The New Hampshire Executive Council on Wednesday tabled a $1.2 million extension of an existing childcare quality contract, with Republican councilors pushing back on the contractor’s stated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The pause leaves the future of professional development funding for the state’s Granite Steps for Quality program — a program that supports providers caring for children with special needs — uncertain heading into the next council meeting.
The contract amendment would have added $1,276,128 to an existing agreement with the Pyramid Model Consortium, the national resource center that helped design the early-childhood development framework underpinning Granite Steps for Quality. The funding is federal money, not state general fund spending, and would extend support for free statewide professional development, coaching, technical assistance, and inclusion-focused training. The total contract, which runs through fiscal year 2028, would climb to roughly $3.6 million if approved.
The decision to table came during the May 6 council meeting and was driven by concerns Councilor David Wheeler raised about the consortium’s stated organizational priorities. “Without seeing the curriculum, I can’t support this item,” Wheeler said. He added that he would not support a contract north of $1 million if it contained “politically correct teachings.”
What Granite Steps for Quality Does
Granite Steps for Quality is New Hampshire’s version of the Quality and Rating Improvement System, a structure used across many states to push continuous improvement in early-education programs. Providers opt in voluntarily and receive quarterly and annual payments tied to quality benchmarks. The Pyramid Model Consortium provides the curriculum frameworks, online learning modules, coaching support, and technical assistance that programs use to advance through the rating system.
The contract amendment that the council tabled would have funded specific deliverables: expanding free professional development for childcare workers, expanding the program’s coaching and training pathways, growing supports for teachers working with children who have special needs, and adding consultation services. It would also have funded administrative oversight of the partnership between the consortium and the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Department of Health and Human Services Associate Commissioner Chris Santaniello, addressing Wheeler’s concerns, told the council that the consortium’s reference to inclusion in its strategic priorities was tied to the practical reality of working with children who have disabilities. “[I am] not seeing what you’re referring about, I am suspecting that’s what it’s talking about, equal access to childcare for all children,” Santaniello said. The argument from the agency side is that “inclusion” in the curriculum context is about adapting practice for children of varying abilities, not about importing a partisan diversity framework into preschool classrooms.
The Political Layer
The dispute on the council reflects a broader national fight over how DEI language is used and what it carries with it. Republican councilors and the governor’s office have grown increasingly skeptical of contracts that reference diversity, equity, and inclusion as organizational priorities, even when those references appear in vendor mission statements rather than the deliverables the state is buying. Councilor John Stephen also pressed Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Weaver on why the underlying workforce recruitment and retention program had not been resolved sooner — a separate but related complaint that the agency has been slow to bring its childcare workforce strategy to a close.
The childcare workforce question is not abstract. New Hampshire continues to work through a documented shortage of childcare slots and a pipeline problem in early-education staffing. The state has spent years tightening its childcare scholarship program, recruitment efforts, and provider-side supports — work that other coverage of New Hampshire’s childcare landscape has tracked in detail. Programs that train and retain workers, including coaching arms like the one tied up in this contract, sit close to the center of that effort.
What Happens If the Contract Stalls
In her written explanation accompanying the contract, Commissioner Weaver warned that not authorizing the funding would result in “loss of necessary support for teachers, financial loss to programs, which may result in lower quality care for children and families.” The federal dollars in question are tied to specific quality-improvement work; if they do not flow through the consortium contract, the question becomes whether they can be redirected through another mechanism without breaking the program’s continuity.
For providers already enrolled in Granite Steps for Quality, the practical impact would show up in fewer training sessions, less coaching, and reduced inclusion-specific consultation. For councilors who tabled the contract, the bet is that more details — including curriculum review and a clearer statement of what the consortium does and does not bring with its DEI language — will arrive before the next vote. The contract was tabled, not killed, which leaves the option of restructuring or providing additional documentation before bringing it back.
What to Watch
The next Executive Council meeting will be the first opportunity to revisit the contract. Whether the Pyramid Model Consortium provides curriculum samples, whether the state agency reframes the contract scope, and whether Republican councilors are satisfied that they are buying inclusion-of-disability training rather than ideological DEI programming will all shape the outcome.
The broader question — whether New Hampshire keeps spending federal early-childhood quality dollars through national vendors that frame their mission in DEI terms — is one the council is likely to revisit on other contracts in the coming months.
For related coverage, see our reporting on After Months of Delay.
For related coverage, see our reporting on Nashua’s First Woman of Color on City Council and the Ad Executive Who Got There.
