#

New Hampshire’s political social media was abuzz Wednesday over word the state Board of Education was considering approving a video series from the conservative nonprofit PragerU for the Learn Everywhere program.

Granite State Democrats were in high dudgeon, filling Twitter with accusations of hate and homophobia. House Democratic Caucus Leader Matt Wilhelm (D-Manchester) warned PragerU content depicts cartoons “that suggest slavery was ‘no big deal,’” and “peddle anti-LGBTQ+ hate.”

It was an odd accusation, given the video series in question is about personal finances and balancing your checkbook.

The PragerU course under consideration (which can be viewed here) is called “Cash Course” and covers the basics of financial literacy, from how paychecks work, to getting a bank loan, to how to invest for retirement. The videos viewed by NHJournal do not discuss politics or present information with a political slant, and there was no mention of either slavery or sexuality.

“It’s disingenuous of the Democrats not to look at the actual material before making a judgment,” Frank Edelblut, New Hampshire’s Education Commissioner, said of the controversy.

PragerU, started by talk radio personality Dennis Prager, seeks to add its online financial literacy course to the state’s Learn Everywhere offerings. Learn Everywhere allows students to earn high school credits for skills and knowledge attained outside the classroom through optional undertakings.

In the wake of New Hampshire Democrats’ coordinated complaints, State Board of Education chair Drew Cline said he has heard from people upset about the state using PragerU content. But he has not heard from anyone who has looked at the materials and videos.

“The fear-mongering being done about this is unfortunate because these financial literacy videos are quite useful and entirely apolitical and provide students with quite valuable knowledge of how to manage their finances,” Cline said.

The videos offer straightforward lessons about basic money handling, free from political ideology or any of the hot-button culture war topics sometimes associated with Prager. That hasn’t stopped leading Democrats from blasting the state for even considering PragerU for Learn Everywhere, though none of them appear to have viewed the actual content.

“PragerU does not reflect New Hampshire values, and I’m appalled this organization has been put forward to work with NH students,” said Democratic candidate for governor Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig. “As governor, I’ll work with New Hampshire educators to strengthen public schools so every student receives a quality education.” 

Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington (D-District 2), who is running against Craig in the Democratic primary, said adding PragerU to the Learn Everywhere program would harm democracy.

“Pushing PragerU’s radical, political bias into our education system is yet another attempt by Edelblut to intentionally undermine the bedrock of our democracy. As governor, I’ll fight to strengthen our public schools so all NH children have the opportunity to succeed & thrive,” Warmington said.

NHJournal asked Rep. Wilhelm where in the PragerU series slavery is referred to as ‘no big deal’ as he claims. The top House Democrat declined to respond.

Cline and Edelblut argue the critics haven’t reviewed the material in question and don’t understand how Learn Everywhere works. 

“The important thing for people to realize, contrary to some irresponsible reporting this week, PragerU is not up for approval. The financial literacy course created by PragerU is up for approval,” Cline said.

Conservatives point to a double standard from Democrats in the area of academics, such as their support for racist classroom material in New Hampshire classrooms from author Ibram X. Kendi, who teaches White students are inherently bigoted due to their skin color.

“We have approved charter schools with strong left-of-center perspectives, we’ve approved schools with strong DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) components, and no one complained about that. We’re not trying to impose a political view on students; we’re trying to create options for students,” Cline said.

Learn Everywhere gives New Hampshire families more options for educational opportunities by allowing students to earn high school credits from approved programs at no cost to New Hampshire taxpayers. The Learn Everywhere classes are entirely optional and are meant to encourage students to learn outside the classroom.

Financial literacy is a valuable skill that many children are not learning at home. That puts them behind when they enter the working world or when they try to navigate decisions like taking out student loans.

“I wish somebody had taught me that in high school,” Cline said. “Not every kid has people in their family who can teach them basics about how to manage their finances.”

Learn Everywhere includes robotics courses, science classes, karate classes, music classes, and even after-school programs at High Brothers and Big Sisters venues.

“We think it’s important that our students learn,” Edelblut said. “Different students are going to connect in different ways.”

If the course is approved, students who opt for the PragerU financial literacy class would get a half credit, meaning they would still need to take another financial literacy class in order to get the whole credit.

Cline understands people who are turned off by Prager’s political views would be concerned about the course. That is why he encourages everyone to look at the videos online, which are posted for free. 

“There is nothing in this proposal that is political at all,” Cline said.

The State Board of Education will take up PrageU’s application on Thursday.

Former Democratic leader Jeffrey Woodburn won’t have to start serving jail time yet, despite convictions for criminal mischief stemming from allegations of domestic violence.

The one-time state Senate Minority Leader from Coös County plans to appeal his criminal mischief sentence while preparing for a new domestic violence trial. In March, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled he did not get a fair trial the first time and reversed the domestic violence convictions but let the criminal mischief charges stand.

Last week, Coös Superior Court Judge Peter Bornstein gave Woodburn until July 14 to file his sentence appeal for the criminal mischief charges. The new domestic violence trial is set for next spring. 

Woodburn was originally sentenced to two years in jail with all but 60 days suspended. 

Woodburn allegedly bit his then-girlfriend during a brawl after a Christmas party in 2017. Days later, he allegedly kicked the door to the woman’s house when she refused to let him inside. Earlier that year, in August 2017, he reportedly kicked her clothes drying, breaking the appliance, according to court records.

Woodburn has been fighting the charges for years, becoming a recurring headline for state Democrats. Woodburn was formally charged in August 2018 but still ran for reelection in the face of calls for his resignation. He won the Democratic primary but lost in the general election that year. 

Woodburn’s appearance in the news again as he fights the convictions coincides with news stories of other New Hampshire Democrats linked to violence against women.

Former State Rep. Stacie Laughton (D-Nashua) ended up in jail for weeks after the 2022 midterm elections on charges of stalking a woman and her family. State Democrats, desperate to edge out the House GOP’s razor-thin majority, stayed silent about Laughton for nearly a month. Democratic leaders only called for Laughton’s resignation when it became clear they would not have the majority with or without the Nashua seat.

Democratic U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen burned political capital backing President Joe Biden’s judicial nomination of lawyer Michael Delaney. Sexual assault victims, including Chessy Prout, opposed Delaney. Prout was a 15-year-old sexual assault victim who sued the elite St. Paul’s private school in Concord. Delaney, who represented the school, used his expertise in court to strip the teen girl of her anonymity.

Delaney’s nomination was finally torpedoed in May after weeks of heavy criticism from victims and advocates, but not before Hassan and Shaheen endorsed him.

Maybe he should have stayed in Florida.

House Speaker Sherman Packard is calling on New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella to investigate the possible attempted bribery of Democratic state Rep. Robin Vogt (D-Portsmouth) by left-wing activist groups.

Packard (R-Londonderry) sent Formella a letter Friday asking for an investigation into Vogt, making the case that either the progressive activists who offered Vogt a free plane ticket violated state bribery laws or Vogt did by failing to report it to authorities.

“The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to not only bring this matter to your attention for review of a potential violation of the law but also to ensure that it has been properly reported to law enforcement as required by the statute,” Packard wrote.

Formella’s spokesman, Michael Garrity, told NH Journal that the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office is looking into Packard’s allegations.

“At this time, the New Hampshire Department of Justice is reviewing a referral from the House Speaker’s office and will respond as appropriate in due course,” Garrity said.

The offer was made as a vote on the GOP’s Parents Bill of Rights approached. Vogt was vacationing in Florida on a long-planned trip. With the House nearly evenly split along partisan lines, progressive opponents of parents’ rights feared the bill could pass by as little as one vote. Left-wing activist Linds Jakows told Vogt he had no excuse to miss the session, as money was available to fly him back to New Hampshire.

“No. It is a luxury to actively choose to be in Florida for nearly a week now when there are funds to fly you to New Hampshire and back,” Jakows wrote to Vogt in a now-deleted tweet.

A free plane ticket would have been a clear violation of state law regarding gifts to legislators. The question before the attorney general is whether the offer of an illegal gift is itself against the law.

Vogt continues to reap the whirlwind from his decision to stay in Florida rather than return to Concord. Because he wouldn’t climb on a plane, his progressive allies are throwing him under the bus.

The leftist group New Hampshire Youth Movement (NHYM) revoked its endorsement of Vogt.

“This decision was not made lightly or out of spite,” NHYM’s Erika Perez wrote in a letter to House members. “NH Youth Movement is committed to having our base of young people be a huge part of decision-making, and after Rep. Vogt failed to show up to one of the most important floor votes of the year due to a vacation, our base was asking what we planned on doing to hold him accountable.”

Perez is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Manchester and is a registered lobbyist. According to a source, Perez has links to Linds Jakows, head of 603 Equity. It was Jakows who took to Twitter in the days before the Parents Bill of Rights vote to tell Vogt that there were “funds available” to cover his travel costs. After being questioned about the legality of those funds, Jakows claimed that “community members” were crowd-funding money for Vogt’s trip.

It was unclear who was raising money for Vogt, but in announcing its decision to revoke the endorsement, NHYM acknowledged on Twitter that it had taken part in communications to bring Vogt back to New Hampshire.

“Robin, despite all of our best direct efforts, did not show up in a way that NHYM can uphold as allyship. Because of that, we are revoking his endorsement, effective immediately,” the organization’s Twitter account stated.

New Hampshire Youth Movement is a registered 501 (c) 4 non-profit. 

Ultimately, Vogt stayed on vacation, and the Parents Bill of Rights (SB 272) was “indefinitely postponed” by a vote of 195-190, meaning the topic is dead under House rules for the rest of the current two-year legislative session.

Neither Jakows, Perez, nor Vogt responded to requests for comment. 

Packard’s letter cites RSA 640:2, Bribery in Official and Political Matters, which states it is a class B felony if a person “promises, offers, or gives any pecuniary benefit to another with the purpose of influencing the other’s action, decision, opinion, recommendation, vote, nomination, or other exercise of discretion as a public servant.”

Packard’s letter also noted it is a potential felony for the public servant not to report the attempted bribe; “Being a public servant, party official, candidate for electoral office, or voter, he solicits, accepts or agrees to accept any pecuniary benefit from another knowing or believing the other’s purpose to be as described in subparagraph I(a), or fails to report to a law enforcement officer that he has been offered or promised a pecuniary benefit in violation of subparagraph I(a).”

After Chris Rivet testified before the House Education Committee about the troubling, sexualized curriculum offered to his kindergarten-aged son, he was quickly labeled a liar on social media.

But documents shared with NHJournal show the program “Caring for Kids” is very real. The kindergarten curriculum in which adults encourage children to draw genitalia comes from WISE, an Upper Valley nonprofit with a history of putting questionable content into public elementary schools.

Rivet told NHJournal he initially did not want to testify last week about SB 272, the Parents Bill of Rights, because he did not want to deal with people opposed to the measure.

“I dislike how politicized it’s become. People fear speaking out because of the backlash,” Rivet said.

People who support the Parents Bill of Rights were labeled transphobic and “white supremacists” by elected Democrats like Rep. Maria Perez (D-Milford). Though initially hesitant, Rivet said Granite Staters need to know about what’s really going on in schools. So, he went to the State House and read from the “Caring for Kids” teacher’s manual.

“‘Now that we have talked about our bodies and our public and private parts, we are going to do an activity. We are going to trace our bodies, and then you can draw your body just as it looks when you come out of the bathtub or shower,’” Rivet read. “It then goes on, on the second page, to say, ‘If a child is hesitant about drawing, you can gently suggest adding more parts. Can you add your elbows? How about your fingernails? A penis? Another useful approach is to offer to draw for them. Where would you like me to put the nipples?’”

Rivet and his wife immediately saw red flags when they learned about the program, about which parents were not given prior notice.

“I thought, ‘Why does my kid need to learn the word vulva at 5 years old?’” Rivet said.

He asked not to use the name of his child’s school so that his son could avoid harassment.

The curriculum comes from WISE, a nonprofit with a mission to serve survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. WISE representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

The organization took heat in 2018 after it went to schools in Vermont and New Hampshire with a survey asking fifth graders about their sex lives, with questions ranging from gender and sexual identity to the sexual activities they engaged in.

School officials at the Windsor School, for example, were forced to apologize for the WISE-supplied questionnaire, which asked ten-year-old students questions about their romantic and sexual relationships, according to media reports, conducted without parental knowledge or consent.

“To any family involved in this survey, we sincerely apologize,” then-Superintendent David Baker said at the time. “Sometimes, in an effort to do good, people go too far, too fast.”

The aim of classes like the one Rivet objected to is to teach children about bodily integrity as part of a way to combat child sexual abuse. Rivet said it is clear there are good intentions with the class but dangerous execution. The class essentially has adult women coaching young boys on how to draw their own penises. If the gender roles were reversed, with an adult man teaching a 5-year-old girl how to draw her own vagina, most people would see the problem, he said.

“It gets really gross really quickly,” he said.

There are other programs with the same goals that are more age-appropriate, Rivet said. He said the one used by WISE includes inappropriate methods based on junk science. Rivet says he is a science teacher and former scientist. He investigated the program’s evidence-based data and found it wanting.

“The evidence behind the program is comically bad,” Rivet claims.

Rivet is frustrated by how his local school, district, and the state Department of Education responded to his complaint. He does not see parents getting better information about what is happening even if SB 272 becomes law. 

“I don’t have hope anyone will follow the Parents Bill of Rights even if it passes,” he said.

Giving parents notice about sex education classes in public schools is already mandated under New Hampshire law. But the Care for Kids program is being presented under the guise of something along the lines of a social-emotional learning program. 

Rivet says he is a big believer in public education, but felt he has no other choice than to send his son to a private school next year. He has friends who are making similar decisions, and Rivet expects that trend to continue. Enrollment in New Hampshire public schools has been dropping steadily for years.

“In the end, it’s still frustrating,” Rivet said. 

The New Hampshire Democratic Party’s top communications person took to Twitter to smear former GOP state Rep. Tim Baxter as an “anti-LGBTQ, Christian nationalist nut job.”

The problem is that Baxter, who gained national attention running a pro-liberty campaign for U.S. Congress last year, is openly gay.

In response to an NHJournal story about Baxter and fellow 2022 congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt working to win leadership positions in the New Hampshire Young Republicans (NHYR), state Democratic Party communications director Colin Booth tweeted, “Just what every young person wants, to be associated with a bunch of anti-LGBTQ, Christian nationalist nut jobs.”

When confronted with the fact that Baxter is gay Booth doubled down, suggesting the Republican is homophobic.

“Remarkably, gay people are just as capable of supporting anti-LGBTQ legislation and policies as straight people,” Booth tweeted.

Openly gay elected officials denounced Booth’s insulting comments targeting Baxter and questioned why his boss, state party chair Ray Buckley — who is also gay — is defending Booth’s behavior.

Getting attacked by the left because of their sexuality is nothing new for gay Republicans said state Sen. Dan Innis (R-Bradford). Innis was recently called a “self-hater” when he came out as a Republican.

“I just don’t understand if you’re gay you’re suddenly supposed to be a Democrat,” he said.

Baxter said Monday that while he makes no secret of his sexuality, he hasn’t made identity part of his political campaigns, choosing instead to run on his ideas. 

“Unlike Colin, I don’t think you’re a bigot if you don’t subscribe to far-left propaganda on LGBT issues,” Baxter said. “It is sad that I don’t see tolerance and respect for people of differing beliefs from Colin, Ray [Buckley], and the entirety of the NHDP. Thankfully, I do see it from the Republican Party, and the vast majority of the American people.”

Republican voters want to hear about a candidate who will solve the problems they face, not about how that candidate identifies, Baxter said.

“I spoke about my voting record in the legislature, my nonprofit work, and my business experience. Occasionally my sexual orientation came up, but most Republican voters didn’t care because they care about ideas, not identity politics,” Baxter said.

Booth did not respond to a request for comment Monday, nor did representatives from alleged gay rights advocacy organizations like GLAAD, or GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders. According to Baxter, he has not reached out to apologize for his smear.

Gay Republicans said they aren’t surprised, comparing it to the ongoing race-based attacks from progressives targeting GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as alleged traitors to their race.

Rep. Joe Alexander (R-Goffstown), another openly gay Republican, said he has experienced intolerance from people on the left when they learn he isn’t in lockstep with their politics because of his sexuality. He was stunned by Booth’s attack on Baxter, and by extension, other gay Republicans.

“I’m struggling to understand why Colin believes the NHYRs are ‘anti-LGBTQ nut jobs,” Alexander said. “Until very recently the chairman of the NHYRs was a member of that community.”

Alexander is the former NHYR chair.

Innis said he and other gay Republicans refuse to become political hostages to a party that does not share their most fundamental beliefs. He also notes the previous Democratic president, Barack Obama, opposed gay marriage when he ran for office.

New Hampshire Republicans, on the other hand, are more than welcoming to members of the LGBTQ community, he said.

“We believe in freedom, liberty, and equality. These are the ideals that made America great,” Innis said. “Tim ran that way. I ran that way too. People in my party supported me in my primary two to one.”

Democrats are too focused on identity politics to understand what voters want, Innis said. People want representatives and leaders who do what is right, and not what is politically correct.

“They’re about identity politics, and Republicans aren’t,” Innis said. “Our politics are about what’s right for the people of New Hampshire and the country. And isn’t that what matters?”