A state lawmaker with an influential role in education policy in New Hampshire drew swift condemnation on Wednesday after messages were revealed that appeared to show her yearning for a future with “segregated schools.”
In response to the criticism, Republican Representative Kristin Noble released a statement that strongly implied she had made the comments but was referring to separation on the basis of political partisanship, not race.
The whole uproar began when the Granite Post — an online publication affiliated with Courier Newsroom, which openly supports Democrats — released what it described as a “leaked group chat” among Republicans on the New Hampshire House Education Policy and Administration Committee, which Noble chairs.
The “EdPolicy2026” chat log appears to show committee members discussing whether to support Republican-backed legislation (House Bill 1122) to require that high school students learn about hunting, wildlife management, and responsible firearms usage.
Noble seemed to support the idea while expressing stronger interest in stopping “woke mind virus stuff.” After members expressed reticence about the hunting bill, Noble wrote, “when we have segregated schools we can add all the fun stuff lol,” and, “imagine the scores though if we had schools for them and some for us.”
Democrats pounced.
“Whether shouted, whispered, laughed about or typed in a signal chat to your colleagues, racism has no place in our legislature or our future,” Democratic Representative Alexis Simpson, the House minority leader, said in a statement that called segregation “a living scar carved into our schools.”
Simpson said no one who believes in segregated schools should lead the education policy committee.
Noble returned fire.
“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,” she said. “Schools like that will have terrible test scores because they focus on social justice rather than academics.”
She posted the statement on social media with a fund-raising link for her campaign.
Noble went on to say Republicans have been “self-segregating” for decades to escape “leftist indoctrination centers.” Families wouldn’t need the state’s “education freedom account” program, she said, if Democrats and Republicans each had their own schools.
That’s not to say Noble takes a live-and-let-live approach to public education. She’s cosponsoring legislation (House Bill 1792), named in honor of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, to purge certain liberal “world-views” from all K-12 public schools across the state.
The bill specifically calls for prohibiting school districts from teaching “Critical Race Theory” and “LGBTQ+ ideologies.” A similar “banned concepts” law was previously struck down by a federal judge for being “unconstitutionally vague,” though an appeal is pending.
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