News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Andrew Cline 
New Hampshire public school enrollment continues to decline at a faster rate than teacher employment, a Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy analysis of state data shows. Over the last 15 years, public schools in New Hampshire lost students at nearly three times the rate at which they lost teachers. From the 2011-2012 school year … Read more
Movers from Massachusetts to New Hampshire brought with them $5.95 billion in net adjusted gross income (AGI) from 2012-2023, IRS data show, representing a massive transfer of wealth from the high-tax Bay State to low-tax New Hampshire. New Hampshire’s net personal income gain from Massachusetts movers grew tenfold from 2012-2019, then suddenly doubled to a … Read more
Massachusetts lost an estimated 145,000 residents to New Hampshire over the last 20 years, a Josiah Bartlett Center analysis of U.S. Census migration data shows. For scale, that number of people living in one place would be Massachusetts’ fourth-largest city, larger than Cambridge and slightly smaller than Springfield. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 369,368 … Read more
New England state renewable energy mandates will double energy costs, cause rolling blackouts, while NH policies reduce regional costs With New England state governments committed to reducing their carbon emissions at least 80% by 2050, residents and businesses can expect electricity rates to double, along with rolling blackouts, according to a new joint report completed … Read more
New Hampshire led the American colonies 250 years ago by adopting a constitution that created an independent government before anyone else. So it’s fitting that in 2026, New Hampshire could achieve another first for independence. Like all Americans, government employees have the constitutional right to free speech and free association. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme … Read more
“Whatever the State identifies as comprising constitutional adequacy it must pay for.” — N.H. Supreme Court, Londonderry School District SAU #12 v. State of New Hampshire, 2006 Since the state lost its first Claremont education funding case in 1993, legislators and governors (including Democratic Gov. John Lynch in 2011-2012) tried to undo the decision with … Read more
A bill to create universal open enrollment for New Hampshire public schools is already prompting school boards to consider marketing their districts to families. And the bill hasn’t passed either chamber of the Legislature yet. Senate Bill 101, sponsored by Sen. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton, would require all school districts to “establish an open enrollment policy … Read more
By replacing mandated renewable energy with nuclear and natural gas New Englanders would save hundreds of billions of dollars and avoid deadly power blackouts by replacing state-mandated renewable energy projects with nuclear and natural gas power, a study released today by a coalition of New England think tanks finds. Alternatives to New England’s Affordability Crisis, … Read more
If U.S. states were companies that traded on the stock market, the only New England state with a “buy” rating would probably be New Hampshire. Massachusetts could be called “Big Blue,” the tradition-bound leader cruising on its prior reputation, but falling behind smaller upstarts that have embraced innovation and rapid growth. New Hampshire would be … Read more
New Hampshire ranks as the freest state in North America, as measured in this year’s Economic Freedom of North America report, released today by the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy in conjunction with Canada’s Fraser Institute. For the 24th time, New Hampshire is the freest state among all U.S. states, having scored 8.34 out of 10 … Read more
4th Highest Per-Pupil Spending Growth As New Hampshire’s K-12 public schools experienced the largest enrollment decline of any state this century, they enjoyed the fourth-highest increase in per-pupil spending, according to a new analysis from the Reason Foundation’s K-12 Education Spending Spotlight. Per-pupil public education spending in New Hampshire grew by 60.5% from 2002-2023, the fourth-highest … Read more
According to national media reports, Pennsylvania’s 2025 budget deal caused the state to “exit” RGGI. Media coverage also used the words “leave,” “quit” and “pull out” to describe Pennsylvania’s abandonment of RGGI. Pennsylvania, though, wasn’t actually a member of RGGI. In 2019, then-Gov. Tom Wolf issued an executive order for his administration to adopt regulations consistent with … Read more
Pennsylvania shocked Northeast energy policy nerds this week by withdrawing from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). To get a state budget passed, Gov. Josh Shapiro agreed to remove Pennsylvania from the 11-state carbon cap-and-trade program, making it the first state to exit since RGGI was created in 2005. RGGI is supposed to reduce regional … Read more
Surging child care prices have grabbed the media’s attention here in New Hampshire, and rightly so. The price of full-time care in a licensed center “jumped 48 percent between 2013 and 2023,” landing at nearly $32,000 a year, according to an analysis last year by the Carsey School of Public Policy at UNH. Child care prices … Read more
On Thursday, the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced a plan to deliver food to New Hampshire food stamp recipients should the federal government shutdown continue into November. The partnership with the New Hampshire Food Bank was announced just 13 days after the U.S. Department of Agriculture warned states that funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance … Read more
With a single heated remark to a developer, a Portsmouth Planning Board member last week showed exactly how the municipal development process is broken. Developer Mark McNabb has proposed converting a property he owns on Congress Street to a 125-unit co-living apartment building. Co-living units, once common, were zoned nearly out of existence in U.S. … Read more
On September 9, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released its 2026 campus free speech rankings, concluding that “America’s colleges get an ‘F’ for poor free speech climate.” “More students than ever think violence and chaos are acceptable alternatives to peaceful protest,” FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens said on the report’s release. “This … Read more
The New Hampshire Supreme Court for the first time ordered the state to spend a minimum amount of money—$7,356.01 per pupil—to educate public school students. The state therefore lost this landmark school funding case, Contoocook Valley School District v. State, as it had tried to avoid such a decree. But a closer read suggests that ConVal … Read more
“I find more and more that dependency from [upon] the will of others is always some diminution of human happiness, principally to a man accustom’d to follow his own will uncontrolled.” – Jan Ingenhousz to Ben Franklin, 1777 During the two weeks since Americans celebrated the 249th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, political discourse in … Read more
…district public schools spend $1.25 billion more on 54,000 fewer students Average per-pupil spending in New Hampshire district public schools has nearly doubled this century, as student enrollment declined sharply and reading and math assessment scores fell, a new Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy study finds. Total public school district spending in New Hampshire … Read more