Rep. Richard Littlefield: Facts, not emotion, is crucial in building legislation

According to USAFacts.org, 1.12% of births in the U.S. are to mothers under the age of 18 as of 2020. In 2020, there were 1,765 reported births to mothers between the ages of 10 and 14, according to another source.

Compared to abortions for all of the other reasons in New Hampshire and nation-wide, procedures due to rape and incest are rare no matter how you look at the situation. As a parent of two daughters, I would have voted another way if the state had an established and documented problem in that area. Contrary to popular belief, legislating is done right when facts outweigh emotions.

 

Families in Laconia pay nearly $19,000 a year per pupil for their children to get an education in public schools.Do families see a return on investment?

 

Laconia High School, for instance, is bottom 50% in graduation rates, math proficiency 20%-24%, reading proficiency 40%-44%. Laconia Middle School math proficiency 29%, reading and language arts 34%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics and New Hampshire Department of Education.

 

This is why I support the Education Freedom Account Program.

 

The EFA Program allows parents to spend up to $4,600 through the program only and gives them the opportunity to mold adequate and appropriate educations for their child or children who are not finding academic success in public schools. It's unacceptable that local families are paying so much for education that leaves so much to be desired academically, mentally and emotionally.

 

Again we come to an emotionally charged topic of guns and federal gun control in a state that ranks among the highest in overall safety. Everystate.org says that in an average year in NH 143 people die and 133 people are wounded by guns. In fact, NH has the 44th-highest rate of gun violence in the U.S., which makes us the sixth-safest state in the country for gun violence, which also means that NH gun owners are among the safest and most responsible in the country with federal laws and regulations coming from D.C.

 

Politicians in Washington, D.C., are attempting to make blanket rules for states that desperately need them like Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Oregon and applying them to states and gun owners that don't need them in order to be safe.

 

Eight percent of the total gun use in NH is homicides, which is dwarfed by the rate of suicide gun deaths at 89%. On an average year, 14 people die by homicide, while 54 are wounded in other incidents. We have the second-lowest rate of gun homicides and violence in the United States.

 

So with an objective look, numbers have gone up in some instances but the Granite State is still among the safest overall.

 

I don't support increased taxes and large amounts of spending to get things done all at once when they can be done incrementally and responsibly. That is why I don't support the House Democrats' version of climate action. I do however support HB 1454 protecting 64 state parks from future landfill contamination, which saves our land, our lakes and massive amounts of tax dollars long term.

 

I'm also in favor of developing clean, efficient and most importantly cheap sustainable nuclear energy. Imagine 250 years of clean, efficient and cheap energy without having to figure out how to dump, replace solar panels every 10 to 20 years or having to tax citizens to repair windmills when they inevitably break down.

 

Are we going to continue to act like the solar and windmill industries are the right way to go when we have another option?

 

Now we have guns around polling locations. Why would we legislate around issues we don't have?

 

We have an issue with ideology in the classroom. We have issues with fentanyl use, homelessness and poverty, but we don't have an issue with unsafe environments made by folks open carrying on Election Day. I have been voting in New Hampshire elections for 18 years and have seen electioneering and other election-related issues in more instances than I have seen angry folks or guns.

 

Marcia Hayward brought up colleagues of mine who made mistakes and found themselves embroiled in controversy. Both made mistakes in conduct and apologized to their communities for what had happened, and were taken to task by the court of public opinion. I would just like to bring up a few more of my colleagues who found themselves in hot water over their actions.

 

Rep. Maria Perez made distasteful, harmful comments about our ally Israel. Rep. Sherry Frost recently posted on Twitter advocating for what is called a "blood eagle" for Republicans. Look that up and you'll be just as surprised as I was. And finally, Rep. Nicole Klein Knight infamously shouted the N-word at a young BIPOC activist during a heated discussion before calling house security to have him removed.

 

In these cases one would believe that the court of public opinion would have scorched the earth under their feet as was done to Republicans, but that wasn't the case. Zero pushback from colleagues or the public. If we are going to live in an equitable society people should be treated equally whether they have a D or an R next to political affiliation.

 

To end, I want to talk about the Parental Bill of Rights. Parents go into meetings with teachers and other applicable staff everyday and feel they are not getting anywhere. Parents are meeting with superintendents and school boards and being pushed back over what they feel are valid concerns with schools and academics.

 

It's high time that families attend meetings and walk out feeling like real and substantive change is coming. Unfortunately, that is not the society we live in.

Parents are seeing sexually subjective books in elementary school libraries around the country. My own daughter in the Laconia school system had  sexually subjective homework given to her when she was home sick with COVID. I had the video in question removed from the system so no other student would be forced to watch it. Parents should know exactly what their kids are learning and should be able to stand side by side with teachers to mold an acceptable and adequate education that fit their child's needs. 

 

This bill also says that if an investigation is started by the school, teacher, guidance counselor or any other applicable staff for a range of behaviors then parents should be notified. Those behaviors do not include sexual preferences or preferred pronouns. It's amazing how things can get twisted and flipped.

 

I hope I was able to bring some light to Hayward's letter to the editor, and I hope to earn your support Nov. 8.

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