Childhood is a special time, and kids should be able to focus on growing up without adult issues forced upon them too soon. 

Children should also be protected from abuse, and kept with their parents in the absence of abuse or neglect. I am the chair of a special committee on the Division of Children, Youth and Families and I have introduced a bill to make this a standalone department. This will increase accountability to the governor and legislature - which is critical given recent problems - and will craft a clear mission through laws and rules.

Fighting Sales & Income Taxes isn't just about voting down those bills. It is also about ensuring that your tax dollars are spent carefully to operate the state within our means. 

The blank check funding model proposed by some advocates will lead to an income or sales tax - or maybe both. 

Current high school spending is the result of local decisions, and any move to shift substantially more school funding to the state will require a reassessment of the scope of local control over school operations. 

Over the past 30 years, there are 11% fewer students enrolled in NH public schools while staffing levels have increased by 55%. This unsustainable administrative growth has driven property taxes sky high, and we need to have real discussions to chart a path forward.

Knowledge and learning, generally diffused through a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government; and spreading the opportunities and advantages of education through the various parts of the country, being highly conducive to promote this end; it shall be the duty of the legislators and magistrates, in all future periods of this government, to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries and public schools, to encourage private and public institutions, rewards, and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and economy, honesty and punctuality, sincerity, sobriety, and all social affections, and generous sentiments, among the people: ...

NH Constitution Article 83, Part 2

As stated in the New Hampshire Constitution, knowledge and learning are essential to the preservation of a free government. 

We must refocus our schools to foster the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and economy, honesty and punctuality, sincerity, sobriety and all social affections and generous sentiments among the people.

In the fight over the dollar amount needed to fulfill our constitutional requirement to educate our students in order to preserve a free government, attention has slipped from what we need to teach. 

We must refocus on the basics. ABCs and 123s before non-core subjects, and striving to make each and every child in New Hampshire a well educated citizen. 

Government is clunky by design, because we need checks and balances to ensure that no one loots the state. 

Government is slow to pivot and respond, as it follows a legislative process rather than following the market.

Government programs are expensive, because every group that relies on government funds needs to spend a significant amount of time following legislation and lobbying for more money rather than fulfilling the mission. 

We must take great care to not give government responsibilities it is not well equipped to handle.