Legislative Update: Disinformation - April 04, 2025 Windham Independent
Legislative Update - Disinformation
My last letter to the editor was in early January, because serving on both the Finance committee and the Education Funding committee means I was scheduled to be in Concord every workday since early January. Other than three unscheduled days during the February school vacation, today is the first day off I got since then, so I can finally write a letter.
A few weeks ago, you may have seen this comment on Facebook: “Am I correct that Daniel Popovici-Muller introduced legislation to remove all professional requirements to be hired as a public school teacher on the education committee today?!“
No, they were not even close to correct - they only got my name and “today” right. I was not introducing legislation, I was commenting on an amendment proposed by a different legislator. It was not the education committee, it was the Finance 2 committee. And the amendment was not removing ANY requirements to be hired as a teacher.
NHPR reported that “the University System of New Hampshire’s budget would be cut by about $80 million, including $50 million to UNH alone.” They likely misunderstood a budget line and thought the $30 million of general funds replaced in the USNH budget with a different source of funds were a budget reduction, leading to the incorrect claim that $80 million would be cut over the two years instead of $50 million.
WMUR reported that we cut 30% of the USNH budget… but we did not. We did reduce the general funds contribution to USNH from $91.24 million to $66.24 million, a 27.4% (not 30%) reduction in the state funding for USNH (not their budget).
But WMUR reported that number as if we recommended reducing the entire USNH budget by 30%, which led to many people across the state worrying over possible campus closures and other dire consequences.
In reality, while the $25 million/year cut will be challenging for USNH, their annual report for 2024 shows their total revenues to be $1.187 Billion - we cut 2.1% of their total revenues, not 30% of their budget. To put things into perspective, USNH offered 1.1 billion in financial aid during the last 5 years. It has $988 millions in endowment funds, and $207 millions in Cash and cash equivalents.
Quite a different picture than the 30% cut from the USNH budget that WMUR made everyone think was being discussed, right?
It is hard to keep up with everything we do in Concord. But please, keep in mind that many things that you see on social media or news media are simply untrue. If you are concerned, please reach out to me at 603 267 4142 (call or text), or dpmwindham@gmail.com (a quick call or text after emailing me would ensure I never miss an email from you) with any questions or concerns.
Daniel Popovici-Muller
Windham State Representative
Vice Chairman, Finance 2