOD overlay district “imposes on the petitioner the obligation to demonstrate that its proposal meets the underlying standards in the Industrial Zone and simultaneously that it meets the criteria applicable to the Transit-Oriented Development Overlay District,” attorney Robert L. Best of Sulloway & Hollis law firm in Concord wrote in the city’s response to the appeal petition. These include compliance with the city’s Master Plan, ensuring the proposed plant is harmonious with existing and future surrounding development and will not harm property values, Best wrote in the city’s 26-page response to the appeal petition.

“While an asphalt manufacturing plant could be a permitted use in the General Industrial Zone, that fact does not end the Planning Board’s authority to apply all of its applicable site plan and zoning standards. The Board ultimately decided that the Petitioner failed to meet the requirements of the General Industrial Zone as modified by the Transit-Oriented Development Overlay District,” Best says.

The appeal also alleges the process was “tainted” by “improper and undue influence” by the office of Mayor Jim Donchess, which publicly opposed it, urged the Planning Board to deny it, spent public funds on opposition research and “applied undue pressure on the professional planning staff.” 

While the city acknowledged the mayor issued a public statement Dec. 1, 2022 opposing the proposed plant, it denied all other allegations. The mayor serves as an ex officio member of the Planning Board and appoints all board members, Best says. “Nothing in that process requires that the Mayor refrain from having opinions about projects proposed before the board,” he writes, adding the mayor recused himself from the proceedings.

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

Mixed-age learning is a tenet of competency-based education. Educators say it’s effective, but difficult to implement.

Parent perceptions, hesitant teachers, and scheduling challenges are all barriers to mixed-age learning, according to educators who have tried it. 

By Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative

[ED NOTE: New Hampshire is nearing the end of a more than three-year effort to revamp the state’s core educational standards. When approved early next year, these new rules will steer the course of public education for at least the next decade. In this continuing series of stories, the Granite State New Collaborative will explore what those changes are, how they came about and what they mean for the future of public education in the Granite State.]

Last year Landon-Layne Laware, a then first-grader at Richards Elementary School in Newport, went to a third-grade classroom for math instruction and a second-grade class for reading. The simple switch not only let Landon-Layne practice more advanced academics, but it cut down on behavioral challenges he was having in school. 

“He went from having a behavioral plan, to getting (positive) notes home every day,” said his mother, Tonya Laware of Newport. 

As the state revamps its minimum standards for public school education, a document known as the 306s, it is continuing a push toward competency-based education, a philosophy that emphasizes individual learning paces and real-world applications of knowledge. 

Mixed-age learning is a critical part of that. In fact, in the most recent revision of the school minimum standards, the words “grade level” have been replaced by “learning level” to reflect the fact that some children, like Landon-Layne, will learn faster — or slower — than their same-aged peers. 

Students learning at their own pace and progressing when they show mastery of a skill are two of the seven tenets of competency based-education put forth by the Aurora Institute, the national leader in this approach to learning. New Hampshire educators who have tried to implement these approaches in their school say they serve students well, but are difficult to implement because of scheduling challenges, entrenched ideas about grade levels that parents and teachers have, and ideas about how schools should be run. 

When it comes to mixed-age learning, the million-dollar question is “how do we get there?” said William Furbush, superintendent of the Epping School District, which has received national attention for its competency-based approach.

The answer? 

“Slowly,” said Furbush, who estimates Epping is a decade away from a truly integrated approach to mixed-age learning. Grade levels are “in everything from the way we structure our schools to expectations of teachers and parents.”

Mixed-age learning in key subjects; socialization with same-age peers

There’s a common misunderstanding that, under competency-based education, young learners could be exposed to much older kids, said Furbush, who studied competency-based education in 15 schools as part of his unfinished dissertation work. 

In reality, children spend the majority of the school day with their same-aged peers. 

“This is very different. It’s not like advancing a child who is 5, and putting them around 7-year-olds all day long,” he said. 

Instead, students learn with kids of different ages for critical subjects — most often math and reading — while returning to their peers for recess, social time, and extracurriculars. 

That’s the approach at Richards Elementary School in Newport, where Landon-Layne goes to school. The school, led by a former principal, implemented what it calls vertical learning teams to address gaps in learning after COVID, said the current principal, Robert Clark. 

Students were still assigned home rooms with their peers, but the school is divided into two learning teams: one for grades 1 through 3, and one for grades 3 through 5. Students in these teams learned math and reading with other kids who are at a similar learning level, regardless of age. 

As students mastered one concept, such as sight words, they could move into another group of students to tackle the next concept, Clark said. 

“It’s a fluid process. We’re continuing to look at the data and their progress, and make adjustments,” he said.

In Newport, where students are more likely than other Granite State students to test below grade level in math and reading, according to state data, the learning teams focused on making sure students didn’t move on without fully understanding a concept.

“The purpose of this is to work to make sure students aren’t moving along without filling those gaps,” Clark said. 

At first, the program was successful, according to Cindy Couitt, a third grade teacher at the school. 

“Kids who hadn’t been making a lot of progress were now moving forward in those skills,” she said. Many students, like Landon-Layne, were having fewer behavioral challenges, and communication within the school continues to be strengthened by teachers working more closely together, Clark said. 

Landon-Layne: Eight-year-old Landon-Layne, a Newport second grader, moves into a third grade classroom for math and reading. (Courtesy: Tonya Laware)

Disagreements over best practices, sustainability

When former principal Patrice Glancey Brown left Richards Elementary, there was little guidance for the vertical learning teams, Couitt said. Although the school, under Clark’s leadership, continued the teams, the approach was diluted, Couitt said. 

“It’s my opinion — and this is just my opinion — that we are no longer doing a true (vertical learning) model,” she said. 

That is a common criticism of competency-based learning, experts say. Because the concept is unfamiliar, the term can be applied to practices that aren’t truly rooted in a competency-based approach. In addition, pilot programs in the state show that efforts to implement competency-based education often falter when school leadership changes.

‘New Hampshire schools experimented with a radical approach to competency-based education. The failure of the pilot mirrors current concerns over revisions in state minimum standards.’

At Richards Elementary, students still receive instruction during vertical learning time, but they also are taught the core curriculum for their grade level, whether or not they’re ready for it, Couitt said. Mixed-age sessions function more as review time, she said. (Clark clarified that students have two math and two reading sessions: one in a mixed-age setting and one with their grade-level peers.)

“It’s not the true model” of vertical learning, Couitt said.

The result, she feels, has been a stagnation of learning. “There’s some progress, at a slower pace.”

Under the prior model, students were graded for the level they were learning at, she added. For example, Landon-Layne would have been evaluated on third-grade math, even though he was in first grade. However, now students are evaluated based on their grade level, giving a less robust picture of where they truly are, Couitt said. 

Furbush, of Epping, said evaluating students at grade level when it doesn’t align with their learning level serves no one. 

“That’s a real detriment to our system .…” he said. “We’re really not having honest conversations about where that child is.”

Scheduling and culture challenges

Sustainability is just one of the challenges around mixed-age learning, said Furbush, who has taken steps to facilitate more of the approach in Epping. 

One of the biggest challenges is logistical: the schedule. For mixed-age learning to work, students in different grades need to have learning periods that start and stop at the same time. Epping recently addressed that by putting the middle and high schools on the same schedule, using 80-minute teaching blocks. 

“Now, that’s changed overnight,” Furbush said, allowing movement of teachers and students between the schools. 

Making the adjustment required persuading stakeholders — including the school board, teachers and parents — that the change was valuable. That community involvement and understanding is critical, Furbush said. 

In Newport, administrators and teachers made an effort to teach parents about the vertical learning teams. At first, many parents weren’t comfortable with them because the approach looked different from the schooling they were familiar with. 

Some teachers have a similar hesitation, Couitt said.

“There was a lot of pushback on (vertical learning) because there are a lot of people who believe the model for teaching should stay and teach the core (curriculum) in your room,” she said.

Mixed-age learning can be more efficient for teachers, Furbush said, but “initially they think it's a lot more work,” which can lead to wariness about the model. 

Another barrier involves parents’ expectations. 

“Parents are all accepting of a child going up,” Furbush said. “The other page we need to think about is where there’s a third-grader who’s at a first-grade math level.”

Education about competency-based education can help with this too, he said. In an ideal world, the different learning levels wouldn’t be numbered, but named for colors or local landmarks, so students and parents didn’t feel shame when a student worked below their age-indicated grade level. 

“Right now, we use language like above or below grade level. That has judgment on it, both good and bad,” Furbush said. 

Adults readily accept that, as students learn to swim or do karate, they move through competencies unrelated to their grades, he said. Eventually, Furbush would like to see that same approach in schools. 

“I would like to see even more collapse of that grade-level model,” he said. “…What we’re really trying to create is that small-group instruction to meet their needs.”

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