Croydon Archives - Granite Grok

OPINION: Open Enrollment – Good Intentions, Devastating Price Tag

February 20, 2026 Aaron McKeon

Allowing families to choose their school is fantastic for education, something we fully embrace in Croydon, as one of the state’s pioneering districts in school choice. Open Enrollment has the potential to be a great advancement. But unfortunately, its proposed design will lead to terrible unintended consequences. In Croydon, it will most likely lead to … Read more

Dem Rep Thinks Girls Losing to Boys (Pretending to be Girls) is Good for Them

May 2, 2024 Steve MacDonald

Democrats continue to insist that despite the risks (fraud, assault, injury, etc.), if a boy wants to play on the girl’s team (use their locker room, showers), that’s social justice, but New Hampshire has legislation that would protect girls by limiting sports participation to biology at birth, so – naturally – they have to object.

Croydon+Budget+Battle+half+cover.001 Bare Minimum Books

Shoutout to Grokster Ian Underwood – a Book Report on Ian’s Books

July 16, 2023 Skip

I have known Cindy Bennet for a while now, and while we may not always be on the same paragraph on things, I admire her as she’s SMAHT, is aware of what’s going on in a whole range of issues, is thoughtful and great to talk to. She also has a YouTube channel here.

Questions That Didn’t Get Asked at Meet the Candidates Day in Croydon

March 13, 2023 Ian Underwood

At Meet the Candidates Day in Croydon, one resident kept asking each candidate: Yes, or No, do you support the Free State movement? Do you support public education? Do you support the United States Constitution?

Croydon Superintendent: $1 Million per Student Not Enough to Teach Kids to Read

February 2, 2023February 1, 2023 Ian Underwood

In an earlier piece on charter schools, I suggested that we need to start asking school districts: How much is enough?

That is, if we want to get 100% of our educable students to proficiency in reading and math, how much would it cost?

What We Talk about When We Talk about Student Achievement

January 18, 2023 Ian Underwood

I was just at a meeting of the Croydon school board, and several times, when the question of how the students are doing came up, there was a rush — one might say a stampede — to offer excuses as to why it’s simply not possible to say in any objective way whether students are … Read more

Reading education sunset Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Letter to the Times

July 24, 2022 Ian Underwood

This is in response to the article about Croydon’s budget battle, which appeared on the front page of the New York Times a couple of weeks ago. I don’t think they’ll be printing it, though. So I thought I’d reproduce it here.

Argument cartoon Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Why We Can’t Have Substantive Public Discussions

May 14, 2022 Ian Underwood

At the most recent meeting of the Croydon school board, I was talking to a well-educated journalist — at least, given who she works for, I assume she’s well-educated — who seemed to be unable to grasp the difference between taking something from someone and not giving something to someone.

$Sheep math bad math Photo by Michal Matlon on Unsplash$

Possibly Dumbest Thing I’ve Heard Someone Say, Ever

May 13, 2022 Ian Underwood

At Wednesday’s school board meeting in Croydon, a former school board member and current math teacher — the latter detail turns out to be important — stood up to say that he is ‘happy to help pay to educate other people’s children.’

House as an ATM Original images by Phil Hearing and Jake Allen - Unsplash

Your House is My ATM

May 9, 2022 Ian Underwood

An interesting thing happened in Croydon on Saturday. At a special school district meeting, 377 people decided that the voters who attended the annual meeting in March hadn’t offered enough charity ($800,000) to parents of school-aged children, so they gathered to extort more (an extra $900,000) through the threat of force (give us the money, or we’ll take your house).

empty chairs original photo Photo courtesy of Gratisography

Super-Duper Majorities

April 28, 2022 Ian Underwood

It’s rare to read a story about the recent Croydon budget adjustment that doesn’t mention how small the number of voters was, as if it was some kind of anomaly.

Croydon School Board 2022-03-14 GraniteGrok

A School Hijacking, Amanda Leslie of Croydon? Hardly, and Stop Making Kids Your Political Pawns

April 8, 2022 Skip

A headline in the UL yesterday read, “Amanda Leslie: Undo the hijacking of Croydon’s schools.” My retort is that the “hijacking” was done, not by those who showed up, but by those that didn’t bother to show up.

Heartbroken in Croydon

April 7, 2022 Ian Underwood

At most of the school board meetings that have followed the recent right-sizing of Croydon’s school budget, at least one parent has expressed a thought that simply breaks my heart:

Thoughts on Croydon – Residents Refusing to Accept Blame for Missing the Town Meeting Vote on School Budget

April 1, 2022 Skip

Listen to what a Croydon resident says at about 1:19 seconds in:

Woman pointing Photo by Austin Neill on Unsplash

Croydon Leads the Way Again

March 20, 2022 Ian Underwood

House Bill 1393, which passed the House recently, seeks to make it possible for voters in school districts to do, as a matter of policy, what Croydon was recently able to do on a one-time basis: Tell the school district what they can afford, rather than wait to be told how much will be demanded from them.

Croydon School Board Meeting – How a Work Meeting Turned into a Rantfest

March 16, 2022March 16, 2022 Skip

I have never seen anything like this and I’m probably never going to see this again. Thumbnail: At this past Saturday’s Town Meeting, the townfolk voted to HALF the School District Budget from $1.7 million to $800,000. Let that set in.

Budget or Ransom?

March 12, 2022March 11, 2022 Ian Underwood

I printed these up to hand out at our annual district meeting tomorrow. I thought I’d post it here in case anyone else wants to try something similar in another district.

Towns can now Tuition Students to Religious Schools

July 13, 2020 Op-Ed

In 2017, the Town of Croydon implemented a town tuitioning program. While getting approval from the State Board of Education, it was told that no religious schools could be included in the program.

New Hampshire Judges Must Have Skipped the 5th Grade

July 15, 2024August 30, 2016 Steve MacDonald

There is an outstanding editorial by Ian Underwood in the Manchester Union Leader. Here’s a taste. The state constitution says only four things about schooling. First, that: “it shall be the duty of the legislators and magistrates, (…) to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries and public schools.” Second, that … Read more

Kill This ‘School Choice’ Bill

July 15, 2024May 17, 2016 Steve MacDonald

Jody and Ian Underwood join us to talk about HB 1637, a school choice bill introduced to make the law clearer. We talk about what happened to it in the legislature and why we now want to see it killed.