InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/author/garry-rayno-indepthnh-org/page/18/)
New Hampshire was one of five states and one territory the Pew Charitable Trusts picked to analyze how they used federal pandemic aid funds and the risks to future budgets.
It may be mid-December with the days sprinting toward the 25th, but it does not feel like a festive season for many reasons.
The federal Center for Medicaid Services told the agency to stop using federal Medicaid funds to pay for services for five developmentally disabled adults receiving services at the Judge Rothenberg Educational Center in Massachusetts.
The state wants a Superior Court ruling on education funding to be reconsidered by the judge, and to stay an injunction requiring legislative action to fix the system.
One controversial issue the legislature has grappled with is a continuing moratorium on new charitable gaming facilities able to offer historic horse racing games, which have performed well above expectations.
From equitable education funding to extreme partisan gerrymandering, from education vouchers to voting rights, from constitutional protections to the date of the New Hampshire Presidential Primary, and from potential mass shootings to illegal legislative voting, the state dealt with all of this in one form or another during the 30 days of November.
The report was ready to go a couple of weeks ago, but two sections — one on the school atmosphere created by the state’s divisive concepts law, and the other lamenting the increased politicization of public education —- drew concern from Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, who sought to have them removed.
In a three-to-two decision Wednesday, the state Supreme Court echoed a US Supreme Court decision that determining what is extreme gerrymandering is outside the judicial branch to resolve without constitutional standards or guidance.
The Education Freedom Savings Account Oversight Committee reviewed its first report on the program Monday and will continue to fine tune it before a final vote.