What would Daniel Webster say?
Daniel Webster, one of New Hampshire’s greatest statesmen, championed public schools as the bedrock of a free society. He believed the preservation of our free institutions rests on educating the people, and that every citizen benefits, even if they have no children in school.
Today we are eroding that legacy. Although our public school students rank among the best in the country on national achievement tests, WalletHub’s 2026 rankings place New Hampshire dead last as a place to teach. Our state already leans on local property taxes more than any other to fund schools, even after the Supreme Court ruled our lawmakers in Concord were underfunding them. Yet the Legislature keeps expanding vouchers that divert public education dollars to private options.
House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, now running for Speaker, has referred to public schools as government schools and has written that they are “the primary breeding grounds for polarizing propaganda.” Meanwhile, NHPR reported that a homeschool center run by his wife received $28,750 in a single year in voucher funds. This fall, that center is offering children’s classes in lock-picking, gun marksmanship, Dungeons & Dragons and conspiracy theory.
Is this what we are dismantling our public schools for? Shouldn’t the state meet its legally mandated obligation to local classrooms and local taxpayers before it funds these private alternatives?
What would Daniel Webster, looking down from his statue on the State House Grounds, say?