News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Ian Underwood 
Ian Underwood explains why we need to rethink education and key areas to change in this 40-minute talk presented at Freedom Palooza in North Country, NH, in July 2026. Ian summarizes three of his books on education covering three areas to rethink. He recommends changing “fairness” to be about what is learned rather than being … Read more
[Originally published in April 2025. It seems like a good time to remind people of this.] Every summer, kids are out of school for about 80 days, almost 3 months. So, what do parents do with their kids during that time? It’s not like their jobs end. It’s not like they can take 3 months … Read more
Marco Rubio testified before Congress recently, where he dropped this little gem in a reply to Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York: We have to have a State Department that can deliver on a foreign policy that is rooted in the national interest of the United States. To defend the national interest of the United … Read more
People often say that ‘politics is the art of the possible’. But I think that this is too often used as an excuse to tinker with an issue rather than really addressing it. The reason we’re not still part of Great Britain — and the reason we have a country that is (on paper, at … Read more
House Bill 1792 would prohibit the teaching of ‘Marxist analyses’ in public schools. But the entire public school system is funded on the basis of Marxist philosophy: https://granitegrok.com/blog/2021/10/the-accidental-marxist https://granitegrok.com/blog/2021/10/the-accidental-marxist-part-2 https://granitegrok.com/new-england/nh/2025/01/groucho-marxism Interestingly, the bill would prohibit discussions in public schools about how those schools are funded. ‘Inconsistent’ doesn’t even begin to describe this situation. I don’t … Read more
Imagine that Kamala Harris is President, and swarms of ATF agents are trying to seize all the privately-owned firearms in Minnesota — even those that haven’t been used in crimes, and won’t ever be used in crimes, that are only being kept for self-defense and hunting and sporting purposes. Imagine that every day you see … Read more
I believe it was Seymour Papert who said that often the best way to think about something is to think about something else instead. Given how quickly and completely people’s brains tend to shut down when thinking about education, https://granitegrok.com/new-england/nh/2025/06/feeling-instead-of-thinking-about-education he may be especially right for that particular subject. Let’s look at a couple of … Read more
Here’s a thought experiment for you to try. Imagine that you meet with your employer to tell him all the things you want to buy, and how much money you’d need to be able to pay for them. You tell him that you think you should get paid whatever amount would be needed to make … Read more
Someone mentioned to me recently that Rep. Hope Damon has introduced a bill to change the way school superintendents are credentialed. It’s classic Damon: Some parts of the bill refer to other sections of the bill that don’t exist. And the bill makes no reference to the Ed Rules that already exist. The bill reads like … Read more
I came across this the other day, and was startled to see that it was written 6 years ago. It could have been written yesterday — which confirms the accuracy of the analysis. With Comrade Volinsky taking another tilt at the ‘fairness’ windmill — slightly ahead of schedule — it seems appropriate to re-publish it … Read more
Andru Volinsky is asking people to think about what is fair in the context of raising money to pay for schools. Here’s the answer I gave him. We can think about that by considering the following story. One day, Pat and Chris came to do some shopping at Mr. Volinsky’s Grocery Store. Each of them … Read more
Remember Ruth Ward, who helped repeal the only RSA that actually required schools to bring students to proficiency in reading and math? She’s at it again. She has proudly announced a new bill that would allow the Claremont school district to collect its adequacy funds before attendance is confirmed, at the beginning of the year. … Read more
With Democrats claiming that the government has shut down because Republicans don’t want to deal with health care, it’s time for a reminder that if Democrats really want to provide subsidized health care to people who think that’s a good idea, they don’t need Republicans to do that: If the UK can implement a single-payer … Read more
When you talk to legislators about political reform, whether it’s in the schools or anywhere else, they are often interested in making small changes — largely because those seem to be the only kind anyone thinks can be made. (The technical psychological term for this is learned helplessness.) I’ve been thinking for a while now … Read more
If you really believe that ‘there is no place in our country for political violence’, then you can’t support taxation. Because taxation — forcing people to give you their money, to spend it on what you want, by threatening them with harm if they don’t give it to you — is perhaps the oldest and … Read more
Last night I went to see the movie Guns and Moses. It’s in town for only one more day (at Apple Cinemas in Hooksett), and I think you should see it before it’s gone. Here’s the teaser from IMDB: “A beloved small town rabbi in the high desert becomes an unlikely gunslinger after his community … Read more
As in most previous years, the Claremont school board thought it would be able to fund the coming school year through a ransom. And just like that… the board learned that it will have to rely on a budget
It’s that time of the year, when legislators are scrambling to figure out what bills they should introduce for the coming year. I’ve got some suggestions. In no particular order: Short name Description Traffic is traffic Nothing that happens at a traffic stop can be unrelated to the violation that led to the stop. No … Read more
In the comments on a recent post, someone expressed the commonly held (and much-applauded) attitude that, It’s the kids in the classrooms that matter here.. It’s about the life of the child and the parents that are trying to give this child a good life with opportunity — this is the goal here. But this … Read more
This little gem made it into the budget bill, HB2, which was passed by both houses and signed by the governor. Legislative Declaration of Authority Regarding Public Education. In its 1993 and 1997 decisions, in the so-called Claremont series of public school funding cases, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that the New Hampshire Constitution imposes upon … Read more