News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
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
Mark Twain is supposed to have said, “Never argue with an idiot, they will only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” That’s how I feel about the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s decision on the ConVal case (and the Claremont cases, for that matter). Their reasoning is hard to follow, … Read more
The so-described education reform law, Act 73, is in effect. Its first order of business, creating a Vermont Redistricting Task Force, is done, and now said Task Force is getting down to its task of drawing up at least three maps of new mega-school districts for the legislature to consider next year, scrapping our current … Read more
(Manch Talk 07/09/25) Special guest, founder and President of EdOpt, Jody Underwood of Croydon, joins Carla Gericke to discuss the myriad of education options available in the Free State of New Hampshire. Learn more about how to find schools, compare programs, and discover resources for your child’s success. Speakers’ opinions are their own and may … Read more
Rebuild New Hampshire Executive Director Melissa Blasek joins me to deliver an after-action report on the State budget, which is now law. We’ve got a lot of good news, and a bit of bad, and ugly, so join us for an HB2 round-up, a few laughs, some eyerolls, and a breakdown of what got dragged … Read more
Goal to expand Classical education opportunity continues ACTA Classical Schools Foundation, a private charitable organization established early this year to encourage new schools offering classical education, has designated Holy Family Academy, a private academy located in Manchester, New Hampshire, as its second “Model School.” The Foundation determined that Holy Family Academy demonstrates how private schools … Read more
My full interview with Melissa Blasek will air Monday at 8 pm. In it, she dissects a few of the good, bad, and ugly points in HB2, the trailer bill that functions as a legislative scow, dragging every bit of leftover garbage from the session across the finish line. Don’t take that the wrong way, … Read more
When the legislature was voting on H.454, I was, while painting my house (fun!), listening to an audiobook on the battle of Gettysburg. And I can’t help but notice some unfortunate parallels for Republicans with their vote on that bill and Pickett’s Charge, the infamous suicidal attack by the Army of Northern Virginia over a … Read more
My late friend and mentor, Sam Blumenfeld, once remarked that the government school system is a “sick, obsolete dinosaur being propped up by powerful lobbyists like the National Education Association and government officials.” The truth of that statement was on full display recently at the Wolfeboro Library. On June 10th, New Hampshire Education Options held … Read more
In 2024, when Vermont property taxpayers were whacked with an average 14 percent year over year increase, with some communities seeing nearly 40 percent increases, nobody (or at least not enough) in the legislature asked if citizens could afford this. They just shrugged their shoulders and stuck us with the bill. Same as every year … Read more
I recently re-watched the brilliant film Interstate 60. If you haven’t seen it, put it on your to-watch list. One of the characters, Bob Cody (played by Chris Cooper), is a former advertising man who got sick of lying all the time, and decided to spend the rest of his life promoting truth. Or more … Read more
There is great value, when considering a question, to instead consider a generalization of the question. Then, having answered the more general question, you get the answers to more specialized versions for free, and you know they’re consistent with each other. This is actually a pretty large part of what we call thinking. Here’s an … 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
Though expanding Education Freedom Accounts to all New Hampshire students is a top Republican Party priority for this legislative session, differences between three competing plans produced an impasse. For weeks, doubts grew about Republicans’ ability to expand the program even though they controlled the governor’s office and both legislative chambers. On Wednesday, the House Finance … Read more
Last week, Senate President Pro Tem, Philip Baruth (D/P-Chittenden Central) decided to pull the education reform bill, H.454, off of the calendar where it was scheduled for a floor vote. He did this not because it wasn’t going to pass, but because it was – but with both Republican and Democrat votes. That was too … Read more
Introduction In his polemical essay against school vouchers, Andru Volinsky trades on well-worn tropes: that public education is a pillar of democracy, that vouchers threaten social equity, and that the Civil Rights Movement should be invoked to shield the status quo. Yet this rhetorical sleight-of-hand obscures deeper truths. Public education in America was not built … Read more
Ian Underwood, a scientist and mathematician (not to mention a libertarian), breaks down why we should rethink how schools measure success and the impact it should have on education funding. Speakers’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Follow these links for … Read more
I’m speaking primarily to Republicans because the Democrats are not going to pay attention or care, or, if they do, buck their party leadership – just a quick reminder that back in November 2024, your voters didn’t go into the polls screaming, “We have too many school districts!” They weren’t calling on you to close … Read more
June 1 of this year marks the tenth anniversary of the passing of author and homeschool pioneer Samuel L. Blumenfeld. Sam’s last book, which he co-authored with Alex Newman, was Crimes of the Educators. A week before Sam’s passing, I called Alex and asked when he planned to visit Sam. They had not met in person, but … Read more
Education is a mess, and funding it is a mess. Costs are high, learning is low, and there are many ideas about what to do that don’t even begin to address the purpose of public education or its problems. Back in January, Ian and Jody Underwood joined me to talk about all things education, and … Read more