New Hampshire Rep. Kristin Noble, the Republican chair of the House Education Policy and Administration Committee, publicly said she supports separating schools by political party after private messages surfaced that appeared to show her advocating for “segregated schools.”
Noble’s statement, released Wednesday through the House Republican Office, followed a report by the left-leaning news site Granite Post that published screenshots of messages from a Signal chat labeled “EdPolicy2026.” The messages were attributed to a user labeled “Kristin Noble” and included: “when we have segregated schools we can add all the fun stuff lol,” followed by, “imagine the scores though if we had schools for them and some for us.”
The controversy lands as New Hampshire lawmakers continue to debate the direction of public education funding and the expansion of private school options, including the state’s Education Freedom Account program, which allows families to use public dollars for private education expenses.
In her public statement, Noble, a Bedford representative, said she was referring to political separation rather than racial segregation, even though the phrase “segregated schools” typically refers to racial segregation. “Republicans have been self-segregating out of the leftist indoctrination centers for decades,” Noble wrote, apparently referring to public schools.
“It’s funny to watch the Democrats feign outrage when I thought they’d be supportive of managing their own schools, with libraries full of porn, biological males in girls sports and bathrooms, and as much DEI curriculum as their hearts desire,” Noble wrote. “Schools like that will have terrible test scores because they focus on social justice rather than academics.”
Noble argued that having separate schools for Democrats and Republicans would reduce demand for Education Freedom Accounts. “If Democrats had their own schools, and we had our own, families wouldn’t need to avail themselves of the wildly successful education freedom account program,” she wrote. “It’s a win / win proposition.”
Before Noble released her statement, the Concord Monitor asked whether she had written the messages attributed to her in the Signal chat. According to the Monitor’s reporting, Noble declined to answer and said she was “sure there is” more context behind them.
The Signal chat “EdPolicy2026,” as shown in Granite Post screenshots, appeared to include at least some Republican members of the House committee Noble chairs. A user labeled “Katy Peternel,” identified as the committee’s vice chair, responded to the first message with a laughing emoji. Other members in the chat did not appear to acknowledge the comments, according to the Monitor’s description of the screenshots.
The episode comes amid a broader push by New Hampshire Republicans to expand private education options. According to the Monitor, the Legislature established the Education Freedom Account program in 2021 and expanded it last year. At the same time, Republican lawmakers have resisted increasing state funding for public education, even after the New Hampshire Supreme Court ordered the Legislature to do so, according to prior reporting cited by the Monitor.
The Monitor reported that private school enrollment in New Hampshire has increased 6% over the last five years while public school enrollment has dropped 4% over the same period. The state does not collect data on private school test scores, the Monitor reported.
A Monitor analysis conducted last year found that the largest enrollment change has occurred at the state’s independent Christian schools, which collectively saw a 30% increase in students since the Education Freedom Account program launched. The Monitor also reported that nearly 90% of the money families spent on tuition through the program went to religiously affiliated schools.
In prior comments cited by the Monitor, Michael Kingsley, the leader of Trinity Christian School in Concord, said families may view religious schools as a place for conservative education. “I think that religious schools are probably seen as a wall as a bastion against some of these current issues that tend to be very divisive,” Kingsley previously told the Monitor. “And so the families that are saying, ‘We want our students in a conservative place where they’re going to be taught traditional values,’ see a religious school as being that.” The Monitor reported that Kingsley’s school was the third-largest recipient of Education Freedom Account tuition dollars last school year.
The Monitor also noted that the state does not release data on the racial demographics of private schools, while adding that political and racial segregation have historically been linked. Using a ProPublica database based on voluntary surveys from private schools, the Monitor reported that three of the four largest private school beneficiaries of the Education Freedom Account program had a higher percentage of white students than their cities’ public school districts.
The gap was most pronounced at Trinity High School in Manchester, where ProPublica data showed 86% of students were white compared with 52% in the local public school district. The Monitor reported that, overall, ProPublica’s data indicates private schools in New Hampshire are slightly less white than public schools, a figure the Monitor said appears to be influenced by the diversity of large prep schools. The ProPublica data cited was from the 2021-22 school year.
Democratic leaders condemned the comments attributed to Noble. House Democratic leader Alexis Simpson said in a statement, “Segregation is not a relic to be mocked; it is a living scar carved into our schools, our communities and our democracy.” Simpson added, “It was built through violence, enforced by law and justified by indifference.”
Rep. Dave Luneau, a Hopkinton Democrat and the ranking member on Noble’s committee, called the comments “disgusting” in a brief interview. “They represent where education was in the country more than a hundred years ago,” he said.
Noble is serving her second term as a state representative. She became chair of the Education Policy and Administration Committee months ago, according to the Monitor, after Rep. Glenn Cordelli resigned due to a move out of state.
During this legislative session, Noble has sponsored bills that would prohibit public schools from teaching “critical race theory or LGBTQ+ ideologies,” allow the state Department of Education to withhold funding from public schools under certain circumstances, and remove the enrollment cap for the Education Freedom Account program, according to bill descriptions cited by the Monitor. This controversy comes as federal courts have been scrutinizing New Hampshire’s education policies, with ongoing legal challenges to the state’s approach to diversity and equity in schools.
Among Noble’s Republican colleagues on the committee, the Monitor reported that only Rep. Mike Belcher of Wakefield responded when asked about the messages and Noble’s statement. Belcher wrote in an email that he interpreted Noble’s initial message as “an off-hand quip meant to be humorous.” He added that he did not think ideologically segregated schools were “realistic or on the table at the moment.”
However, Belcher said he believes that public schools are, “in a de facto sense ‘Democrat’ schools,” and wrote that “many Republicans and others have availed themselves of the successful EFA program because they don’t desire that sort of education for their children.”
The education funding debate extends beyond political ideology, as New Hampshire schools are already facing significant budget pressures that complicate efforts to address both traditional academic needs and the political tensions surrounding curriculum and school choice.
It remains unclear, based on the reporting provided, whether Noble or legislative leaders plan any formal action related to her comments or her role as committee chair. For now, the dispute is centered on the leaked chat messages, Noble’s subsequent statement, and the ongoing fight at the State House over public school policy and the use of public money for private education.
