What should we do?

Some suggestions for action and peace of mind and a book update.

A friend recommended I post my suggestions for action from last week at the top of my next post. Another friend had his own suggestion. Plus a squib from a NH Peace Action post and more about The Last Bake Sale book.

My three suggestions for action (slightly edited).

1. Amp up your social media. Be creative and persistent. Use specific examples of overreach by NH Republicans (and get that message to their constituents).

2. Invite state Republicans to town halls on specific issues where they have taken positions opposed to local interests (e.g., Dan McGuire capping school budgets after his hometown of Epsom resoundingly rejected a cap). When they don’t come, hold “empty chair” town halls and plan to replace them.

3. Hold Governor Kelly Ayotte’s feet to the fire. Demand that Ayotte veto any voucher bill that isn’t limited only to families who are currently attending public schools. It’s a small gesture to the supposed purpose of vouchers; that is, giving impoverished families alternatives to where their kids attend school. The House deleted this provision in approving vouchers for families regardless of income. The truth is vouchers aren’t really about choice. They subsidize the cost of private and religious education for families that have already left public schools at the expense of your public schools. Seventy-five percent of voucher recipients did not attend public school when they got their vouchers.

Help me to understand your point.

Next, a dear friend shared that he asks friends and relatives who have very extreme points of view: “Help me understand [fill in the blank].” Perhaps he’ll get an answer that helps him understand one of Trump’s actions. Perhaps the person he asks will re-think their support for Trump or support for the action in question. Perhaps neither will happen and all he has done is to diffuse a tense situation. Not every time and place is appropriate for a fight. Sometimes it is best to reduce tensions and wait for a better opportunity to engage.

NH Peace Action

From board member Sandra Yarne,

“In 2015, the Dali Lama and Desmond Tutu met for a week to celebrate the Dali Lama’s 80^thbirthday and to discuss how to find joy in the face of life’s inevitable suffering. In The Book of Joy by the Dali Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams, the authors propose eight pillars of joy. Four pillars are qualities of mind - perspective, humility, humor, and acceptance; and four are qualities of the heart - forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and generosity.”

Buy the book, The Last Bake Sale.

The book is now available wherever books are sold or at LastBakeSaleBook.com. If you buy through the website, I’ll sign the book for you.

The press is starting to cover the book, too. This is great because The Last Bake Sale is a book on a mission to change school funding and, in some ways, the perspective of a society that is too self-centered (and manipulated by oligarchs).

Hopefully, people will find the book interesting and readable. It places the Claremont case in a national and historical context with lots of insider intrigue. In a follow-on case brought by communities with modest property wealth led by Londonderry, Justice Gary Hicks wrote this statement of the Claremont principles. It is these principles that the years of Claremont litigation convinced the NH Supreme Court to establish:

“. . . Claremont School District v. Governor, 142 N.H. 462, 703 A.2d 1353 (1997) ( Claremont II) issued ‘four mandates: define an adequate education, determine the cost, fund it with constitutional taxes, and ensure its delivery through accountability,’ and that these four mandates comprise the State's duty to provide an adequate education.”

In this 2006 decision, the Court concluded: “For almost thirteen years we have refrained from [specifically defining adequacy for the Legislature] and continue to refrain today. However, the judiciary has a responsibility to ensure that constitutional rights not be hollowed out and, in the absence of action by other branches, a judicial remedy is not only appropriate but essential.”

Londonderry Sch. Dist. v. State, 154 N.H. 153, 155-56 (N.H. 2006).

Currently, two pending cases challenge whether the legislatures and governors since 1997 have done their jobs as taxes to fund a constitutionally adequate education continue to be unequal and the state’s share of funding, though improved because of our litigation, continues to be deficient.

My interview about The Last Bake Sale by WMUR’s Adam Sexton on Close-up on March 30, 2025 is here. It’s about eight minutes long.

Come visit with me.

If you want to hear me talk about the book, school funding and our interesting times, my first talk is at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord at 6:30 tonight, April 2d. I’ll be with the indomitable and very humorous Becky Rule.

After a quick trip to Ohio to speak at the Network for Public Education conference, the next talk will be at the Water Street Bookstore in Exeter on April 10th at 7.

Thanks so much.