A leaked group chat appears to show Republican members of the New Hampshire House Education Committee suggesting that students should be separated into white and non-white schools and implying that test scores would improve as a result.

According to Granite, the leaked messages came from a group chat titled “EdPolicy2026,” which appears to have taken place on the encrypted messaging app Signal. In a message attributed to the New Hampshire House Education Committee Chair, State Rep. Kristin Noble, the user wrote that Republicans could add “fun stuff” to public education “when we have segregated schools."

“Imagine the scores, though, if we had schools for them and some for us," Noble allegedly wrote.

A video screen recording of the chat shows a user identified as Rep. Katy Peternel, an assistant majority leader, reacting to Noble’s comment with a laughing emoji.

The recording appears to show multiple Republican lawmakers involved in high-level education policymaking in the state. Democrats on the committee said the comments were deeply disturbing.

“More than shocking. It’s disgusting,” State Rep. David Luneau, the ranking Democrat on the House Education Funding Committee, said in a statement. “It’s not who we are as a state. It’s not who we are as a country. And we’re better because we go to schools together and because we learn together and we work together.”

Noble is a sponsor of HB 1792, a 2026 bill that would ban the teaching of so-called “critical race theory” in New Hampshire public schools and allow students and parents to sue school districts for monetary damages. A similar “divisive concepts” law passed in 2021 was later struck down by a federal judge as unconstitutionally vague.

Both Noble and Peternel hold leadership roles within the House Republican caucus. The leaked messages mark the latest in a series of controversies involving Republican lawmakers and private group chats. In April 2025, another leaked chat showed prominent New Hampshire Republicans discussing violence against colleagues who defied party leadership.

Members of the group chat haven't publicly commented on the leaked messages.

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