Edelblut's Top 10 Worst Hits

New Hampshire students, families, and schools need leadership that unites rather than divides. As a new Commissioner takes the reins at the NH Department of Education, we're reflecting on the damage caused by Frank Edelblut on our state's public education system during his tenure and how he used his position as a bully pulpit to attack dedicated educators. 

1. Universal Vouchers - 2025: In 2025, the New Hampshire Legislature and Governor removed the income eligibility requirements for Edelblut’s private school voucher scheme, meaning all students now qualify. The universal voucher program has already hit its 10,000 student cap. Limitless vouchers are taking millions of dollars out of public schools to subsidize private school education for a few at the expense of nearly 90% of students who attend community public schools. Source: NHPR
2. Special Education Funding Gap - 2024: In 2024, Frank Edelblut informed New Hampshire school districts that they would receive significantly less money for special education costs. The funding gap was due in part to the then-Commissioner’s decision to keep the special education budget flat since 2021, despite increased cases and costs across the state. Despite this shortfall, Edelblut failed to ask for an increase in funding in his initial FY 2025/26 budget proposal. Source: NHPR
3. Watering Down Education Standards - 2024: In 2024, the NH State Board of Education adopted controversial new minimum standards for public education (so-called “306 Rules”) pushed by Edelblut that advocates believe will weaken public education delivery and open the door to further privatization of public schools. Throughout the process, Edelblut failed to meaningfully include educators in the revision. Source: InDepthNH
4. PragerU - 2023: In 2023, Frank Edelblut pushed the State Board of Education to permit a national right-leaning entity, PragerU, to provide digital financial literacy programming to New Hampshire students, who are required to earn a half credit in the subject as part of state graduation requirements. Source: New Hampshire Bulletin
5. Book Bans - 2023: Edelblut used his position to scrutinize books in public school libraries and classrooms and leveraged his oversight powers to elevate grievances against public schools and individual educators. According to a report from NHPR, he challenged superintendents on book selection, and he repeatedly directed the state’s teacher misconduct investigator to review complaints about school materials. Source: NHPR
6. Attempts to Gut Core Content - 2022, 2024, and 2025: As Commissioner, Edelblut pushed (unsuccessfully) for legislation that would gut core content areas for public education. In 2025, more than 30,000 Granite Staters signed in against HB 283, which would have made art, music, world languages, computer science, civics, economics, and more optional in New Hampshire schools. Bills: 2022 - HB 1671; 2024 - HB 1691; 2025 - HB 283.
7. OpEd Attack on Educators - 2022: Edelblut repeatedly used his position to criticize educators who are LGTBQ+ or create safe spaces for all students. In 2022, Edelblut published an op-ed on “family values” in which he wrote about the importance of teachers respecting “the value systems of the families responsible for raising them.” Source: New Hampshire Bulletin
8. Bounty on Educators - 2021: Under Edelblut’s leadership, following the passage of the “banned concepts” law, the State Department of Education created a webpage to make it easier for parents and students to lodge complaints against teachers for alleged discrimination. This spurred a conservative group, Moms for Liberty, to offer to pay people who “catch” teachers violating the then-new state law that limited certain kinds of teaching about racism and sexism. Unlike the Governor, Edelblut refused to denounce this bounty offer. Source: NHPR
9. “Banned Concepts” Law - 2021: As Commissioner, Edelblut pushed for the state to pass a “banned concepts” law, the vague language of which sought to restrict instruction and conversation about certain subjects, including diversity, race, gender, and racism. The law threatened educator licenses and had a chilling effect in classrooms. It was promptly challenged by teachers’ unions, LGBTQ and disability rights advocates, and the ACLU-NH. In 2024, the law was ruled unconstitutional, but the state appealed the decision. Source: NHPR
10. For Profit Learning Pods - 2021: In 2021, while public schools worked to navigate the COVID pandemic, Edelblut awarded nearly $6 million in federal relief funds to promote for-profit “microschools” run by a national company, Prenda, which employs “guides” with limited training to oversee small groups of children in self-directed learning at unlicensed and uninspected facilities. Source: NH