Megan Tuttle, President of NEA-New Hampshire, provided the following statement in response to recent 'segregated schools' Signal chat messages:
“Every New Hampshire student deserves a high-quality education, safe and welcoming public schools, and the support they need to thrive regardless of their zip code, family income, race, disability status, or background. Public education is a shared promise: when we invest in all students, we invest in the future of our communities and our state.
As educators, we are fighting to ensure schools are resourced based on what students need, not pick and choose who has what they need based on where they live.
But today, that promise is under direct threat. Anti–public education politicians are advancing policies that intentionally create winners and losers and deepen the inequities already embedded in New Hampshire’s school funding system. These policies—marketed as “choice” or “flexibility”—do not expand opportunity. They ration it.
The recently released comments from House education committee leaders are not only abhorrent, they are revealing. They confirm what many educators and families have long warned: initiatives like private school vouchers and open enrollment are not about improving education for all students. They are about allowing some students to exit the system while leaving others behind.
As a social studies teacher, I know where this path leads. When public education is fragmented, when resources follow privilege instead of need, segregation is not an unintended consequence—it is the predictable outcome. Voucher programs and open enrollment schemes siphon funding from neighborhood public schools, weaken their ability to serve diverse learners, and concentrate disadvantage in under-resourced districts. Students with disabilities, English learners, and students from low-income families are too often excluded, discouraged, or left in schools stripped of the resources they require.
This is a return to the days of “us versus them” where opportunity depends on who you are, where you live, and how much you have. Where public schools are blamed for systemic underfunding, while private and selective options operate without transparency or responsibility to the public good. Where segregation is repackaged as freedom, and inequality is reframed as choice.
As educators, we reject that vision.
The solution is not to abandon public education, but to fully fund it—equitably and adequately—so every school can meet the needs of every student. Anything less is a betrayal of our values and our children.
We will not go backward. We will not accept a system that divides students into the worthy and the forgotten. We stand for public schools that are inclusive, accountable, and strong because every child belongs, and every child deserves the same chance to succeed."
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About NEA-New Hampshire
NEA-New Hampshire is the largest union of public employees in the state. Founded in 1854, the New Hampshire State Teachers Association became one of the "founding ten" state education associations that formed the National Education Association in 1857. Known today as NEA-NH, our mission to advocate for the children of New Hampshire and public-school employees, and to promote lifelong learning, remains true after more than 165 years. Our members are public school employees in all stages of their careers, including classroom teachers and other certified professionals, staff and instructors at public higher education institutions, students preparing for a teaching career, education support personnel and those retired from the profession.
