By Representative Dave Luneau (Merrimack 9: Bow, Hopkinton)
In 2026, elected republicans continued their assault on public schools and public school kids. Most disturbing was a leaked text chat between the education policy committee chair Kristin Noble (R-Bedford) and vice chair Katy Peternel (R-Wolfeboro) suggesting how great it would be to go back to segregated schools. This kind of rhetoric from so-called education leaders is hurtful and dangerous and shows a deep lack of ethical and community values. And not surprisingly, rather than condemn these abhorrent remarks, republican top brass doubled down on them.

Amidst a pile of anti-education bills was the expansion of an unaccountable taxpayer-funded school voucher program. A compliance audit in 2023 uncovered that more than 20% of the voucher applications were processed in error. But rather than investigate how this happened and passing laws to improve transparency, the former commissioner of education blocked state auditors from doing their jobs and republicans, including the governor, moved quickly to enact a law to pay for all private and home schoolers to the tune of a billion dollars over the next decade.
In a state that comes in dead last for its share of funding public schools, Republicans push bills to destabilize school districts by lowering academic standards (HB 1815),draining contingency funds (HB 1610), and even choking off local support for public schools while arguing to end the state’s obligation to fund an adequate education (HB
1300.)
Democrats fight back, supporting good student outcomes and strong public schools. For the third consecutive term, we filed legislation for comprehensive school funding reform,
with funding and accountability tied to student outcomes, and delivering meaningful property tax relief (HB 772.)
We filed bills to increase the income threshold for kids to qualify for free and reduced-price meals (HB 665) and republicans mocked the kids and killed the bills.
We also had some wins by working across the aisle and with the corner office to get the votes we needed.
Broken enrollment, a republican cause celeb (SB 101 and HB 751) was so broken even an eleventh-hour fix couldn’t make it work. Democrats offered a bill (HB 1280) to form a stakeholder commission to study how open enrollment could work, but it was defeated along party lines. Why study something they know nothing about.

Thanks to your support, we continued successfully to fight off book bans (SB 434), opposed firearms on college campus (HB 1793 and HB 609), protected the privacy and integrity of college and university disciplinary proceedings (HB 510), and defeated a bill sponsored by none other than the free stater republican leader (HB 1792) designed to destroy New Hampshire’s public schools.
We enter the 2027 session prepared to fight off the attacks on public schools and students and move forward an agenda that invests in our kids and our communities.