Elizabeth Corell of Concord is a retired citizen active in tracking State legislative policy.
As our governor makes the rounds to many of the political television programs in his quest for a presidential run, we in New Hampshire have the proof to let those reporters and pundits know that he is no moderate.
Look at his record on public education. He supports moving more funds each budget cycle away from public schools and to voucher programs, allowing our tax dollars to be used in private, religious, and home schools without public oversight.
Ethan Dewitt of the NH Bulletin reported in July of 2021, “Gov. Chris Sununu has signed a bill allowing public school districts to send public money to religious schools, lifting a longstanding funding barrier.” I have no issue with families choosing religious schools. But I don’t want my tax dollars used in a religious setting which may have vastly different views than mine on the place of women and LGBT people in our society.
He reappointed his conservative education commissioner to another five-year term, a man who has true animosity towards public school teachers, allowing every teacher to be challenged with loss of license by a parent over subjective judgment of their curriculum. The ban on teaching so-called “divisive concepts” was passed on his watch with no clear definition of how teachers would know when they have presented a topic that is out of bounds.
Sununu said he plans to talk up New Hampshire’s approach to gun policy at the NRA convention. “I think they saw what New Hampshire has done,” he said. New Hampshire’s gun laws are among the most permissive in the country and have become lax on Sununu’s watch, according to NHPR. The first bill Sununu signed after taking office in 2017 was a repeal of the law requiring permits in order to carry a concealed gun. NRA officials joined him at that bill’s signing ceremony.
Our governor claims to be pro-choice yet was the first governor to allow an abortion restriction to occur on his watch. He then turns to the audiences that are pro-life and says he’s “with them.” “I’ve done more on the pro-life issue, if you will, than anyone,” he told Jim Geraghty, co-host of the national podcast ‘Three Martini Lunch’, according to Annmarie Timmins with the NH Bulletin. Sorry, but you can’t have it both ways.
While he has been serving, many of the clinics that provide reproductive health care to women across the state have been defunded, losing the ability to provide birth control care, cancer screenings and basic health access, often to low-income populations. Ironic that those who want to eliminate abortions also cut funds to reduce access to birth control, the very tool that reduced the need for abortions.
In keeping with the Sununu family legacy, no action against climate change and for energy evolution and efficiency is happening at the state level. For more than 10 years, we have had no energy plan and are the only New England state that’s not part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. And we continue to have one of the highest energy costs in the nation, much like back in the 70s. Every homeowner saw the results of this inaction with our high utility bills this winter.
So voters, let the news people who come calling this summer know that our governor talks a good game of being moderate, but his record shows a Republican who does not support public education, has expanded gun rights, ignores climate change and sends mixed messages on a woman’s right to choose.