u/Visual-Mobile2657

We were among the first to break from the British Crown, sent thousands to fight for the Union during the Civil War, built a tradition of strong local public schools, and have long ranked among the nation’s most literate and civically engaged states. Our motto, “Live Free or Die,” has historically reflected an independent streak that values individual liberty, local control, and a healthy skepticism of outside influence. Until recently.

For a decade our state government has been out of place. External actors are ramming through bills lifted directly from the culture war playbooks of the Deep South states like Florida, Texas, and Tennessee. We have seen legislation restricting transgender health care, abortion access, crippling planned parenthood, libraries closing, schools going bankrupt, etc tax cuts for the rich, cuts to healthcare, tax dollars for religious schooling, tax increases on the poor, increasing censorship and restrictions around classrooms, and proposals targeting library books and diversity initiatives. Many of these ideas are lifted directly from the American Legislative Exchange Council.

It is worth asking why New Hampshire has abandoned the independent character that has always defined us for more than two centuries. This state has always charted its own course instead of importing someone else’s political agenda. We should be debating housing, property taxes, workforce shortages, and strengthening public education, not copying the latest ideological battles from the Confederacy. If “Live Free or Die” still means anything, then we all need to a clean sweep of the state house. Clean out the right-wing provocateurs who do not, and have never served New Hampshire’s values.

New Hampshire is a state run by wealthy Baby Boomers for the exclusive benefit of wealthy Baby Boomers.

1^(st): LOWEST State Contribution to K-12 Education

1^(st): LOWEST State Contribution for In-State College Education

1^(st): HIGHEST Cost of Healthcare

1^(st): OLDEST average age legislature

2^(nd): HIGHEST cost of a college education

2^(nd): HIGHEST median age

8^(th): HIGHEST electricity rates

11^(th): HIGHEST state and local tax burden for lowest 20% income earners in NH. (8.9% of their income)

15^(th): LEAST affordable state to live in

24th: private sector pay

40^(th): WORST housing affordability

44^(th): WORST cost of living

50^(th): LOWEST state and local tax burden for the richest 20% income earners in NH. (2.8% of their income)

Every school district keeps a reserve fund for unexpected expenses. A major building repair. A special education placement that suddenly costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. A transportation emergency. These retained funds are financial cushions that helps schools absorb shocks without immediately coming back to taxpayers for more money.

Republicans in the House and Senate have just passed HB 1610, which would dramatically restrict these reserve funds.

The bill:

• Rescinds all existing voter-approved indefinite authorizations to retain year-end surplus funds. It's not clear what happens to existing retained funds, and it's possible that this bill forces schools to return the entire balance to taxpayers this year.

• Forces districts to go back to voters every single year if they want to retain surplus funds for future emergencies.

• Cuts the maximum amount districts can retain from 5% of net assessment to 2.5%.

• Creates significant uncertainty for districts that have relied on long-term reserve authority for financial planning.

Bill text:
https://legiscan.com/NH/text/HB1610/id/3290231

If Governor Kelly Ayotte signs HB 1610, school districts across New Hampshire will not be able to respond to emergency expenses.

Contact Kelly Ayotte
Phone: (603) 271-2121 Office of the Governor, State House, 107 North Main Street, Concord, NH 03301

Imagine a family has a budget cap for groceries because feeding their children is considered a basic responsibility. If food prices suddenly double, the family isn't buying more food than before, they're just paying more for the same groceries.

If the budget cap doesn't rise with prices, the family has no choice but to buy less food. The result isn't "reduced spending"; it's fewer meals on the table.

Public education works the same way. When the cost of teachers, transportation, utilities, special education services, and classroom materials rises, schools providing more services. They're paying more to provide the same services. If funding is capped and doesn't keep pace with the inflation that schools experience, schools must cut staff, programs, or support for students.

RFK Jr. and the MAGA movement spent years undermining the CDC, scientific research, and the biotech sector. Now he's touting a $2 million initiative to combat Lyme disease. Prolly a 2 million kick back to a MAGA donor. Why? Because this disease personally affects HIM.

This is fucking stupid. The initiative is focused on deer, despite the fact that Lyme disease reaches humans through infected ticks that typically acquire the bacteria from small mammals such as mice. He has also promoted the idea that Lyme disease may be a bioweapon.

This is fucking stupid. Classic MAGA politics: performative gestures, ineptitude, and conspiracy theories. Insgtead of funding actual scientists who can do something about Lyme, taxpayer money gets spent on symbolic actions, most likely corruptly, rather than evidence-based public health measures.

Republicans routinely attack scientists, they've weakened our research institutions, and then roll out headline-grabbing stunts like this that accomplish NOTHING. This is useless performative bullshit.

Republicans told us vouchers would deliver a better education. Apparently that includes public money paying for pseudoscience. While digging through New Hampshire's Education Freedom Account curriculum, I found a taxpayer-funded homeopathy lesson that teaches students to memorize songs about Belladonna remedies.

https://preview.redd.it/gcghcd7oi34h1.png?width=507&format=png&auto=webp&s=9edac2675bd5394bee3cfcaeef821dda2d3eb20b

Take a look at what our taxdollars bought:

Workbook (Lesson 14):
https://paolabrown.com/pdf/homeopathy-lesson-14-student-workbook-l3-free-sample.pdf

Accompanying song:
https://paolabrown.com/mp3/belladonna-memory-work-song.mp3

students are instructed to create memory cards and memorize a song about the homeopathic remedy "Belladonna."

The workbook tells students to "Learn the key details about Belladonna" by copying and memorizing lyrics that say:

>When your symptoms are red, hot, angry, and throbbing—reach for Belladonna, there’s no need for sobbing. For the symptoms: dry, swollen, painful, and sore, or a sudden high fever of 103 or more, that’s Belladonna.

Students are then directed to practice reciting the lyrics until they have them committed to memory.

Homeopathic belladonna is a remedy made from the highly toxic Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade).

Republicans in NH spend a lot of time attacking public schools for being too expensive.

They complain about school budgets. They push SAU consolidation. They criticize administrator salaries and say public schools need to become more “efficient.”

At the same time, they are sending taxpayer money to private schools like The Derryfield School, where tuition is around $45,000 per year and the Head of School made $338,707 according to the school’s IRS nonprofit filings.

So where is the outrage about THAT cost?

Nobody seems bothered that many private schools:

• cost more per student than public schools
• pay teachers less than public schools
• pay administrators far more than public schools

Public schools educate every kid who shows up. Special education students. Students with behavioral issues. English learners. Kids living in poverty. Kids who transfer in halfway through the year.

Private schools can pick and choose who they keep.

But somehow public schools are always the ones being called wasteful.

If taxpayer money is going to private schools, then where is the Fiscal Conservative outcry?

Lesse all the off topic, and bad faith arguments.