As the New Year unfolds and the bell of liberty rings clearly amongst the long list of bills that NH Republicans have filed, I urge you: do not become complacent.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
As a veteran Home Educator, Home Education Advocate, leader in Granite State Home Educators and Christian Home Educators of New Hampshire and Southern Maine, and a strong voice for New Hampshire Home Educating families for over 15 years- WAKE UP, sleeping conservatives!
Home Education has been legal in New Hampshire since 1991, and thank goodness our right to educate, raise, nurture and disciple our own children was awarded to us by the state. I’m thankful that we have Legislators, Administrators, Boards and Committees to tell us how to do these things, for we’d be lost without guidance and oversight by strangers. We are lucky to not be able to parent our own offspring without the careful and knowledgeable interference of completely unbiased politicians. We would be lost if more government did not originate from the government!
Yeah, no.
As a conservative, Christian voter in our great state, I do not consent to this. The Home Education educational pathway, delineated as unique and governed by RSA193-a and ED315, is the most freedom-minded option to educate a child in New Hampshire. Choices of how and what, with whom and for what reason, how we pay and with what money- all belong to the parent. There are options within the law for no databases, tracking, SASIDs or government overreach precedent. There are current protections from forced compliance to government school timelines, guidelines, materials or ideas. There is liberty in the lack of what’s written as well.
We have fought to be left alone, a conundrum to be sure, but no less true. We believe in our God-given rights, and will die on the hill of their defense. For this is how liberty is held, expanded and ingrained into the future generations for whom we fight. The Home Education community has existed far longer than any modern idea or infrastructure that purports to be “education.” Since the dawn of time, parents have stood between their children and those who might do them harm- with unwavering resolve.
It’s in this capacity that I implore you to engage. There is no one vote you cast that will save us. There are no heroes coming to the rescue. You are your first line of defense. Defend that which you claim to hold dear! This work requires diligence, steel backbones and winsome pride. May we redeem the painful lesson of allowing government control into private education before it’s too late! May we be the conservators of children’s innocence, physical, mental and spiritual health, and the family. For the government does not shrink itself. It does not increase freedom. It steals what and who we are trying to preserve and leaves us vulnerable, begging for scraps while it loops the message, “It’s for the greater good!” If taxation is theft, how much more anti-liberty is forcing me to pay for other kid’s karate lessons when I pay for my own child’s? This collective theft, funneled out of and through big government- no less! No, conservatives, this is not the “freedom” you have been duped into believing is the future of private education!
It is supposed to operate with the consent of the governed, and the Home Education community does not consent to this OR HB1268. We do not roll over at the “R” listed after a Legislator’s name. We do not kiss the ring of the overlords who feed us poison pills, in the name of “unity.” We will never bow down to people who claim to know or share our convictions, while they craft legislation that undermines everything we stand for. To assume that we will “trust” the same Legislature who invited taxpayer funding into private education is absurd. To invite- much less build our platform on- increased government is the antithesis of freedom. To sit idly by, while the same people who pushed through “Universal School Choice” craft legislation to “help” Home Educators have more “freedom” is not a reasonable strategy for less government in our homes. Is this a bad fever dream? No, it’s where we are as we head into 2026.
I’ve been told that the average person doesn’t follow what I’m always going on about, so I’ll say it clearly:
New Hampshire Republicans made promises of protection to the Home Education community when the Education Freedom Account program was being drafted and rolled out. They have not kept their promises.
New Hampshire Republicans abandoned the Home Education community since the rollout of this pet project. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of failures in the last five years:
- Conflation of Home Education and the EFA program in the press, across social media and at events
- Co-opting our language and work for political gain
- Adding programs under the Home Education pathway that do not legally belong, diluting definitions (Prenda, Kaipod)
- No collaboration or support when we were roped into multiple bills meant to restrict the EFA pathway
- Denial of the demolition of the free market for Home Education families
- Refusal to address the issue of EFA students depleting the Education Tax Credit Scholarship Fund
- Turning a blind eye to Children’s Scholarship Fund’s lack of fundraising for the Education Tax Credit Scholarship Fund in lieu of EFA administration
- Allowing Equal Access law and rights to be muddled by not addressing EFA participation
- Conspiring with the NHED to belittle and bully Home Educators at a HEAC meeting
- Ignoring Home Education families input into legislation
- Attempting to dissolve the Home Education Advisory Council with a sneaky, retaliatory, last-minute amendment
- Publicly and privately gaslighting and attacking Home Educators who speak out
- Telling us we are “losing allies” for discussing these issues and bringing them up through the proper channels
This is not the liberty we voted for.
So right now, there is a bill, HB1268, by *these same NH Republicans*, to “deregulate homeschooling,” minus the former head honcho who moved out of state. (FYI “homeschooling” is not the same as “Home Education”) It’s a sloppy, terrible bill and it increases government intrusion into Home Education. It gives power and influence to the government in multiple sections where none needed to exist under current law. It removes autonomy and choice- the irony is not lost on us. It puts families and special needs children in the crosshairs of the (other) people who hate us. It props the door for vindictive future legislation. Granite State Home Educators shared our summary, concerns and feedback with these Legislators back in October. We continue to widely share them. The community has told them that we do not support the bill, but we continue to be told to hush up and trust them. I “should follow legislation more,” I might “gain a better understanding of the process.” Where I sit, as a stakeholder in all of this, is on the side of logic and reason. I have a long memory, can read, and enough executive functioning skills to type. These three life skills serve me well in conjunction with my education plus a decade and a half of advocacy work.
There is indeed a process for championing Home Education freedom in the NH Legislature.
- It involves careful consideration and collaboration before putting ANYTHING on paper, lest we forget whose eyes are looking for footholds.
- It involves not submitting anything that can be misconstrued or misrepresented as willingness to accept additional government compliance.
- It involves the consent of the governed, full stop.
- It involves long AND short term thinking about where we have been and where we will end up.
- It relies upon heavy buy-in from the people who will reap the results.
- In short, it involves people who know what the hell they are talking about.
Home Educators will reap the results, but I’m sure these “allies” will be there to rescue us!
Phew! Don’t we all feel better now? No, we do not.
If history serves from the last five years-and it does, there are no allies, nevermind people who know what the hell they are talking about. (Are you out there? Call us!) As a dear friend recently quipped, “this is the most unsatisfying ‘I told you so’ ever.” Is this the slippery slope we warned you about? Are the Home Educators who reject government subsidized private education the villains in the Republican’s story? Have we been surreptitiously gaslit and sold out for a big government program?
Yup.
In closing, get off your comfortable spot on the sidelines and engage. HB1268 isn’t going to be withdrawn, I’ve been told. So that means the pressure is on to fix this abomination before the death throes of liberty make too much of a racket at the public hearing. I’ll be there, banging the drum of liberty- temporary safety be damned.
Authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers.
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