Cyclospora: What can N.H. residents do to protect themselves during the current outbreak?

On this episode of “The State We’re In,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan of the N.H. Division of Public Health talks about cyclospora, the infectious parasite that’s been involved in a massive national outbreak that so far includes dozens of cases in New Hampshire.

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda: 

For those who have missed the recent news reports, can you tell us what cyclospora is and why people are concerned?

Benjamin Chan: 

Cyclospora is an intestinal protozoan parasite. It’s not something that’s usually life-threatening, but it causes profuse, watery diarrhea. It can also cause things like abdominal cramping, loss of appetite. People can have nausea and vomiting, although perhaps the vomiting part is less prominent than with other types of intestinal infections. Most people with a normal healthy immune system will get better on their own over time, but they can have prolonged symptoms. 

If somebody thinks they might’ve been exposed to cyclospora and has on-going symptoms of watery diarrhea, for example, there is testing that can be done, and that testing can be important to identify an infection. There are treatments, antibiotics that can be given, that can help lessen the severity, shorten the duration of illness. 

This is, unfortunately, a relatively common infection that occurs this time of year. It’s spread through contaminated water and fresh produce. Usually what we say is that it’s spread through the “fecal-oral” route. That means it’s spread when somebody has cyclospora in their stool, and that stool contaminates water, and that water is used to irrigate crops in another state or another country and then the contamination then gets on the fresh produce. Then, when it gets shipped to somebody and they eat it, they can become infected with cyclospora. This is how outbreaks happen, and historically, this is a parasite that is known to cause outbreaks. 

We've had cyclospora outbreaks in berries and lettuce, cilantro and other fresh produce in the past. We’re seeing a very large increase in cyclospora infections nationally, this year — that’s what people are hearing about in the news. Thousands of cases identified in other states like Michigan and Ohio have led to a recall of lettuce. That lettuce [identified at the start of these cyclospora outbreaks] has come from a certain area of central Mexico and been distributed nationwide to many other states across the country, including New Hampshire. 

Melanie Plenda: 

Can we talk a little bit about how New Hampshire has been impacted by this? 

Benjamin Chan: 

Cyclospora is a reportable disease, meaning that if a provider or a laboratory diagnoses somebody with cyclospora, it gets automatically reported to the Division of Public Health so we can investigate, try and get some idea about whether there could be an outbreak — for example, related to contaminated food that might need to be recalled. 

We’ve been watching what’s been happening at a national level, and every year, typically, in New Hampshire, we have fewer than 10 people diagnosed with cyclospora. Currently in New Hampshire, and these numbers are on our website, we have a total of nearly 80 people so far, in 2026, that have been diagnosed with cyclosporiasis.  

Melanie Plenda: 

Do you have a sense of why it’s different this year rather than previous years? 

Benjamin Chan: 

It’s not entirely clear what’s different this year. We do know that this is an organism that can lead to large outbreaks, and we don’t always have a good picture of what’s happening at a national level.

The national outbreak was first recognized when another state identified a large increase in cyclospora infections that were being reported to the state health department. They investigated, as most states do across the country, and they identified that a majority of people being reported to them ate at Taco Bell. That led to a nationwide recall. That’s sort of how this initially has played out. 

As more and more attention and awareness has come to this outbreak, that has led to more testing. Factored into this is the idea that probably every year people get cyclospora infections — they develop symptoms, they don’t seek testing because it’s not regularly ordered, or routinely available, and they get better on their own, so they’re never tested, never identified. But in the setting of a large national outbreak, where we’ve done messaging to the public and to healthcare providers, it raises awareness of the fact that there was this outbreak. 

The more testing you do, the more people are identifying the infection, and more testing leads to more infections that are identified and then reported to public health so that they can be investigated. I think there’s going to be more information coming in the next days and weeks  around potentially other sources of contamination. But again, this is an organism that we know causes outbreaks, and this is the time of year when we would expect to see outbreaks. The numbers we are seeing are much, much larger than historically what we’ve seen in the past.  

Melanie Plenda: 

What should people do? Should they be avoiding all lettuce or fresh produce? How can they handle this?

Benjamin Chan:

I think there are a number of steps that people can take to protect themselves if they’re concerned about cyclospora.

It’s generally recommended that people wash their fresh berries and fresh produce to the extent possible. If people are concerned that a vegetable might be contaminated they can cook it — cooking will kill the cyclospora parasite. Also they should make sure that they have good handwashing, make sure there’s not cross-contamination happening in the kitchen — between cutting boards, washing the counters, washing the utensils. 

The other steps that people can take is just to be aware of where their fresh produce is coming from. There are, this time of year, lots of different farmers markets, particularly in New Hampshire, that are selling locally grown, fresh produce. There are companies and businesses out there that, regarding lettuce, grow lettuce in greenhouses, with much lower risk of contamination. There are products that are out there that people can take advantage of that are either locally grown or grown in ways that reduce or minimize the contamination, particularly for lettuce.

We still recommend and generally promote people to eat fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, but there are steps people can take to make sure they’re minimizing the risk for food-borne infections.

Melanie Plenda:

I want to thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Chan. All great information. 

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

Attention and prevention: Staying on top of the risks from tick and mosquito bites

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

No one likes getting bitten by ticks and mosquitoes. Hopefully, it’s just painful and annoying, but sometimes these pests can cause health impacts that can be concerning. State Epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan, who helps prevent and control the spread of disease and promote the health of Granite State residents, discusses what the concerns are and what we should do about them.

Melanie Plenda:

Anecdotally, how is this season for ticks and mosquitoes? What do you know about their prevalence?

Benjamin Chan:

I think maybe it would be helpful to start by saying that the health department generally tracks infections and disease. We don't routinely track some of the vectors, or the insects like ticks and mosquitoes, that can spread that disease.

There are a few ways that we can assess how active a season we're having with ticks and mosquitoes. One certainly is by how common some of these diseases are that we're tracking, like Lyme disease for ticks and West Nile virus for mosquitoes. But there are other sources of information. Mosquito trapping occurs in certain areas of the state. We also can assess and have data coming in about emergency room visits for tick bites. 

I think generally what we're seeing, at least early in the season, is a very active tick bite season. There were a higher number of emergency department visits for tick bites in March and April than maybe we've seen in the last couple of years, but that largely has evened out, and the trend we're seeing now is more in line with what we've seen in past years. 

Regarding mosquito season, it varies year to year, depending on weather conditions — how much rain we're getting. I don't believe that we're having a more active mosquito season than we typically see, but some of our community partners, like our towns and cities, and some of the companies that do mosquito trapping in these local towns would have a better idea. 

Melanie Plenda:

To put a little bit of context around the prevalence of Lyme disease, last year there were about 1,800 cases. This year it's around 1,500 or 1,600. Not that people shouldn't be careful or aware of the disease, but how prevalent is a tick? How common is it for someone to get Lyme disease if they get bitten by a tick? Do you have a sense of that, or is there a way to quantify that?

Benjamin Chan:

It's a great question, and actually, there's not a great way to quantify the risk from any single tick bite. What I can say is that New Hampshire, including the rest of New England in general, is a high-incidence state for Lyme disease, meaning Lyme disease is found commonly in people and in ticks in our region. 

I think we go back to the idea of prevention — how do people stay healthy this time of year? How do people prevent getting infected with some of these pathogens? It comes back to preventing tick bites and preventing mosquito bites. There’s a variety of ways that people can do that. With some of these infections, there are treatments – antibiotics that can be given to treat an infection. So, if for whatever reason prevention fails, somebody gets bitten by a tick and they develop Lyme disease, there are antibiotics and treatments that can be given to cure the infection.

That's not the case with all of these pathogens, particularly the viruses. Powassan virus that's transmitted through tick bites and Eastern equine encephalitis, West Nile virus and Jamestown Canyon virus that are transmitted through mosquito bites are viruses for which there are no specific treatments. There are no antibiotics or antiviral medications that work, so somebody is medically supported until their body can clear the infection on their own.

Melanie Plenda:

Generally, what symptoms should people look for with tick and mosquito bites? When should they head to a health provider versus head to the pharmacy? 

Benjamin Chan:

I will point to a couple of different times when somebody should talk to their healthcare provider. The first is if somebody has severe or prolonged symptoms, the symptoms of a lot of these types of infections are not specific; fever, fatigue, maybe a mild headache, some muscle aches. They are all very common symptoms. If somebody is developing severe symptoms — severe headache and neck pain to the point where it hurts to move their neck, or family or friends are noticing the person is confused, or they're having other concerning neurologic symptoms like seizures or changes in their mentation and cognition — those are all warning signs for more severe invasive types of infections.

People should phone their healthcare provider or even go into the emergency department if they display any of those types of more concerning symptoms. The other time is if symptoms just aren't going away — prolonged fever, prolonged headache, other concerning symptoms people may be having that aren't going away — then they should be talking with their healthcare provider.

The other time when someone might want to be on the phone with a provider is if they have a tick bite and the tick has been attached for a prolonged period of time. There is a prophylactic or preventive antibiotic called doxycycline that can be given as a single dose that can prevent Lyme disease.

Now, the tick has to be attached for a certain amount of time in order for the Lyme disease bacteria to spread from the tick into the person, so that doesn't happen right away with Lyme disease. But if somebody, for example, finds an engorged or enlarged tick on themselves, it's probably been there for more than 24 hours. They can talk to their healthcare provider and get a single-dose prescription for an antibiotic that can help reduce the chances of coming down with Lyme disease. 

Melanie Plenda:

What should you do if you find a tick on you? Should you bring it somewhere to be tested?

Benjamin Chan:

Generally, we don't recommend tick testing. There are places that do that that are out there, but as a general medical recommendation, testing a tick doesn't necessarily change how somebody is treated — that's sort of a core tenet, if you will. Whenever we're talking about medical recommendations, does an intervention change how you treat the patient? And in this case, taking a tick and testing it doesn't necessarily change what happens with a person who's bitten by a tick.

Melanie Plenda:

Are there other insects of concern when it comes to health impacts?

Benjamin Chan:

It's a good question. Primarily, what we're concerned about in New Hampshire is really around ticks and mosquitoes. But I think maybe it's also a good opportunity to highlight the fact that this is a time of year when people might be traveling.

So when people travel, they should be aware of the risks in the areas that they're traveling to. While ticks and mosquitoes are the primary concern here in New Hampshire — particularly around these diseases that we've been talking about — there may be insects in other locations of the U.S. or of the world, where different types of infections can be transmitted through fleas. There also might be other types of infections that are transmitted through tick bites or mosquito bites that aren't present in New Hampshire. 

If people are thinking about traveling, particularly if they're traveling internationally. Generally, it's a good idea to be talking with a travel medicine clinic to see if there's certain precautions people should be taking to see if there are vaccines to prevent diseases while people are traveling.

Melanie Plenda:

What should we do going forward, in terms of prevention?

Benjamin Chan:

Some of these infections have antibiotic treatments, some of these infections have no specific treatments, particularly against some of the viruses that are transmitted through ticks and mosquitoes. 

A lot of this comes back to preventing the tick bite or preventing the mosquito bite in the first place as the best way to prevent infection and stay healthy. I also mentioned there are no specific vaccines for people to prevent these types of infections either. It really comes down to preventing tick bites and preventing mosquito bites, and there are a number of ways to do that. 

First, there’s avoiding habitats where ticks might be present. Ticks like to hang out in sort of borderline or transitional-type habitats where maybe you have shrubs and tall grasses, so avoiding going into those types of habitats can prevent tick bites. 

Mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk, so to minimize the risk of mosquito bites, people can avoid going outdoors at times of the day when mosquitoes are most active around dawn and dusk.

Then, if people are outdoors or in areas where there might be ticks or mosquitoes, applying an insect repellent to exposed skin that's effective against ticks and mosquitoes is important. A lot of people know of DEET-based repellents. Some people don't like using DEET, and that's fine. There are other options out there — more natural options, like lemon or eucalyptus-based insect repellents.

There are a number of other steps people can take. There are certain types of insecticide sprays that can be put on clothing, like permethrin-based sprays, that can help repel ticks and mosquitoes. It's important to do tick checks when coming inside after being outdoors, both on yourself and also your pets and your gear.

As for mosquitoes, one way of minimizing them around one's home is to make sure that there's no standing water — buckets or pails or wheelbarrows or old tires that have standing water in them — because mosquitoes like to breed in even small amounts of standing water. We generally recommend people walk around and make sure that there aren't pails holding water in one's yard as a way to try and reduce mosquito populations around someone's home.

Melanie Plenda:

Thank you for joining us today, Dr. Chan.

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

They weren’t looking for him, so why is he dead?

The killing by ICE of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine should scare everyone who believes government must be accountable

By Shamecca Brown-Granite State News Collaborative

I am scared. And I don’t say that lightly.

I sit back sometimes and look at what is happening in this country, and I genuinely ask myself: What the hell are we becoming? Because a 26-year-old man is dead. His name was Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero. 

On July 13, 2026, Johan was shot and killed by an ICE agent during an immigration enforcement operation in Biddeford, Maine. And, according to reporting about the case, Johan wasn’t even the person ICE originally came there looking for. But now he is dead.

ICE says Johan attempted to flee and that an officer fired because his vehicle posed a threat to public safety. But questions have been raised about exactly what happened. Because when an agent of our government takes a human life, we cannot simply accept a statement, close the file, and move on to tomorrow’s news.

And Johan’s death did not happen in isolation. Just six days earlier, on July 7, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed in Houston in another fatal encounter involving ICE. Two men. Six days.

Asking questions about the actions of law enforcement does not mean you don’t believe in laws. Demanding accountability does not mean you support crime. Caring about the life of an immigrant does not mean you want open borders. It means you still believe a human life has value.

Apparently, even saying that has become controversial in America. And that scares the hell out of me. Because I need somebody to tell me when immigration status became a death sentence. When did we decide that being undocumented — or simply being caught up in an immigration enforcement operation — means your life suddenly has less value?

We are talking about human beings. People with mothers. People with fathers. People with children. People who laugh, work, love, struggle, dream and wake up every morning trying to survive this crazy world just like the rest of us.

Johan was somebody’s son. He wa.s a little girl’s father. And now his family has to live with the reality that he is never coming home, and the day we stop caring about people simply because they don’t look like us, come from where we come from, speak our language, or have the right paperwork is the day we need to seriously ask ourselves what kind of country we have become.

Because this is bigger than Johan, and his death cannot simply become another headline we forget next week.

We have watched immigration enforcement become more aggressive. We have watched communities become afraid. We have watched people detained and families torn apart. And, within six days, two men have been killed in encounters involving ICE agents.

Demand accountability

I don’t give a damn what political party you belong to when we are talking about whether government agents should be able to take a human life without the public demanding a full, independent and transparent accounting of exactly what happened. That should not be a Republican position. That should not be a Democratic position. That is a HUMAN position.

Yes, I am angry. I am angry because I have children. I am angry because I am a Black woman in America who knows what it feels like to watch another human being’s death become a debate before their family has even had time to grieve. I am angry because we keep being told to trust systems while simultaneously being told not to question those systems, not to question authority or get too angry or make people uncomfortable.

But  guess what? I am uncomfortable. And maybe more of us need to be. Because becoming comfortable with people dying should scare us far more than becoming angry about it.

When we give any government extraordinary power without demanding extraordinary accountability, we should all be paying attention. History has already shown us what can happen when people decide something isn’t their problem because it is happening to somebody else.

I wasn’t standing on that street in Biddeford. I did not witness every second of what happened. And because questions remain about the circumstances surrounding Johan’s death, I am not going to pretend I know something I don’t. But that is exactly why I want answers. All of them. Not the politically convenient truth.

Shamecca Brown is a New Hampshire-based columnist who is family-oriented and passionate about serving underserved communities. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

What tools do New Hampshire farmers use to keep pests away from crops?

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article is edited for length and clarity.

Our fruits and vegetables are constantly under watch for signs of an army of tiny invaders. How do we protect our produce from tiny insect interlopers? Dr. Amber Vinchesi-Vahl, who works at the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, discusses how agricultural pests are monitored and how growers are being helped to find solutions for dealing with them. 

Melanie Plenda:

What work do you do at UNH?

Amber Vinchesi-Vahl:

In addition to being the state extension specialist in entomology and integrated pest management, or IPM, I am also the state IPM coordinator, and we use all kinds of techniques to control insects beyond just chemical management.

Melanie Plenda:

What agricultural pests are you currently monitoring for?

Amber Vinchesi-Vahl:

I run the state trapping program, which is funded by the N.H. Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Foods. We're trapping for many vegetable pests, mainly sweet corn pests. We trap four different moths that affect sweet corn — it's actually the caterpillar that's causing the damage to the crop, not the moth. But we use pheromone traps to track those moths to figure out when they're arriving and what kind of pressure we have, because many of our sweet corn pests do not spend the winter in New Hampshire. They migrate north on storm fronts and wind events and jet streams. So knowing when they arrive is really important for management. 

We do have some pests that overwinter here or are native. So the European corn borer is one of our sweet corn pests that does spend the winter here. The other two that migrate up are the corn earworm and the fall armyworm. We also trap for squash vine borer, which is a native squash pest to New Hampshire. Then we also trap for a couple of invasive species: the spotted wing drosophila and the brown marmorated stink bug. We also have a tree fruit trapping program that's run by my colleague Jeremy Delisle out of Merrimack County, but I kind of run this vegetable program. 

Melanie Plenda:

What is the next step once you trap them? 

Amber Vinchesi-Vahl:

One of the key tenets of integrated pest management is monitoring first, because then you're only implementing your controls when you know you have the pests present, and it's at actually damaging levels. We use trap thresholds to inform our growers and recommend when they should implement controls.

The thresholds are basically the amount of pests in the trap that indicate you will need to implement management to avoid economic damage. The pests may be present, but they might not be at levels where you actually need to do any management. This helps reduce pesticide inputs and pesticide costs, and saves labor, time and money for the growers as well.

Melanie Plenda:

As you mentioned, some of these are native problems, and some are invasive ones. Can you explain what that means, and why the invasive ones can cause extra headaches?

Amber Vinchesi-Vahl:

A native pest is an insect that's always been here. It's native to the United States, native to New Hampshire, New England area, and that's our squash vine borer, which is a pest of squash. It's a day flying moth, and they lay their eggs at the base of the stem, and when the larvae hatch, they bore into the stem, and as they grow, they can cause the plant to collapse. 

Invasive insects are insects that are introduced from other areas of the world into the United States. They're usually not introduced with any of their predators from their native range, and they have plenty of habitat and resources once they arrive in a new place and can really take off. Invasive insects also tend to make integrated pest management a lot more difficult because they arrive, they grow exponentially, and growers have to do something to control them, and that’s usually relying on pesticide sprays until we can kind of come up with other management strategies to work with the sprays. 

We also have a lot of insects in New Hampshire that we wouldn't really consider invasive anymore, but they're also not native to New Hampshire, like the European corn borer. It is not native to New Hampshire, but it's been here for a very long time. So has the Japanese beetle, but technically they're not native to New Hampshire. 

Melanie Plenda:

Is climate change a factor here with these pests?

Amber Vinchesi-Vahl:

Yes, we're really noticing these shifts within our 20 years of our trapping program. We've really been able to track when the migrating pests arrive and how that changes depending on storm events and hurricanes. In the past, we used to really only see corn earworm and fall armyworm late in the season, but now sometimes we see big spikes in late July. Other things we're noticing is the unpredictable weather in the spring, with more storms maybe bringing some of our pests up sooner than we normally see them. 

Insect development is really temperature-dependent. So when we have warmer weather, they're able to cycle through their generations faster. So we may have faster population buildup. They're showing up earlier and lasting longer into the fall because it's staying warmer longer as well. Also, some of the invasive insects that generally come up from the south may now be able to spend the winter here if we don't get a lot of snow cover or it stays warmer over the winter, which means they're showing up earlier in the spring.

Melanie Plenda:

What kind of economic impact do these insects have when they attack crops?

Amber Vinchesi-Vahl:

We really have great data that shows that growers are able to save a lot of money by reducing their pesticide costs. In 2025, our trapping network showed that our growers saved, on average, about three sprays in the season for sweet corn, which equates to almost $70,000 for labor, fuel and pesticide costs. They also reported increased yield, almost a 10% increase in yield than what they thought they would have had if they were not controlling. 

The three sprays saved are based on using integrated pest management compared to the historic way that the pests were controlled, which was calendar-based sprays. Basically that would mean that when they thought the pest showed up, they just started spraying on a calendar basis, whether the pest was there or not. Using this trapping first is really important. They're able to target the insects more efficiently and then increase their yield.

Our growers also reported that if they were not managing for these pests, they would have had over a 50% loss. 

Melanie Plenda:

You mentioned spraying and pesticides. Is that something consumers should be concerned about? And if so, what questions should they ask? 

Amber Vinchesi-Vahl:

This is a great question. It's a little tricky to answer, but pesticides have a lot of rules to them. Growers aren't just out there spraying whatever they want, whenever they want. Also, all pesticides have a pre-harvest interval, or PHI, and that means that if the PHI is seven days, the grower cannot spray it within seven days of harvest — that's for safety to harvest crews, to you-pick consumers, to the grower, and that's going to make it safer. There's no residue there, but you should always wash your produce as well, but there are residue laws in the United States for pesticides. Growers are being very conscious about the way they apply pesticides.

Melanie Plenda:

Are organic pesticides less worrisome than inorganic or chemical ones? Why or why not? 

Amber Vinchesi-Vahl:

Organic pesticides are generally softer chemistries, and some conventional growers will use softer chemistries or more selective chemistries. That's what we call pesticides that are really only targeting specific insect pests rather than a broad spectrum, which may be killing your beneficials as well. 

Organic pesticides are still pesticides. Many of them still have labels that have to be followed, but they are derived from natural products rather than synthetic, which makes them different from your conventional pesticides. But some of them still have pre-harvest intervals. There's also a big push and increase in biological chemicals. This would be fungus or bacteria that can be applied to attack the insect pest, or even minerals like oils that you can apply that are a little bit safer as well.

Melanie Plenda:

You also mentioned pest management that doesn’t involve any kind of pesticide. Can you tell us more about those strategies? How effective are they?

Amber Vinchesi-Vahl:

Those are cultural practices. We kind of loop everything in IPM into a couple of categories. So the cultural practices are really just your production agronomic practices that many growers are already doing, like crop rotation. This is really important for disease and insect pest management.

For example, say I had cucumbers in a field in 2025. I'm going to plant something completely unrelated to cucumbers in 2026 to avoid those pests that probably spent the winter or are still in that area where I had the cucumbers, because then it's going to be harder when those insects emerge in the spring to find where I did plant the cucumbers, because now it's tomatoes there and they don't like tomatoes. You’re really trying to rotate through those crop groups to reduce your pest pressure. 

Other things include manipulating your planting dates. So if any home gardeners or farmers have issues with the Colorado potato beetle, which is a big fat red beetle that eats potatoes and tomatoes. By planting in July, you're going to miss that first peak when the adults come out of overwintering and come into your tomatoes and potatoes and eggplant crops. So manipulating planting dates is something growers can do.

Other cultural control practices include planting resistant varieties for disease pest management, if they're available. And there’s site selection — trying to find areas that don't have a lot of weeds, because weeds will harbor diseases and insects. 

For mechanical and physical controls, those are kind of barriers to pest entry. Many of our farms will put row cover or insect-exclusion netting over newly planted crops, and that's going to mean that any of the beetles trying to come in or other pests can't get there. 

Melanie Plenda:

Just to sum up, how are New Hampshire crops looking this year? And what can we expect to see at our farm stands?

Amber Vinchesi-Vahl:

I've been to a lot of farms this summer. Crops look really great. We're seeing some of our common pest issues a little worse this year than others, but that's pretty common every year. There's always something that kind of wins out. Onion thrips are a big issue this year on a lot of our onions, but those are close to harvest, so the bulbs are looking good. Sweet corn looks really good. We've had kind of a slow start to the sweet corn pests. We haven't really been trapping too many yet, so it might be like normal years where we see the big flush in August and September instead of mid-season like we are now.

Melanie Plenda:

Thank you for joining us today, Amber.

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

Freedom is more than fireworks and barbecues

By Shamecca Brown-Granite State News Collaborative 

Every July, the sky lights up. The flags are flying. The fireworks paint the night in red, white  and blue. Neighbors gather around grills. Kids splash in pools. Families laugh together. For one day, America feels … different.

I remember when I used to be one of those people lighting fireworks myself. It was part of the tradition. But somewhere along the way, we stopped. These days, my children couldn’t care less about the fireworks. Give them a barbecue, a pool to jump in, good food and time with family, and they’re happy. Maybe they’ve figured out something the rest of us haven’t. Because after the fireworks are over, what happens?

The next day, it’s back to arguing online. Back to judging strangers. Back to political fights. Back to people refusing to listen. Back to treating one another with less kindness than we managed to show for just one holiday.

It makes me wonder. Is our patriotism only meant for July Fourth? Is kindness something we celebrate for a day and forget the other 364?

For instance, the other day, one of my children said something that stopped me in my tracks: “It just seems like everyone dislikes everyone.” Imagine hearing that from a child.

That’s the America they’re growing up in – a country where they notice the tension, the division and the constant negativity before they’re even old enough to understand all the reasons behind it.

After the last spark disappears

Sure, we tell our children to be kind, to include others, to respect people even when they disagree. Maybe it’s time we started taking our own advice.

Real freedom isn’t just about fireworks or waving a flag. It’s about protecting each other’s right to think differently while still treating one another with dignity. It’s OK to disagree. That’s part of democracy. It always has been. What’s not OK is believing that someone with a different opinion is automatically your enemy.

America has never been perfect. But throughout our history, we’ve moved forward because people were willing to have difficult conversations, stand up for what they believed in and recognize each other’s humanity. Today, it feels like we’ve become so focused on winning arguments that we’ve forgotten how to build relationships.

So this Fourth of July, so many of us enjoyed the fireworks once more. We enjoyed the barbecue, the jump in the pool, the laughs with our family.  But when the last spark disappears from the sky, did the kindness disappear with it? Because loving this country shouldn’t stop when the fireworks fade.

Actually, maybe the most patriotic thing we can do isn’t wave a flag once a year. Maybe it’s choosing empathy on an ordinary Tuesday. Or listening before judging. Or remembering that behind every opinion is a human being.

If my children can see that “everyone dislikes everyone,” then maybe it’s time we ask ourselves a harder question: What kind of America are we leaving them?

Shamecca Brown is a New Hampshire-based columnist who is family-oriented and passionate about serving underserved communities. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

Acute challenges swamp state’s program for supporting children in court cases

Guardians ad litem offer ‘impactful’ assistance, but program is largely available only to families who can pay

By Kelly Burch-Granite State News Collaborative

During her 25 years working full-time as a guardian ad litem — a person who represents the interests of children in family court cases — Judith Hamilton has worked with hundreds of families. Yet she knows that many more children have no one to speak for them in court.. 

“All kids should get the same level of care and concern from the court system,” said Hamilton, who lives in Keene. “And that doesn’t happen.”

Guardians ad litem are appointed by the court to represent the interests of children, often in contentious court cases involving custody, parental rights, and abuse and neglect. 

“A GAL brings in a nuanced, middle-of-the-road perspective” that can help judges make good decisions in complex cases, said Judge Kathleen Quigley, president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. 

But in New Hampshire, GAL services are too often available only to families that are able to pay — typically at a rate of $125 per hour, with costs often tallying thousands of dollars. 

State funding for GALs was cut in 2011, part of budget cuts enacted in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Last year, the state operated a limited pilot program to reinstate GAL funding for a small number of low-income families. Analysis from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth, issued in May, found that the state funding addressed inequalities and also helped complicated cases move through the court system more effectively. 

People working in the court system “really expressed … how impactful GALs were to the process of reaching judgments and the process of providing more equitable justice, particularly in complex cases and those that have been open for a long time,” says Elizabeth Pfeffer, postdoctoral fellow with the Rockefeller Center, who helped oversee the research and report. 

Despite that, there’s currently no plan to extend state funding for GALs for low-income families. The funding for the pilot was a “small, one-time allocation” from the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Heather Kulp, director of court operations for the N.H. Judicial Branch.

“How to fund GALs for indigent parents and the scale of such funding in the future is a legislative decision,” she said. 

‘Logjam in the system’

The lack of funding for poor families is just one of many issues facing the GAL system in New Hampshire, according to a 2025 policy brief from the Rockefeller Center. The brief outlined four in particular that the guardian ad litem program faces: “inadequate” training; “compensation challenges”; a shrinking number of licensed GALS; and an unequal distribution of services. 

The reduction in the number of licensed GALs is striking. Before state funding was cut, there were about 260 GALs, according to Dartmouth analysis. As of June 30, 2026, there were 58, state data show. 

The sharp decline has compounded pressure. 

“The remaining GALs can be very overworked or have a pretty high burden psychologically,” Pfeffer said. 

Since the state no longer pays for GAL services, parents in court cases are billed for the work. Hamilton said she’s sometimes assigned to cases where it’s clear that parents will be unwilling or unable to pay for her services. 

“The court will assign me a case we all know I’ll never get paid for,” she said. “That just feels unfair to me, but they know that I’ll do it.”

Other GALs have picked up pro-bono cases, the Dartmouth report found. Even so, “there’s a lot of people who don’t ever get served,” Hamilton said. 

Last year, 21 families received a GAL through the pilot program. Their cases were being heard in four New Hampshire circuit courts — Laconia, Franklin, Rochester and Keene. In each court, judges decided which eligible cases received a GAL. 

Those GALs gave judges “new information that could cut a logjam in the system,” Pfeffer said. 

“It had implications for cases, caseloads and families who are going through the court system for quite a long period of time,” she said. 

Looking to other states

Any effort to reinstate a GAL fund would also need to address challenges facing the GAL system, Pfeffer said. 

To explore options for that, Dartmouth researchers looked at the GAL systems in four other states: Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine and Minnesota. 

New Hampshire’s system is complex, in part because it involves all branches of government, Pfeffer said. The court system uses the services, but the program is funded by the Legislature, and licensing and training are handled by the executive branch. 

Other states have handled this by placing their GAL programs within the court system. In Minnesota, for example, GALs are direct employees of the judicial branch. 

Vermont has taken an almost opposite approach, relying heavily on volunteer GALs organized through paid regional coordinators.

“This seemed to help recruitment and retention through the slightly more structured mentorship and training programs,” Pfeffer said. While the number of GALs has dropped substantially in New Hampshire, it has remained steady in Vermont, according to the Dartmouth report. 

This volunteer-driven approach is somewhat similar to that taken by Court Appointed Special Advocates of New Hampshire (CASA of NH), an organization that provides volunteer GALs to represent children in cases of child abuse and neglect (see sidebar). Currently, CASA of NH has about 600 volunteer GALs, according to Marty Sink, longtime CEO of CASA of NH who retired on July 1, 37 years after she founded the organization .

“For us, in New Hampshire, it’s worked really well,” Sink said. “... It’s volunteerism, but it’s also a way for the community, just normal citizens, to dig in and get involved. That piece is really important.”

• CASA: a complementary, but distinct, program for vulnerable kids

  Guardians ad litem can serve in any type of court cases, including divorce, custody and termination of parental rights. Children in cases of child abuse and neglect can be served by another resource: a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), a volunteer GAL who is typically unpaid.

  While a CASA is a type of GAL, the work of CASAs and paid GALs is distinct, experts say. 

  CASAs serve on about 90% of new child abuse and neglect cases that enter the court system, according to Marty Sink, founder of CASA NH, who retired as CEO on July 1.  Federal law requires that children in these cases have a GAL, so if a CASA is not available, a paid GAL must be appointed at the $125-an-hour rate. 

  CASA is “a very highly effective, cost-effective form of advocacy,” Sink said. “We save the state a lot of money.”

  About 35% of CASA NH funding — about $1.1 million — comes from the state. Last year, CASA volunteers logged 8,300 hours, she said. According to the organization’s website, it provides the state with $3 million in advocacy work each year.

  CASA NH has about 600 volunteers, who served about 1,500 children last year, Sink said. In an ideal world, she would have 800 volunteers — roughly the number needed to provide a CASA for every case of child abuse and neglect.

  Knowing she was unlikely to have enough volunteers to fully meet the need, Sink decided to focus solely on child abuse and neglect cases when she started CASA NH in 1989. 

  “Those are the kiddos who are so vulnerable,” she says.

In Massachusetts, the GAL program benefits from the state chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. That organization can set guidelines for effectively operating a GAL program within a given jurisdiction, according to Bryan Altman, executive director of the association. 

“A chapter might be able to bring together experts across all these different silos,” he said. “They might put together a training on skills that are needed to fulfill that role.”

In addition to additional training, communication mechanisms and administrative processes for New Hampshire GALs, the Dartmouth report called on the state to investigate establishing a chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

A system in need of support

While the GAL system faces acute challenges, experts say they’re part of a larger lack of support for New Hampshire’s most vulnerable families. 

“We just, across the board, don’t spend much money on families in this state,” said Susan Carbon, a retired New Hampshire family court judge and past president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. “There’s a lot more we can do to support families, and we’re not.”

The families Hamilton works with often could have benefited from help to address and resolve issues before they ended up in court, she said. Instead, they’re often left in crisis, with nowhere to turn. 

This has become even more acute since the pandemic, she said. One example is the lack of access to mental health counselors for kids. In addition to her work as a GAL, Hamilton has worked in community mental health. She used to be able to connect children with therapists and other mental health professionals quickly, she said, but now she’s often unable to. 

“Even when I have kids I’m really worried about,” she said, “I can’t get them in.”

Sink sees a “system that needs to collaborate and come together supporting children and families” through challenges such as homelessness, mental health and substance abuse. 

“The odds that families are challenged with are at times insurmountable,” she said. “If we can do one little piece of systemic change, [we can] help people have better outcomes, and hopefully develop a stronger, healthier community of New Hampshire citizens.” 

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

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

Qualified, experienced, and still not good enough: America’s real hiring problem

By Shamecca Brown-Granite State News Collaborative 

America says it has a worker shortage. I don’t buy it. What America has is a hiring problem.

Every day, employers post ads for jobs claiming they desperately need workers. They complain about staffing shortages, burnout and positions that remain vacant for months. Politicians talk about workforce shortages. Businesses hang “Now Hiring” signs in their windows.

Yet thousands of qualified people are submitting resumes and hearing absolutely nothing back. Not even a rejection. So let’s stop pretending this is simply about finding talent.

The real question is: Who are employers willing to see as talent? Because from where I stand, too many hiring decisions have less to do with qualifications and more to do with comfort.

Comfort with a person’s name. Comfort with their age. Comfort with their race. Comfort with their gender. Comfort with whether they have a disability. Comfort with their hairstyle. Comfort with their accent. Comfort with their criminal background. Comfort with who they love. Comfort with people who look, sound and think like everyone already sitting around the table.

The problem is that comfort is not a qualification. Experience is. Skills are. Education is. Work ethic is. Character is. And when employers prioritize comfort over competence, everyone loses.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

A 55-year-old applicant with decades of experience can be overlooked for someone younger with fewer qualifications. A person with a criminal record who has paid their debt to society can be denied opportunity before they ever get an interview. A person with a disability can be judged before their abilities are ever considered. A Black woman with years of experience, certifications, leadership skills and a proven track record can submit application after application and still be forced to wonder whether her qualifications were ever seriously considered.

At the same time, many of the jobs that are available come with another problem: the pay. Employers want bachelor’s degrees, certifications, years of experience, flexibility, evening availability, weekend availability, emotional intelligence, crisis management skills, and the ability to do the work of three people. Then they offer wages that barely cover rent.

Some positions require workers to carry the emotional weight of other people’s trauma every single day. Human service workers, recovery coaches, direct support professionals, advocates, behavioral health staff, case managers and frontline workers are holding communities together with determination, compassion, and grit. Yet many of these same workers struggle to pay their own bills.

Think about that. We trust people to protect children, support individuals in recovery, assist survivors of domestic violence, help people with disabilities, respond to mental health crises and guide families through some of the darkest moments of their lives. But we often don’t pay them enough to thrive. Then we wonder why positions stay vacant.

This isn’t a workforce shortage. It’s a respect shortage, a wage shortage, an opportunity shortage.

People are tired of being told they’re essential while being treated as expendable. They are tired of being told they’re qualified enough to do the work but not qualified enough to be hired. They are tired of hearing that nobody wants to work when the truth is many people are willing to work — they just want a fair chance and fair pay.

If employers truly want to solve staffing shortages, they need to start recognizing the value of the candidates already standing in front of them.

That means looking beyond assumptions, beyond stereotypes, beyond age, race, gender, disability, background and bias. It means giving people a genuine opportunity to prove what they can do.

The American workforce does not have a talent problem. 

The talent is here. The question is whether we are willing to see it

Shamecca Brown is a New Hampshire-based columnist who is family-oriented and passionate about serving underserved communities. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

‘The reality of living in N.H. right now’: Older adults increasingly face homelessness

In 2024, nearly a quarter of people experiencing homelessness for the first time were over 55

By Megan Rogers – Granite State News Collaborative

Editor’s note: The 65-year-old woman whose homelessness is a key part of this story asked for anonymity in order to participate in the piece. Her identity is known by the Granite State News Collaborative.

Stacy Z, a 65-year-old New Hampshire resident, faced an unstable housing situation at the end of 2025. 

She had a month to find rent-subsidized housing. Stacy reached out to social service agencies and filled out more than 50 housing applications. On top of her housing search, Stacy was also using a cane while she waited for a hip replacement. 

“I used every social service-related resource that I could find to try to find an alternative to becoming homeless, and I felt like a hamster on a wheel,” said Stacy — who asked that her full name not be used over concerns that it could hurt her job prospects. “I was running as fast as I could, and getting nowhere. People were really nice, but what I kept hearing over and over again was, ‘We can't help you.’”

When an accessible room at Hundred Nights — a shelter for unhoused people in  Keene — became available, Stacy moved in for three months before she was able to secure a spot at a rent-subsidized property. 

While at Hundred Nights, Stacy decided that, once she resolved her own situation, she wanted to advocate for others experiencing homelessness. 

“My life has been very geared towards serving others, and I certainly never expected to find myself in this situation,” Stacy said. She works as a drug and alcohol counselor and an interfaith minister. 

In recent years, shelters across the state say they’re getting more frequent calls from older adults with medical and mobility issues, who find themselves facing homelessness for the first time. 

“We've certainly seen the face of homelessness is changing, and increasingly this is seniors who worked their entire lives, paid taxes, raised their families in communities across the region, and really never imagined that they would struggle to afford housing and retirement,” says Kara Anne Rodenhizer, executive director of the Home for All Coalition, a partnership of individuals and organizations working on housing solutions along the Seacoast. 

“What we're seeing, and what many of our partners are seeing, is that for most of these folks, homelessness is not the result of what folks might think as a personal failure or poor decision,” Rodenhizer said. “It's really that housing costs are rising so much faster, and on fixed incomes that poses a lot of challenges.”

Ineffective safety net

It’s not a new phenomenon. A few years ago, when the NH Coalition to End Homelessness hosted roundtables across the state with homeless service providers and local residents, a concern at every conversation involved older adults facing homelessness, says Jennifer Chisholm, executive director of the coalition. 

In fact, of the 2,245 people identified as experiencing homelessness during New Hampshire’s 2024 Point in Time count, 442 were adults age 55 and older, according to the coalition’s annual report. Nearly a quarter of all individuals experiencing homelessness for the first time in 2024 were older adults. 

“I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that statistic, because I think we think as Americans that we have this really great safety net that takes care of our seniors,” Chisholm said. “But it's not working as effectively as it really should be, clearly, given just the economy, rental economy, housing economy, and how wages and also fixed incomes for our seniors just aren't keeping up with the true prices of everything.” 

Nationally, people age 50 or older are the fastest-growing group experiencing homelessness in America, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. 

The number of older adults facing homelessness has increased since the COVID pandemic, said Sue Ford, executive director of My Friend’s Place, an independent living shelter in Dover. Others working in the field echo her. 

“I started in this work about eight years ago, and over that time I've definitely seen an increase in not only our older population — say 50 and up —  that tends to be the majority of folks that I have in our population right now. I also see a lot more folks 18 to 25, which I also think is really interesting. It's these two populations, both with some really individual considerations,” said Erik Becker, housing stability director at the Berlin-based Tri-County Community Action Program. 

Factors pushing older adults into homelessness include financial crises, losing their independence, death of a spouse or caretaker, or a medical crisis, according to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

“It's not necessarily things that wouldn't impact younger people, but just the impact tends to be heightened due to people's age and, again, the fixed-income piece of things,” Chisholm says. 

Over half of all older adult households in the Granite State have to pay more than 30% of their income for their housing costs, according to the coalition’s 2025 report.

The third-oldest state

At Cross Roads House in Portsmouth, Tammy Whalen, director of housing success, and her team work with aging adults who aren’t able to use a top bunk at the shelter. Her team now spends more time on care coordination with medical providers to help aging adults than just a few years ago. 

“We desperately need medical respite, so definitely advocating for medical respite in New Hampshire is a big, important piece and then that way we have folks not going back and forth to the hospital, but can have their medical needs met in a facility,” Whalen said. 

New Hampshire has no medical respite program, leaving a gap in services for people who aren’t sick enough to be in the hospital but need more care than they can get in the shelter. Without medical respite, shelters and hospitals are in tough positions to decide how best to care for aging adults, Chisholm said. 

Across the state, advocates and direct service providers are adjusting to meeting the needs of an aging population. For instance, Manchester has shifted one of its shelters to focus specifically on the aging and infirm because of the need, Chisholm says. 

Eve Toth, manager of street outreach and housing stabilization at Communication Action Partnership Belknap-Merrimack Counties, and her team are doing more to serve older adults. For instance, they’re conducting outreach more at park-and-rides and libraries, and supplying more adult diapers. 

Since New Hampshire is the third-oldest state in the country, behind Maine and Vermont, advocates expect that older adults will continue to face homelessness. 

“This is not a right-now problem,” Rodenhizer says. “This is going to be a problem that I think we're going to see continuing to grow and increase. and it really requires not just investment but collaboration. You don't have to be an aging adult to really see the impact it can have and the  strain on emergency services and providers. We’ve got to, as a state, work together to come up with a solution.”

Explaining the need

Less than a year after living at Hundred Nights for a few months, Stacy Z., a graduate of the NH Coalition to End Homelessness advocacy and leadership program, is again gearing her life toward service, using her experiences to explain the need for more affordable housing across the state. 

“At a time in my life when a lot of seniors like me would like to be really comfortable and relatively stress-free and not facing these sorts of situations, that's the reality of living in New Hampshire right now,” she says. 

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

Will state’s latest attempt to promote housing construction make a difference?

New measure allows residential projects on commercially zoned land

By Peter Miller-Granite State News Collaborative

Yet another set of tools to help the state address its chronic housing shortage is almost fully in place , but it remains to be seen whether the legislation actually helps make a dent.

The most-watched of the measures — House Bill 631 — was approved in 2025, but didn’t take effect until this month. The measure requires municipalities classified as urban areas by the U.S. Census Bureau to permit construction of multifamily or mixed-used developments on commercially zoned land as a matter of right, if adequate infrastructure is available. 

That essentially means that a project would need only site plan approval and forgo the usual zoning process, in many cases. Municipalities would still be able to restrict development where industry and manufacturing can cause incompatible impacts. They also will be allowed to require retail or similar uses on the ground floor of new developments and require exemptions for setbacks, height or building frontage.

How effective the measure will be may depend on the success of related bills and the unique circumstances of individual cities and towns.

One bill, HB 1010, also took effect on July 1. It clarifies the role of local planning boards in multifamily building projects, and permits municipalities to allow waivers of requirements and to restrict some residential development under certain circumstances. 

Two other related bills have made it through the House and Senate and await Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s signature.

HB 1588 would grant municipalities more power over parking space requirements, clarify site plan review requirements and establish special assessment districts to finance infrastructure improvements. Another, Senate Bill 564, has to do with road length, building on dead-end roads and placement of utilities in buffer areas.

A March 2026 report by the N.H. Fiscal Policy Institute illustrates the magnitude of the problem. The statewide median price of a single-family home has been at or above $500,000 since 2024, and it was $576,000 in May, according to the N.H. Association of Realtors. Housing costs are outpacing income growth, and housing inventory hasn’t kept up with demand. Renters have few options, due to low vacancy rates, and are more likely to be cost-burdened, the Fiscal Policy Institute said.

HB 631’s proponents include Nick Taylor, director of Housing Action NH, a Concord-based coalition of business and nonprofit organizations that advocates for changes in state and federal policy affecting housing construction. 

“HB 631 is one of the most significant housing reforms New Hampshire has enacted in recent years because it hits on so many key components of New Hampshire's economic future,” said Taylor. “It helps turn underutilized office space and aging strip malls into housing. It drives development towards areas of land already served by roads, water, sewer and other infrastructure. It also helps conserve open space by encouraging development within existing built areas rather than sprawling into it.”

Likewise, George Reagan, director of community engagement at New Hampshire Housing —  the quasi-governmental agency that promotes and finances affordable housing in the state — views HB 631 as a flexible step forward.

The bill, he said, “recognizes that many commercial areas — especially office space — aren’t being used the same way they were 10 or 20 years ago. Allowing residential use can breathe new life into those areas. At the same time, communities need a healthy mix of commercial and residential uses.”

But others believe the measure misses the mark and may become yet one more impediment to addressing the crisis.

HB 631 is not only unnecessary but may also result in additional financial challenges, according to Margaret Byrnes, executive director of the N.H. Municipal Association.

“Municipalities already had the power to do this. They didn’t need a state law to allow multifamily in commercial zones,” Byrnes said. “I think that the vagueness of the law is going to lead to litigation, and litigation costs money — and that’s a major concern I think we should all have.”

A crucial shortcoming, Byrnes said, is that while HB 631 may expand development, it does not have requirements or ties to housing affordability. “I don't think people are crying out for more high-end or expensive housing,” she said.

Byrnes said her organization would prefer that the state employ different strategies to address the housing crisis. 

“The state can invest in infrastructure to ensure that our communities can actually support increases in development and population, and the state can also empower municipalities with more flexibility when it comes to housing, especially when it comes to incentivizing affordable housing,” she said. “It’s kind of the flip side of a statewide zoning mandate: more authority for municipalities to consider different types of incentives locally or different planning tools locally to find ways to increase affordable housing in their communities.”

Limited effect seen

Meanwhile, the city of Somersworth’s director of planning and community development, Michelle Mears, said HB 631 isn’t even applicable to her city. 

“Our zoning is commercial/industrial, and that makes it so that we don’t have to allow housing in the commercial zone,” she said. “We’re trying to incentivize housing within certain areas where the infrastructure is already available, and there are places along our commercial/industrial zones that don’t have sewer and water.”

Both Byrnes and Mears support refunding the Housing Champions Program, administered by the Department of Business and Economic Affairs. In 2023, the state created and provided $5 million in funding for the voluntary designation and grant initiative. Cities and towns receiving the “Housing Champion” designation in 2024 and 2025 were eligible to apply for grants to help them develop solutions and advance infrastructure to help alleviate the state’s housing shortage.

The program, while still active, has not been given additional funding since it was passed.

In January, the BEA reported that the 28 cities and towns receiving the designation over the two-year period were responsible for approving 45% of housing units that were built in 2025.

Planning Manager Sam Durfee of Nashua anticipates that HB 631 will likely open the door for development in relatively small areas of smaller communities, but fears that this type of legislation can disrupt long-range planning efforts for targeted housing growth.

Local control is at the heart of Durfee’s issues with both HB 631 and HB 1588. “They broadly take planning out of the hands of local municipalities,” he said. “We are very close to the end of a comprehensive land code update. Manchester just completed a similar effort, and we’re being very deliberate about a new approach that will incentivize residential development in commercial areas.”

Construction of more affordable housing is among several of Nashua’s housing goals, which also include environmental sustainability and how it handles stormwater, he said. “We are very sensitive about how achieving these goals affect the math equation that developers are always faced with when they try to make a project pencil (be financially viable).”

Durfee added: “We've been very deliberate in our testing of these regulations and making sure they're well-calibrated to current market conditions.”

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

El Niño 2026: What are New Hampshire’s weather conditions to come?

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

The El Niño climate pattern is here. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, predicts that it has a 63% chance of increasing to a very strong intensity, meaning our own weather patterns could be due for a change. Mary Stampone, New Hampshire’s state climatologist and associate professor of geography at the University of New Hampshire, discusses what that means for New Hampshire.

Melanie Plenda:

First, what is El Niño is, and how does it work?

Mary Stampone:

El Niño is the warm phase of the Southern Oscillation, or ENSO. It's characterized by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. It was first observed by fishermen off the coast of South America, who recognized its periodic occurrence right around the Christmas holiday and named it El Niño, or “little child,” in Spanish. Meteorologically, these warmer ocean temperatures are connected to air pressure and wind patterns across the equatorial ocean that have kind of a global ripple effect.

Melanie Plenda:

What is the global ripple effect?

Mary Stampone:

It can affect rainfall and temperature patterns all the way into North America, not just South America. It can impact monsoon patterns in Southeast Asia and also have an impact on the rainy seasons in equatorial Africa

Melanie Plenda:

How does NOAA predict the strength of El Niño?

Mary Stampone:

NOAA has a really extensive buoy network that monitors ocean and atmospheric conditions within those El Niño sectors of the Pacific Ocean. Then they aggregate this data into what's called an Oceanic Niño Index, or ONI. This accounts for the difference between the measured sea surface temperatures and the average for those areas within the Central Pacific. It's a three-month running average, and then when these values hit .5 degrees Celsius for five consecutive overlapping periods, then they classify it as being an El Niño. Then the strength is determined by how far above the average sea surface temperatures we are.

So we start with that week's El Niño at .5 degrees Celsius, but we can strengthen through moderate, strong and up to very strong phases for Oceanic Niño Indices over 2 degrees Celsius. Of course, the impacts from the El Niño tend to increase as the strength of the event increases. 

Melanie Plenda:

NOAA released an El Niño advisory on June 11, stating that there is a 63% chance that El Niño this year would be one of the largest El Niño events since 1950. What does this mean especially for the weather this summer? 

Mary Stampone:

El Niños do tend to be strongest during northern hemisphere winter months or cool seasons — and, true to form, this El Niño pattern isn't expected to peak until later this year, so it's still kind of ramping up, but  the impacts are usually strongest through October-November.

But in the summer, the stronger upper-level winds that are common during El Niños can suppress Atlantic hurricane development. So this is why we have a forecast for a less active hurricane season this year. Then. of course, in New England we actually tend to be more humid, and this is due to more tropical air coming into the region. With greater humidity comes greater precipitation, which could provide some beneficial rains as we recover from last summer's drought, but also increase the risk for flooding.

Melanie Plenda:

You mentioned October and later this year, so what about the weather this fall and winter?

Mary Stampone:

During the winter season is when the storm track dips further south during El Niño winters. This leads to pretty predictably wetter conditions across the South. We here in the North tend to be warmer than usual during the winter. It's important to know that every El Niño winter is a little bit different, especially in the Northeast, because we do have other patterns. We can still get some really cold air, especially January-February.

Melanie Plenda:

If El Niño does reach the predicted very strong intensity level, how would that impact New Hampshire specifically?

Mary Stampone:

Winters, again, across El Niños tend to be warmer than average across the northern U.S. Fun fact: the last time we were in a very strong El Niño was the 2015-2016 winter period, and that actually ranks as the second warmest winter here in New Hampshire. Second only to the winter of ’23-’24, which was a strong El Niño winter. 

So I think one of the things we can be fairly certain of is that it will probably be one of the warmer winters this year. Precipitation is really variable, sometimes that storm track stays to our south, so areas of the Mid-Atlantic - New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania — get all of our snow instead of us. But depending on some other factors, that storm track could actually bring more new nor'easters to our region. Whether that translates into more snow will depend on temperatures. The amount of snow will depend on how warm we are. 

Melanie Plenda:

Does global warming have an impact on the intensity of El Niño? Should we expect El Niño to be more intense in coming years as the ocean temperatures rise?

Mary Stampone:

That's a fantastic question, and that is an area of active research, but what we do know is that global warming and the impact on warming sea surface temperatures can amplify the impacts of El Niño. So with the increased energy that's in the ocean water as well as in the atmosphere can amplify extreme weather events, especially heat waves and heavy rainfall. 

Melanie Plenda:

What are some of your other predictions for the summer's weather? 

Mary Stampone:

Overall, climate prediction center outlooks call for a warmer-than-average summer, which tends to be the case. We've had several warmer-than-average summers recently, but hopefully the outlooks for a potentially wetter summer, especially toward the end, for coastal New England will hold. That will lead to improved drought conditions for southern parts of the state.

We have already seen some improvements in the North Country, which has been fantastic. We still have some lingering severe drought in southern areas, but with greater humidity and hopefully some more precipitation. We look to have an improved, if not removed drought by the end of the summer. 

Melanie Plenda:

Do you have any advice for gardeners and farmers this year? 

Mary Stampone:

My advice is always to be prepared for drought — even if we're wet, still be prepared for drought. I think last summer was just a really good example of how quickly our conditions can change during the summer. We started out very wet last year, and then quickly, with a heat wave and an extended dry period, ended up with a flash drought that lasted through the winter. Do anything you can do to be more efficient with water — use less water-intensive plants and vegetation. Do those things that can make your property more resilient to drought, even if it's wet.

Melanie Plenda:

Thank you, Mary. 

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

Deadline for state property tax relief program looms

The program, which provided an average of $163 in aid for 2024, remains underutilized

By Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative

The deadline for homeowners looking for 2025 tax relief through an underutilized state program is fast approaching – applications must be filed by Tuesday, June 30.

“This relief can make a difference by helping homeowners free up resources for other essential expenses,” said Lindsey Stepp, commissioner of the N.H. Department of Revenue Administration. 

Under the state’s Low & Moderate Property Tax Relief Program, eligible homeowners received an average amount of $163 in relief last year, according to a report from the N.H. Fiscal Policy Institute. The report noted the amount is “relatively limited compared to the amount of total property tax paid by homeowners.” 

Yet the relief “is meaningful for Granite Staters who need to pay for housing, childcare and other costs with limited resources,” said Phil Sletten, research director at the institute. 

• How to apply for property tax relief

  Homeowners can apply for relief online or by sending in a paper application that must be postmarked by the June 30 deadline.

  • Open the Granite Tax Connect website

  • Scroll to the box titled “Registration and Applications”

  • Click the link titled “Apply for Property Tax Relief”

  For more information, homeowners can call the Department of Revenue Administration at 603-230-5000

The program is available to individuals who earn less than $37,000 annually and couples or heads of households with an income of less than $47,000. It can only be used on properties that have an assessed value of $220,000 or less.

Homeowners with lower incomes pay a higher percentage of their income to property taxes, research shows. The relief program is particularly valuable for seniors and others living on fixed incomes, Stepp said, as it can “[help] them remain in their homes despite rising property tax costs.”

Nevertheless, the program remains underutilized, according to Sletten, largely due to lack of awareness. State law requires that some taxpayers — including seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities — receive a notice that they may be eligible for relief, but many others are likely unaware. 

“Many homeowners likely eligible for aid have not accessed it,” according to the N.H. Fiscal Policy Institute, which found in a study released in May that more than 42,000 New Hampshire homeowners had household incomes below $35,000. Many of those, and more, may be eligible for tax relief.

Participation in the program has dropped steeply since it was implemented in 2003, the study found. In 2003, 27,208 taxpayers utilized the program and received a total of $7.5 million in claims. By 2024, preliminary data showed 4,901 claims totaling $800,000 were granted – the lowest amount on record.

While income limits for the program were raised in 2021, they have not been adjusted for inflation or increased since then. 

In every legislative session since — except this year — the House has introduced measures to update the program, including “modifying eligibility requirements, making inflation adjustments, [and] mailing application forms to prior recipients,” Stepp said. However, none of those efforts have made it out of the House. 

The current round of eligibility is for 2025 tax bills — those typically mailed between October and December of 2025, according to the Department of Revenue Administration. People who apply are still required to pay their tax bills on time, though homeowners who have not paid can still apply for relief, according to the state. To apply, homeowners need their property tax bill and a copy of their federal tax returns. Approved relief funds are sent via a check that is typically issued within 120 days. 

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. Don’t just read this. Share it with one person who doesn’t usually follow local news — that’s how we make an impact. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

New Hampshire 250: The Granite State’s role in America’s origin stories

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Communities across the Granite State are planning to observe the nation’s 250th birthday with all kinds of events and activities, many of them focused on New Hampshire’s role in the American Revolution. Mary Adams, the N.H. Historical Society’s homeschool program developer and museum educator, who has been travelling around the state with a presentation called “Redcoats and Rebels,” provides a historical perspective.

Melanie Plenda:

Not everyone knows that New Hampshire was the first colony to declare independence from Britain. How did that come about?

Mary Adams:

In January of 1776, we had a problem on our hands from the previous August. John Wentworth, the royal governor, had abandoned the colony. He was under increasing threat from the patriots of Portsmouth, who had wheeled a cannon up to his front door and threatened to blow the door off his house if he did not comply with them.

By August of 1775 he had moved to Fort William and Mary on Newcastle Island, and eventually sailed to Britain and abandoned the colony. So the provincial congress steps into this void, and they take matters into their own hands and create a new form of government.  They called it a constitution, but it looks very, very different from the constitution that we have today. There's no separation of powers, there's no checks and balances at all, and there's actually even no governor — there's just a legislative system and a judicial system.

Melanie Plenda:

The Pine Tree Riot happened years before the first official battle of the revolution — what was it and why was it so important.

Mary Adams:

It’s one of my favorite things to talk about, because it sounds a little quirky. It's a “fight over trees,” is how I've kind of heard other people describe it. But I think it gets down to the heart of what the revolution is really about. Who has the authority over these gigantic pine trees? Is it the king, thousands of miles away across the ocean? Or is it the people who live on the land, work the land, and need the trees for their own homes, bridges and their livelihoods?

Essentially what happened is the people in Goffstown and in Weare were fined because they had been cutting up the king's pine trees in their mills. In Goffstown, the people were compliant — they paid their fines, they got on with life. But in Weare, the people really refused to pay those fines. So in comes the sheriff to enforce the law, and the people take it into their own hands. They riot into the sheriff's room where he was staying, early in the morning, and they beat him. The intention was to beat him one lash for every tree for which they were being fined, and that was about 270 pine trees. So they beat him, they took him outside, and they put him on his horse — had also done some things to the horse, like they had cut its tail and cropped its ears to make it not sellable or desirable, and they send him riding out of town.

Of course, the end of this is that when they do finally go before a judge, one of those judges is Meshech Weare, who ends up becoming the president of New Hampshire eventually. But the fine is just so extraordinarily light that it really sends this message through the communities that it's not just the people of our local communities that are feeling this strength of rebellion, that it really is also being supported even in a small way from our leaders in New Hampshire as well.

Melanie Plenda:

Let’s talk about the Battle of Bunker Hill and the role of New Hampshire residents in that.

Mary Adams:

I love it because we think of it as a Massachusetts battle, but truly two-thirds of the soldiers that are fighting there are New Hampshire soldiers who have walked from New Hampshire.

I think of Isaac Wyman in Keene — we have his musket on display at the Historical Society. It’s the musket he carries from Keene down to Bunker Hill, and he's there along with about 1,000 other New Hampshire soldiers, many of them under the command of John Stark. The Massachusetts soldiers total about 500. They're also bringing down with them some gunpowder that they had raided from Fort William and Mary in December 1774, so they're adding to this fight in a huge way.

The Battle of Bunker Hill is so fascinating, it's this kind of first big mashup. It is such a surprise to the British. They know they have the upper hand with superior weaponry. So when they attack this left flank that John Stark and his men are behind, they are shocked because on the very first volley about 70 British soldiers were killed. The Americans repel them two more times, and finally John Stark decides it's time to exit the battlefield, but instead of his men just sort of abandoning the battlefield and running off, he has them very carefully, very methodically, leave, and they're providing covering fire for the rest of the battlefield as well.  This is where he loses 15 to 17 men in the fight.

This catches the eye of George Washington when he comes to visit the battlefield, and he hears about the battle and John Stark's decision not to just have his men willy-nilly abandon everything, but instead provide covering fire, and this is when he realizes that John Stark really needs to be in the Continental Army. 

Melanie Plenda:

Let’s talk more about Gen. John Stark — one of the most well known figures of the American Revolution. He coined the phrase “Live Free or Die.”: His story is kind of complicated.

Mary Adams:

He's born in New Hampshire, he's Scots-Irish — a group of people ll known for their resilience and hardworking spirit. John Stark ends up fighting with Rogers’ Rangers during the French and Indian War. It’s guerrilla-type warfare. They are not walking through an open field in straight, clean lines and bright clothing. They are hiding behind trees and stone walls, and they're circling around, attacking from behind.  So he ends up bringing all of this knowledge, this battlefield knowledge, when he arrives at Bunker Hill.

I think that what really resonates with so many people when they learn about John Stark is that he's actually not in the army for any kind of fame or fortune. He did not want to play the political game that was required of him to sort of maintain his rank and to achieve higher rank. He's really there because he just continues doing what he believes is the best thing to do. If something is not right, he is fair, he's honest, he's just, and he's going to try to right the wrongs, and so this is really so much of his heart behind fighting. 

There's an event that happens between his time in the Continental Army and the Battle of Bennington, which is when he comes back to New Hampshire. He's on a little bit of a respite trip, and he finds out that Enoch Poor, another man from New Hampshire, has been promoted above him to the rank of brigadier general, and this is pretty insulting to him, and he actually resigns from the Continental Army, and says that he will not answer to orders on the battlefield again from someone in the Continental Army.

But when the plea from Vermont comes, and they are asking for help — the British have sent British and Hessian soldiers to come to Bennington to raid storehouses, and there's this plea from Vermont to please help. So New Hampshire answers this call, and they call on John Stark. They give him the rank of brigadier general to command New Hampshire's militia.

Melanie Plenda:

On July 4th, the Historical Society will host an Independence Day open house. Can you tell us what visitors can expect?

Mary Adams:

You can expect short talks, crafts for kids, and there are guided tours. I'll point you to one of my favorite things in the building, which is that we actually have two of just 32 Revolutionary War flags left in the entire world. They're displayed on our grand staircase. They're remarkable for a few things. They are the only pair of flags left in the entire world from the Revolutionary War. As far as we knew in New Hampshire, the flags  had actually been burned with some boats in 1777. But in 1908, we got a letter saying they were hanging at Sandhurst, the military academy in Britain. It kind of sparks a series of events and we end up getting those flags purchased for us by our benefactor,  Edward Tuck, and they have been on display in our building ever since. 

Melanie Plenda:

For families and anyone looking to have an adventure this summer, the Historical Society is hosting the “603 History Hunt.” What is it and how can people participate?

Mary Adams:

I feel very attached to this event, because I have written all 200 clues. This event will be on an app. People can register, and then we give them all kinds of different things for them to do. So you can be celebrating a woman in Weare who heard that the British were coming,  so she made her kids eat all of their maple syrup products in one day because she didn't want the British to take them. You'll make a bowl of Count Rumford's soup, which saved Bavaria from a famine. There's an opportunity to take a hike to a remote New England glasswork site, which started in the 1780s but it's staffed by German POWs that were captured during the war. There's countless graveyards to explore, and tons of opportunities for selfies with different Revolutionary War heroes — so it's all going to be amazing fun.

Melanie Plenda:

Many  thanks to Mary Adams for this engaging conversation.  To learn more about New Hampshire in the American Revolution visit the NH Historical Society at nhhistory.org

To find Mary’s recorded New Hampshire History Minutes for NHPBS visit. To find a location for one of Mary’s upcoming “Redcoats and Rebels” presentations, visit nhhumanities.org

And New Hampshire Humanities, in partnership with NHPBS, is hosting “The Big Watch” in communities across the state where you can watch a short excerpt from “The American Revolution,” a new film directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, followed by a community discussion. Learn more at nhhumanities.org

Finally, there are a couple of online calendars available to help you find New Hampshire 250 events near you. One website is visit.gov/250th and newhampshire250.org/.

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

Open your eyes and stop looking away from the roots of our reality

.By Shamecca Brown-Granite State News Collaborative

I’ve spent years working in the trenches of advocacy, trying to fix the broken machinery of our social support systems. I’ve written the letters, sat in the meetings, and navigated the endless, soul-crushing bureaucracy that dictates who gets to survive and who gets discarded. I did everything "right." I played the game. And I am here to tell you, with the weight of my own grief and the clarity of someone who has seen the curtain pulled back: the system isn't broken. It’s working exactly as designed.

We are the "little people," but lately, that feels like a sanitized term for what we really are to the powers that be. We are the mangy dogs at the edge of the feast. We are expected to stand on the periphery, tail wagging, grateful for the crumbs of policy scraps they occasionally get tossed our way, all while they toast to their own prosperity behind closed doors.

But are you actually being fed, or are you just being kept in a state of constant, desperate hunger so that you’re too exhausted to bark at the truth?

The storm isn't coming; it’s already here, and it’s taking us out.

Every single day is a gauntlet. You wake up and face gas prices that make travel a luxury, rent that swallows your paycheck before it even hits your account, and energy and food bills that force you to choose between eating and keeping the lights on. They bleed us dry with taxes that vanish into a void, leaving us to fend for ourselves when we hit the inevitable wall of healthcare costs. They’ve turned basic survival into an extreme sport, and the house is rigged to make sure we lose.

And, as the economic floor falls out from under us, the air is getting thick with something else: a rising, ugly, and increasingly loud racism. It’s not hiding in the shadows anymore; it’s being shouted from the rooftops. This isn’t a coincidence. When the people in power want to keep the mangy dogs fighting each other over the few scraps left on the floor, they turn up the volume on hate. It’s a distraction – a tool to keep us from looking at who is actually holding the table.

They rely on our exhaustion. They rely on the fact that when you are grieving, when you are fighting for your family’s survival, and when you are busy trying to find the next meal or the next medical approval, you won't have the energy to demand the whole table.

I’m done with the polite discourse. I’m done with the "hopeful" calls to action that lead to dead ends. There is a profound, sickening corruption at the heart of this place we call the USA, and it survives because it relies on us looking away.

But look. Look at your bank account, your insurance denials, the empty spaces in your own home where loved ones used to be. The system didn’t just fail; it stood by and watched. It’s time we stop acting like we’re part of a society that cares about our existence. We are being managed, not governed.

It’s time to stop wagging our tails. It’s time to stop waiting for them to feed us. It’s time to open your eyes to the fact that we are the only ones who can save ourselves, because nobody in that marble building is coming to help.

So stop looking away. Start talking to each other about the real cost of living in this state, the rent, the food, the healthcare, the isolation. If we are going to survive this storm, it won’t be because the system finally decided to be kind. It will be because we stopped acting like dogs and started acting like a community.

Shamecca Brown is a New Hampshire-based columnist who is family-oriented and passionate about serving underserved communities. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

Child welfare in New Hampshire: when systems judge instead of understand

By Shamecca Brown-Granite State  News Collaborative 

In New Hampshire, children don’t just enter systems, they get pulled into them through delinquency cases, abuse and neglect proceedings, or CHINS (Children in Need of Services) cases.

On paper, these are different legal categories. In reality, they often reflect the same underlying conditions: trauma, instability, poverty and unmet needs, met with responses that come after the fact instead of addressing what caused them in the first place.

This isn’t just theory for me. I’ve lived parts of what it means to be misread by systems meant to “help.”

When my family first moved to New Hampshire from New York, my son experienced a major identity adjustment. In one situation, he was exposed to other children using the N-word. He responded in a way that reflected how our culture teaches us to react to racial disrespect.

Instead of that moment being understood in context, it was treated as a behavioral issue. He ended up in diversion and was required to complete anger-related programming for expressing his feelings.

That’s where the deeper issue shows up, because what was missed wasn’t just the incident, it was the context.

It wasn’t just behavior. It was identity, environment, and how Black children are often interpreted when they respond to racial harm. Instead of slowing down to understand that, the response focused on correction, anger management, compliance programs and structured interventions that never fully addressed what actually happened.

This is exactly the kind of systemic disconnect that Lisa Wolford has pointed to in her work through the Children’s Law Center of New Hampshire – that systems built to respond to behavior often fail to account for trauma, environment and lived experience. When that happens, families don’t feel understood. They feel processed.

Across New Hampshire, children and families are often funneled into systems designed to manage behavior rather than understand it. But behavior doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s shaped by environment, stress, trauma, identity, and survival. Yet families are often expected to complete programs, anger management, counseling, compliance plans, without anyone first asking the most basic questions:

 • Can this family realistically access these services?
• Do they have transportation?
• Do they have stable housing?
• Are their basic needs even being met?

When those questions go unanswered, compliance becomes unrealistic, and punishment becomes the outcome.

Breaking the cycle

In New Hampshire, a significant portion of children in foster care are placed in group homes or institutional settings – far above the national average. These placements are expensive and disruptive, often costing hundreds of dollars per day per child. But the true cost is not financial. It is relational.

Children lose connection to family, school, culture and community. And many age out of the system at 18 without stable housing, consistent support or a foundation to transition into adulthood. And then we act surprised when the cycle repeats.

The Children’s Law Center of New Hampshire works through legal representation, policy advocacy and systems training, but even their work points to a deeper truth: Real reform cannot begin in court. It has to begin before systems ever get involved.

That means investing earlier in families, expanding access to mental health care, strengthening schools and addressing poverty as a root cause, not a background factor.

Children who grow up in foster care, court involvement, or disrupted educational systems are more likely to re-enter those same systems later in life, and more likely to have families who experience them again. That is not coincidence. That is structure. And it continues when systems respond to behavior instead of cause, compliance instead of context, and punishment instead of understanding.

But the question is not whether New Hampshire’s child-serving systems need reform. The question is whether we are willing to admit they currently respond to families in ways that judge more than they understand.

Families need systems that actually see them, understand them – and respond to what is really happening beneath the surface.

Shamecca Brown is a New Hampshire-based columnist who is family-oriented and passionate about serving underserved communities. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

State House wrap-up: A look at key bills that were under discussion in this year’s legislative session

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

The New Hampshire legislative session has ended. What bills passed? What didn’t? What comes next? Here to discuss what’s been going on in Concord is Anna Brown, executive director of Citizens Count, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating voters about the political process, as well as executive director of the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership and Public Service at the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law.

Melanie Plenda:

In broad strokes, can you tell us about some of the things the Legislature tackled this session?

Anna Brown:

There was definitely a trend related to social issues. So, for example, the CHARLIE Act, named for Charlie Kirk, sought to restrict how schools address gender, sexuality and race. Well, that bill was defeated. But the Legislature passed several other bills looking to revise anti-discrimination laws to allow segregation based on biological sex. Now, those have faced vetoes from Governor Ayotte so far, but there's still another one making its way to her desk as of the time that I'm speaking.

There were also lots of debates about spending, particularly local school spending. Early in the session, the House rejected a bill that would establish a statewide cap on how much local school districts can increase their budgets, but by the end of the session, the Legislature did pass a bill that would require every city and town to vote on a local tax cap in both 2026 and 2028, at the general election.

Melanie Plenda:

Let’s start drilling down on a few bills. One that came up is the business enterprise tax. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Anna Brown:

House Republicans originally wanted an outright cut to the business tax. They had come in on this issue, said it was in the mix, but they were in a bit of an uncertain budget situation, and decided to wait until the next budget cycle. They instead proposed raising the threshold before a small business has to pay those taxes. So the final compromise bill does raise that threshold, and it sets up a trigger for future business tax cuts if there is a very large revenue surplus. It's enough of a big surplus trigger that I'm thinking probably Governor Ayotte will sign this bill, but we'll have to wait and see.

Melanie Plenda:

The Legislature also tackled some housing bills to address the state’s shortage. How did those bills fare?

Anna Brown:

The legislative session started with a lot of proposals to actually repeal housing changes from last year. Those didn't move forward. Legislators really wanted to stick with that forward progress — getting rid of red tape and limiting zoning at the state level. So we saw some changes that were sort of clarifying or expanding on what passed last year.

For example, there's a bill that clarifies the law about residential development in commercial zones. Another bill makes clear that you can build an accessory dwelling unit in an existing nonconforming structure — meaning that it's a building or a garage that's already not in compliance with zoning laws, but was probably grandfathered in. Now they're saying just because it was non-conforming doesn't mean you can't build an ADU there. 

Then there's House Bill 1681 which establishes statewide standards for “innovative housing” — so we're talking tiny houses, tiny houses on wheels and yurts. It passed, it's on its way to Governor Ayotte, and she's been very much in favor of all of the housing legislation that has come across her desk, so I suspect that this will become law.

 Melanie Plenda:

Another thing lawmakers tackled was what to do with the proceeds from the sale of the notorious Sununu Youth Services Center. What happened there? 

Anna Brown:

The  Sununu Youth Services Center is a youth detention center in Manchester, and there are huge lawsuits about child abuse that happened at this center, so the state wants to sell this center. They are already building an alternative somewhere else in the state, but it's a bit of an odd property, and we're not sure when the sale is going to go through or how much it will sell for. This is about what happens with the money when the sale does actually happen.

The House wanted any proceeds to go to the general fund of all tax dollars, basically an open pool of money that could be spent on just about anything the state needs to. The Senate was more interested in specifically putting the proceeds towards the settlement fund, paying for these victim lawsuits, and so on. So, ultimately in the compromise, the Senate agreed to the House position, and any money from the sale will go into the general fund of all tax dollars. That being said, the state will probably need to consider the settlement fund as part of next year's state budget anyway, because we know that there are still a lot of lawsuits that are moving through the courts.

Melanie Plenda:

Voting laws have come under scrutiny lately. What happened in that realm? 

Anna Brown:

Earlier in the spring, the governor signed HB 323, which requires a government-issued ID to vote. Really, the difference here is we're getting rid of student IDs as an allowable voter ID in New Hampshire. To be clear, you could never register alone with a student ID — you still had to have other documentation, but now you can't even just use that for your picture to say, “I am who I say I am.”

Arguably, the more significant developments related to voting happened outside the Legislature. A federal court recently struck down New Hampshire's new requirement for citizenship documents — a birth certificate or passport when you're registering to vote, instead of signing an affidavit or something similar. That court ruling is probably not the final word on that issue, so expect more debate in the courts and the Legislature about what documents you need when you're registering to vote.

Melanie Plenda:

There seemed to be a lot of bills related to education finance — mostly related to school budgets or transparency, not actually funding the state’s obligation to students. Can you tell us more about those and where they stand? 

Anna Brown:

When the legislative session started in January, there was a lot of attention on Claremont, in particular, which was facing a major school budget shortfall, so a few of these bills are in response to that. HB 1816 allows the Department of Education to intervene in the administration of a public school district if the state Board of Education finds that the school district is in a “financial emergency,” — basically additional state oversight in situations similar  to Claremont in the future. Also, Senate Bill 586 requires school districts to be audited by an independent public accountant at the end of the fiscal year, and for those results to be made public. 

Those bills, as I said, are in response to Claremont, and as you noted, aren't really changing the school-funding formula — that's a big issue. There was a court ruling last summer that said the state is not fulfilling its obligation, but the court ruling did not say how the legislature should resolve it or when they need to resolve it.

This session the Legislature actually pushed back and passed HB 1815, which has already been signed by Governor Ayotte. It specifically states that how the state and its local governmental entities choose to raise, allocate and spend financial resources to implement this integrated public education system is a political policy matter reserved to legislative and executive judgment and control. It's interesting because that's more or less a statement of opinion from the Legislature. It doesn't just negate the court ruling that happened, but it's a clear indicator that they want to push back on that court ruling and that they support the governor's actions to appeal that judgment.

Melanie Plenda:

There were also bills related to nuclear and renewable energy. Where do those bills stand? 

Anna Brown:

There were some interesting bills on the margin that I would love to note. There was a bill that adds portable solar devices to state law, so basically tiny little plug-in solar panels. Then there was a bill that adds energy storage systems — batteries — to the state net metering law. Those are always some interesting, innovative changes.

On a larger scale.  I want to note HB 1775, which is on the way to Governor Ayotte. I’m not sure how she's going to fall on it, because this bill has been a little bit of a debate in the Legislature. It would allow utilities to invest in natural gas or nuclear power, so long as it was below a certain threshold — I think it was 10% of the total power that they're generating. It's small, but it is really a huge change from the decoupling we saw in the 1990s, when lawmakers said a utility can't own power plants and deliver electricity. This is going back on that, and supporters argue that this is an important way to bring more electricity to New Hampshire — more nuclear power, innovative energy development and to bring down electricity costs. Opponents are concerned that it's just going to be that vertical integration we saw in the past, where there's not as much competition.

Melanie Plenda:

Did anything else come up this session that you found surprising or interesting?

Anna Brown:

As a political nerd, one thing that was very interesting to me was how much the House and the Senate disagreed on some really big issues. I mentioned the CHARLIE Act, and that was also one of the most popular bills on the Citizens Count website, in terms of so many people going to read it and see what was happening with it. It was a huge priority for the House, but the Senate completely stripped it down, partly due to concerns about overreach or lawsuits.

There were two other notable issues that the House Republicans were really pushing for, and the Senate, even though it's also a Republican majority, said no thank you. One of those initiatives would remove immunization requirements for kids, and another one looked to end the refugee resettlement program in New Hampshire, and they were both rebuffed by the Senate. The moral of the story here to me is just because someone belongs to the Republican or Democratic party doesn't guarantee how they're going to vote on all issues, how they're going to govern. Yes, the parties are very polarized right now, but it is really important to get to know your local candidates.

Melanie Plenda:

Looking ahead, look into your crystal ball — is there anything you are looking at for next year?

Anna Brown:

One thing we haven't touched on was the concept of open enrollment. There was a big debate — should public school students be allowed to enroll in any public school in the state? Governor Ayotte was one of the reasons this bill didn't go forward. She said that it's not totally sorted out how this would work with funding and so on, but there were multiple attempts to push that forward. So I definitely expect that debate to continue.

Melanie Plenda:

Fascinating as always, thank you for joining us Anna Brown. 

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

Learning from the fascinating astronomical wonders above us

What can the stars tell us about our past, present and future? More than you think. The skies are a fascinating place, full of many, many wonders. Sometimes those wonders even make their way to Earth, as we saw in the recent explosion of a meteor over New England. David McDonald, an astronomy teacher and Astronomy Club adviser – among many other things – at Belmont High School, has been studying the stars with his students and will share his insights with us.

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

Tell us about the astronomy program and the Astronomy Club at Belmont High.

David McDonald:

I have about five students in my astronomy class, and I have about five students in my Astronomy Club. The club meets after school, and then we also have special events that we put on in astronomy class. It is a study in astronomy, from the nucleus of an atom to stars, black holes, and everything in-between. The Astronomy Club puts on different events for the public so that they can come and look through telescopes or be educated in some way.

Melanie Plenda:

What sparked your own interest in astronomy?

David McDonald:

I became interested in astronomy when I was in the 7th grade and came across a book in the library called, “Point to the Stars.” I picked it up and started thumbing through the pages and some transparency paper, traced some of the information and star shapes and constellations that were in the book, and went out and tried to find these things. Then, in the 9th grade, for Christmas, my parents bought me a telescope, and so now I'm looking at the stars with my eyes, finding constellations and stars and I'm hooked. I've been interested in it ever since. 

Melanie Plenda:

The Astronomy Club recently did a project about stars 250 light years away, in celebration of our nation’s independence. First, explain what a light year is exactly.

David McDonald:

A light year is how far light travels in a year. The speed is 186,000 miles per second. So, if we could flatten out earth — and this is not to say I'm part of the Flat Earth Society — a light beam would go around the circumference of earth seven and a half times in one second. From here to the moon, it takes about one second and a quarter. In a year, a beam of light travels about 580 billion miles in a year.

Melanie Plenda:

Tell us more about that 250 light years project. What did it entail? 

David McDonald:

Our project was to find stars that are about 250 light years away. One of the things we want to do is to be able to bring those stars to your backyard. So you can actually find these stars — and we found several that are bright enough to be easily found. What that means is when you go out in June and July, and you look at these stars today — the photons that are reaching your eyes are registering the light that left those stars 250 years ago when we were declaring our independence. 

Melanie Plenda:

Was your club tracking the meteor that fell on May 30, or did that catch you all by surprise? 

David McDonald:

I think it caught everybody by surprise, for sure. There's a website that I recommend to visit called Spaceweather, and as you scroll down a couple or three pages worth, you'll come to a place where it talks about near asteroids and meteors, and this one, which was about five meters in diameter was not even on the list for Saturday. So it literally came out of nowhere, and I think it surprised everybody, including astronomers. This was going like 42,000 miles an hour — which is like 60 times the speed of sound — and when you break the sound barrier, that's where you get that sonic boom happening, which was heard for many miles around. And it broke up around 30 or so miles up in the atmosphere, fragmented. The good news is nobody got hurt, and it landed around Cape Cod. 

The bad news is nothing landed in New Hampshire, which is sad, because you may or may not know, there's never been a meteorite found in New Hampshire. So if this thing was maybe 60 miles or so further north, and went in the ocean off Hampton Beach — because again, we don't want anybody getting hurt — maybe a fragment or two might have landed on the beach or something, and we could see the first meteorite found in New Hampshire.

Melanie Plenda:

What can amateur astronomers look out for if they check out the stars this summer? 

David McDonald: 

It's a great summer sky to look at, and so visually we have what's called the summer triangle, which are three stars. Vega is kind of in the overhead position, very bright white and bluish. Then there's a star called Deneb and at the tail of Cygnus the Swan. Then there's another star called Altair, which is in the constellation of Aquila the Eagle, and those three bright stars make up what we call the summer triangle.

Vega is in the constellation of Lyra the Harp, and there's like a quadrilateral there that you can see. Vega’s the brightest star, but right nearby, right near to the bottom two stars in the middle, what's called the Ring Nebula, and it is the remnants of a star that exploded a lot of years ago. With a large enough telescope, you can see in the middle there's a faint little dot, which is the white dwarf — the remnants of the star that exploded. 

Then watch out for the Perseid meteor shower, and Aug. 12 and 13 are generally the high points. You want to go out at night — the better time is after midnight — and one thing you have to do is get your eyes adjusted, because a lot of people, they go out in their porch, they go out of their driveway, they look up for 10 minutes, don't see anything and they go back inside. Your eyes aren't even adjusted yet to the darkness, so you want to go out for at least a half-hour. Somewhere between midnight and 4 o'clock in the morning, I would suggest you get your lawn chair out and sit back, look up and tell your neighbors to turn their lights out and enjoy the show, because the Perseid is generally a very active shower, where you may see 1520 meteors in the course of an hour.

Melanie Plenda:

David McDonald, astronomy teacher and club adviser at Belmont High, thank you for joining us today. 

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

Why Local News Deserves Your Support This NH Gives

Today marks the start of NH Gives, New Hampshire's statewide day of giving.

Across the state, people are supporting causes they care about. They'll donate to organizations working on education, housing, healthcare, the arts, environmental protection, youth programs, food security, and countless other efforts that make our communities stronger.

We hope they'll consider local news as well.

At first glance, journalism may seem different from many of the causes that participate in NH Gives. But local news is deeply connected to all of them.

Whether you care about schools, housing, healthcare, public safety, economic opportunity, the environment, or local government, progress begins with information.

People need to know what's happening in their communities. They need access to trustworthy reporting, reliable information, and stories that help them understand the challenges and opportunities shaping the places they call home.

That's where local news comes in.

Local journalism helps residents stay informed about decisions that affect their daily lives. It shines a light on issues that need attention, highlights organizations making a difference, and helps communities have informed conversations about their future.

Strong local news helps build strong communities.

But local news is facing real challenges. Across the country, newsrooms have closed, reporting resources have shrunk, and many communities have become "news deserts" with little or no local coverage.

New Hampshire has chosen a different path.

Rather than working in isolation, local news organizations across our state have increasingly found ways to collaborate, share resources, develop new tools, mentor future journalists, and better serve their communities.

The Granite State News Collaborative was created to help make that possible.

Today, more than 30 news, education, and community organizations are working together to strengthen local journalism and expand access to trusted information across New Hampshire.

We believe local news is more than a business. It is community infrastructure.

It helps residents participate in civic life. It helps organizations connect with the people they serve. It helps communities solve problems together.

That's why local news deserves a place among the causes we champion during NH Gives.

This year, supporters can choose how they want to help. They can donate to the Granite State News Collaborative. They can support participating local news organizations directly. Or they can contribute to the Community News Fund, a statewide effort that invests in reporting, training, innovation, and community engagement.

Each choice strengthens local news.

Each choice helps ensure that people have access to the information they need to participate in their communities.

Each choice is an investment in a stronger New Hampshire.

As you consider the causes that matter most to you during NH Gives, we hope you'll remember that every cause benefits when people have access to reliable information.

Because informed communities are stronger communities.

And local news helps make that possible.

Learn more or donate at: [LINK]

The Granite State’s new motto: Live free, then pay the hospital bill

By Shamecca Brown-Granite State News Collaborative

Let’s stop pretending.

New Hampshire’s motto is “Live Free or Die.” But if you’ve been to an ER in Manchester lately, you know there’s a third option they don’t put on the license plates: Live free, then pay the hospital bill for the next 20 years.

Here’s the part politicians don’t want to say out loud: Health care is now the #1 problem in America. Not inflation. Not immigration. Not crime. Health care. So what does “very big problem” actually mean when you live in Concord, Keene, Berlin – or anywhere else in this country?

It means families putting off care because they can’t afford it. It means people choosing between prescriptions and groceries. It means working Americans carrying insurance cards but still fearing the bill that comes after treatment.

That’s not freedom. That’s a hostage situation with a billing department.

Who’s actually in charge of your body?

Dr. Elizabeth Potter is a surgeon in Texas. Last year, UnitedHealthcare called her in the middle of a mastectomy. The patient was under anesthesia, chest open on the table, and someone from the insurance company called, wanting Dr. Potter to justify why the woman needed to stay overnight after the surgery.

Read that again: Your surgeon has your life in her hands, and your insurance company thinks that’s a good time to haggle.

Dr. Potter has spoken publicly about the experience and has since advocated for reforms that would give doctors more freedom to challenge insurance practices without fear of retaliation after United HealthCare after the company threatened her with a defamation lawsuit.

Think that can’t happen at Dartmouth-Hitchcock? At CMC? At Elliot? Ask your doctor how much time they spend on the phone with insurers instead of with you.

The math is rigged. Premiums go up. Deductibles go up. Out-of-pocket costs go up. And the “New Hampshire Advantage” doesn’t mean much when one unexpected medical emergency can wipe out a family’s savings.

You want to know what your tax dollars are doing while you’re choosing between your blood pressure medication and your electric bill? Every year, politicians tell us there isn’t enough money for affordable health care, mental health services, addiction treatment or food assistance. Somehow, there always seems to be money for everything else.

Today, Americans are bombarded with political theater while families struggle to afford insulin, chemotherapy and basic medical care.This is the “bread and circuses” part of the story –  Roman emperors distracted people with entertainment while deeper problems went ignored.

Granite Staters hate being told what to do. I get it. We don’t like mandates. We don’t like lectures. We like to mind our own business. So here’s your business: You’re getting robbed.

You pay taxes. You pay premiums. You pay deductibles. You pay co-pays. Then you get a “surprise bill” because someone involved in your care was “out of network.” Then you spend months fighting charges you never saw coming – even though a federal law was supposed to get rid of the "surprise billing” practice.. That’s not a free market. That’s a racket. And while Republicans blame Democrats and Democrats blame Republicans, working families are left holding the bill.

So what do we do?

First, we stop letting insurance companies practice medicine. Doctors — not insurance executives — should decide what patients need.

Second, we end surprise billing for good. No family should be punished because of paperwork they never saw and choices they never had the ability to make.

Third, we start asking tougher questions of the people we elect. If politicians can find money for their priorities, why can’t they find solutions for the families choosing between healthcare and keeping the lights on?

The Granite State didn’t get its reputation by taking nonsense from anyone. We fought at Bunker Hill. We wrote one of the nation’s earliest constitutions. We pride ourselves on independence and common sense. We can certainly tell insurance companies that patient care comes before profits. 

Until then, we have to endure our new motto: Live free. then pay the hospital bill. That’s not the New Hampshire I know. Is it the one you want?

Shamecca Brown is a New Hampshire-based columnist who is family-oriented and passionate about serving underserved communities. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.

Before AI destroys trust completely, we need to have a serious conversation

By Shamecca Brown-Granite State News Collaborative

Artificial intelligence is changing the internet faster than many people can emotionally process it, and honestly, that should concern all of us. What started as advanced technology designed to help society has also opened the door to deception, emotional manipulation and dangerous online behavior.

I remember scrolling online when a video suddenly appeared on my screen. It showed disturbing and violent scenes involving different racial groups, and for a moment my mouth dropped because it looked completely real. Before I could even react fully, my 13-year-old looked at me and said, “Mommy, don’t watch that. That’s fake.”

That moment stayed with me. Not just because the video was disturbing, but because artificial intelligence has become so advanced that many adults can no longer immediately tell the difference between reality and manipulation. At the same time, children growing up online are learning to question everything they see. Think about that for a second.

Social media was already a place where filters, edited lifestyles and online bullying affected mental health. Now artificial intelligence has added another layer of confusion and fear. People are beginning to question everything online. Is the video real? Is the voice real? Did that person actually say that? Was that image created to embarrass, manipulate or destroy someone?

What makes this even more disturbing is how some people are using artificial intelligence in violent and abusive ways. AI-generated sexual content, fake intimate images, online humiliation, harassment and manipulated videos are causing real emotional damage to real people. Women, teenagers and even children are being targeted, exposed and violated online.

Families are being scammed by fake voices cloned to sound like loved ones. Teenagers are being bullied with AI-generated images. Misinformation spreads online faster than many people can fact-check it. Some people are even becoming emotionally attached to artificial intelligence digital companions because loneliness and isolation have become so common in society.

Children are also growing up in a digital world where reality itself feels blurred. Many young people are constantly exposed to unrealistic beauty standards, fake influencers and manipulated content that can affect their self-esteem and understanding of truth. The pressure to keep up online is already damaging enough without artificial intelligence making deception even easier to create.

Artificial intelligence itself is not the enemy. AI has the potential to help people through education, accessibility, medicine, creativity and innovation. The real problem is what happens when human beings use powerful technology without ethics, accountability or compassion.

We are entering a dangerous time when technology is moving faster than human trust can keep up. If society does not start having serious conversations now about safety, consent, truth and responsibility online, we risk creating a world where nobody knows what is real anymore. Artificial intelligence may not have emotions, but the people being harmed by it do.

Shamecca Brown is a New Hampshire-based columnist who is family-oriented and passionate about serving underserved communities. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

Education Scorecard gives a detailed look at eroding progress in students’ skills

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Elementary school students’ progress in reading and math has been quietly stagnating and even eroding for more than a decade across the nation. What’s going on and how can we fix it? Dr. Douglas O. Staiger,  a professor at Dartmouth College who focuses on the economics of education and healthcare and one of the authors of the recently released Education Scorecard, discusses education outcomes across the nation and in New Hampshire.

Rosemary Ford:

What is the Education Scorecard?

Douglas O. Staiger:

This is a collaboration with the Harvard Center for Education Policy Research, the Stanford Equal Opportunity Project and me here at Dartmouth. We're trying to address a need for timely and comparable evidence on achievement across states and over time. Part of the problem is that every state has a different test; they have different standards for what's proficient. And we've used the nation's report card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress to kind of calibrate and put all the states on the same scale.

The goal of this project was to really get down to the level where we would be able to show people how their district has been doing, and every year since the pandemic, since 2022 we've been releasing the new annual data. Now the 2025 spring test is out, so people can look and see how they are doing. You can pull up your own district and a district report and see how you're doing relative to similar districts. For each district, we find four or five similar districts within the state, and relative to your state average.

We had 40 something states last year, but a few states we had to drop because of changes in their tests and we couldn't quite use their new data yet, so we have 37 states now. But it's pretty representative of the country. 

Rosemary Ford:

What are some of the key findings? 

Douglas O. Staiger:

The big picture is that many people don't know that we had an incredible growth in student achievement based on the nation's report card in the last two decades. Leading up to about 2013, many people have attributed that to the accountability in No Child Left Behind and similar state programs, and average achievement rates across the nation increased about two grade levels. So that means if students in the state were averaging about fourth grade level, if their fourth grade students were at that level in 1993 by 2013 on average they were at about a sixth grade level, an unbelievable improvement. Nobody would have guessed that was possible, but then starting around 2013 it's turned around. 

The increases were two grade levels in math and about one grade level in reading over that time period, but since 2013 both math and reading have steadily declined by about a grade level. So in math, we've lost half of the gains that we had in the prior two decades, and in reading we're back to where we were in the early ‘90s on reading scores. I think people haven't fully appreciated that there was this turnaround — that’s what we're calling the “education recession,” or the “learning recession,” and it was accelerated during the pandemic. We had some reports on what happened during the pandemic, but especially in math it had started before the pandemic. Since the pandemic, math has recovered a bit, reading has not — it's been flat or even declining. 

We've been looking at what's associated with these declines — especially since 2019 the pandemic and post-pandemic period — and we tend to see some things that maybe aren't surprising. Districts that spent more time in remote or hybrid learning during the pandemic had larger declines, and that was especially true in high-poverty districts. There were really two main things that seemed to be associated with which districts had the fastest recovery. One was all the money from the pandemic relief, the ESSER [the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund] money, some especially high-poverty districts were getting on average about $8,000 per student in recovery money — so real money that could be used for academic recovery. And what we see from 2022 in the recovery period until 2025 is actually fast recovery in the poorest districts. I think the wealthy districts have their own resources. The poorest districts got the pandemic relief, and it's the middle-range districts, the middle-income districts, that are still quite a bit behind and have had a very slow recovery from the pandemic.

Rosemary Ford:

How is New Hampshire doing?

Douglas O. Staiger:

New Hampshire has been in the middle of the pack for states across the country. They had a similar decline since 2013 and a similar decline over the pandemic since 2019. One interesting thing is at this point — both math and reading in New Hampshire have declined a similar amount since 2019 about four-tenths of a grade level., but they got there in different ways.

Math fell more during the pandemic, so by 2022 we were down about six-tenths of a grade level in math, and then it's recovered about two- tenths of a grade level in the last three years. Reading fell a little less, and then continued to decline. So now they're kind of both about four-tenths of a grade level behind where they were in 2019. So there's still a lot to do both in math and reading.

Rosemary Ford:

Based on your research, what would make a difference when it comes to education outcomes here in New Hampshire? For example, what advice would you give to policymakers?

Douglas O. Staiger:

There are a couple of things that jumped out. One is that I mentioned the ESSER money. That money, if spent wisely, can really matter, and right now those middle-income districts that didn't get a lot of ESSER money and didn't have their own resources have not recovered so well. Spending wisely at the state level — the state has limited resources, but the ability to somehow support those districts to improve, whether it's through resources or connections to other districts,

What is it that will make the most difference for your kids' achievement? Looking at evidence, looking at what other districts have done that seem to work, thinking about teachers are so critical. Thinking about what you can do to support your teachers to help them. My mantra is always, “A better teacher for less time.” They're being really heroic in the amount of time they put in teaching, so you can't expect them to put in more and more hours, you have to make them better teachers for the time they have.

Another thing that came out of our research is that it's very clear that absences went way up during the pandemic. Chronic absences about doubled from 2019 to 2022. They've come down a bit since, but they're still elevated. We found that with higher absence rates your students' test scores are more likely to be declining. Our estimates were roughly that if a student misses 10% of the days, which is chronic absence, they lose about 10% of a grade level. Now we found that if people got back to their old absence rates, where they were in 2019, it would make a noticeable difference. It wouldn't get you all the way back, but it would definitely have made a difference. So that's something I think many districts are focused on. There’s no magic bullet anyone's found on absences. A lot of things can make a small difference, and you have to kind of keep whittling away at it. 

Rosemary Ford:

Let’s talk a bit about the economic impact of some of these outcomes. There are people who may think, “I don’t have a kid or grandkid in the schools, why should this concern me?” How would you explain why this is important for everyone?

Douglas O. Staiger:

This is an investment. Economists call this an investment in human capital. There's good evidence that investments you make when kids are in school pay off later in life. You see their longer-term outcomes — not just things like earnings and working, which benefit the entire community, but also things like teen childbearing, crime and being in prison, being on income support. All those things people have found that when the test scores are rising in the state, — like for example that period where test scores increased so much from in the late in the ‘90s and 2000s — you could see the cohorts of kids who went through those schools later in life, and you really saw aligned changes in their life outcomes. People who are going to be adults, and these are going to be adults living in the community in 10 years. You want them to be successful, right? So, I think it will pay off for everybody in every dimension — not just earnings but there's a lot of other things, and all those things will be better if we make the investment now.

Rosemary Ford:

What’s next for the Education Scorecard?

Douglas O. Staiger:

We'll have more test scores. We'll be able to bring more states in for a variety of reasons. Each year we try to focus on some causes, what might be behind, and what are the current likely things that are causing the decline, or why some districts are rising. 

One of the next things is social media. The rise of cell phones and social media use in schools and by young people has gone way up, and that timing is right around when test scores started declining. So many people are concerned that maybe that is part of the cause. Like in New Hampshire, about half the states have some form of a ban on cell phones in public schools. Many others are working 24/7 trying to get evidence on this, because we don't really know about the effect of cell phones — there's met a lot of anecdotal evidence about how disruptive they are in the classroom and how they affect students' mental well-being, but there's not great evidence on whether these policies of banning cell phones have been able to reverse those effects. 

Rosemary Ford:

Thank you for joining us. 

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