Two republicans in the New Hampshire State House of Representatives will introduce a bill this session that would restrict public schools teachers’ political speech.
The proposed “CHARLIE Act,” short for “Countering Hate and Revolutionary Leftist Indoctrination in Education,” prohibits “purposeful division, dialectical worldviews, critical consciousness or anti-Constitutional indoctrination” in K-12 public schools in the state, according to the bill’s draft language.
Schools found in violation of the bill could be fined up to $10,000 and educators could risk losing their teaching licenses.
Even without the law, teachers have faced repercussions for their speech in the wake of Kirk’s assassination. A Manchester Memorial High School teacher, for example, was suspended after referring to Kirk as a Nazi and posting on social media that he was “glad” about Kirk’s death.
In a statement on the social platform X, N.H. State Rep. Mike Belcher, R-Carroll, who will sponsor the bill, said New Hampshire classrooms have been “hijacked” by “woke activists who wield education as a weapon to indoctrinate kids with Marxist ideology.”
“Our children deserve a real education,” Belcher wrote. “They should not be subjected to the poisonous fringe theories of the radical Left that condition them to despise their own country, distrust their neighbors and reject the very Constitution that guarantees their freedom.”
Belcher declined to comment further.
N.H. State Rep. Jared Sullivan, D-Grafton, said in an interview the bill is a “political stunt,” criticising its language.
“If [Majority Leader] Jason Osborne was acting in good faith, he wouldn’t have put the term ‘leftist ideology’ in his bill,” Sullivan said. “Osborne isn’t trying to fix the problem of a divided society. He’s trying to divide it further.”
Osborne did not respond to a request for comment.
The bill would mandate “neutral discussions” about the Constitution, LGBTQ+ issues and the legal system.
Sullivan said the N.H. GOP has “put LGBTQ+ issues front and center” to get their base “fired up.” He said that he believes there should be “fair conversations” on “divisive concepts” such as “transgender people in sports.”
“If you want to discuss trans people in sports, the conversation has two sides to it,” Sullivan said. “I think what a good education system would do, and one that we should strive for, is to have a bunch of different ideas presented.”
State Sen. Timothy Lang, R-Belknap, who serves as the Republican majority whip, said in an interview with The Dartmouth that the proposed legislation is a “frustration bill” — or a reaction to “decreasing standardized test scores” and a lack of emphasis on “basic education.”
“We’re having teachers advocate for social issues, but at the same time, our kids can’t pass math tests,” Lang said. “This bill is aimed at reminding [teachers] that they are public employees — their job is not politics. There’s no real reason to talk to a third grader about LGBTQ issues.”
Lang added that he believed critics’ concerns about the bill infringing on free speech are misplaced, saying, “the First Amendment doesn’t enter into your workplace.”
Dartmouth Democrats political director Beatrice Reichman ’27 characterized the bill as a Republican effort to “win cheap politics” rather than to enact “positive changes in the New Hampshire public education system.”
“New Hampshire Republican legislators seem to only care about public education when they see an opportunity to exert control and restrict ideologies that they see as a threat to their own power,” Reichman said.
Dartmouth Conservatives president Jack Coleman ’26 said teachers “have every right to speak their minds.”
“That being said, especially for K-12 public schools, I think the state has the right to mandate what is taught in schools,” he said. However, he added, the CHARLIE Act “is a bandaid solution. I think we should have a solution where we encourage more conservatives to go into academia.”
Jack Coleman ’26 is a member of The Dartmouth’s podcast team. He was not involved in the writing or editing of this story.
