Croydon, New Hampshire (Pop. 801 in 2020) boasts the oldest continuously operating one-room schoolhouse in the country, housing Grades 1 through 4 before tuitioning students to other schools in the area. It also boasts an active Libertarian voter base, part of the Free State Project.
Whatever faults Libertarians have, they do understand that the most important part of running a democracy is showing up to vote. At Croydon’s annual meeting, held during a snowstorm, the Free Staters were a majority. Select Board member and Free Stater Ian Underwood proposed, and the attendees voted 20-14 to approve, a reduction of the school budget from $1.7 million to $800,000. The town’s voters then discovered that the state considered the vote binding, despite its obvious inadequacy. The Libertarians had provided no actual budget — just a number — but the School Board, whose Chairperson Jody Underwood is Ian’s wife, was required to send one to the State:
To stay within the slashed budget, [Jody] Underwood said the school district is reducing its tuition payments for students in fifth grade through 12th grade down to $9,000 annually [from $17,800] — no longer using the current Newport High School tuition as the maximum. Parents can apply to the Children’s Scholarship Fund for an Education Freedom Account or a tax credit scholarship to make up the difference.
And the school district will teach the Croydon Village School students, who range from kindergarten through fourth grade, using a state-sponsored microschool vendor, Prenda.
Switching Croydon Village School to a microschool would mean the dismissal of the school’s staff.
Many Croydon voters were unsurprisingly upset. In time, though, they learned of one remaining mechanism to reverse the vote: a petition signed by at least 50 registered voters to hold a special meeting. At that meeting, at least half of the town’s 565 registered voters would have to attend and vote by majority to reject the budget and restore the one originally proposed.
That’s a heavy lift for any town. Still, 140 signatures quickly appeared on a petition, and a meeting was duly scheduled for May 7th. Letters to the editors of local papers went back and forth, particularly by Ian Underwood. There were reports of secret meetings by the Select Board. The Supervisor of the Voting Checklist resigned in protest. The Free Staters urged a boycott of the revote. To an outsider, it appeared Croydon was falling apart at the seams.
Then, May 7th arrived. 379 voters turned up, and voted 377-2 to reverse the cuts and restore the budget.
Angi Beaulieu, a former school board member, was thrilled with the vote, and said she is going to run again for school board in March of 2023.
Beaulieu said the number of Free Staters in town is growing.
“We don’t want what they are trying to sell and that was voiced loud and clear what they are trying to do in this town,” Beaulieu said.
It’s just one pair of votes in a small town, with no national consequences. But the lesson is clear: When apathy wins, democracy loses. Democracy wins when we participate. If we still want a democratic republic, we damned well better participate.