New Hampshire’s New Governor Wants to Ban Cell Phones from Schools

New Hampshire’s new Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) announced during her inaugural speech on Thursday that she would work to ban cell phones in the state’s public schools, citing the harm done by distracting devices to children’s education.

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“Today, I am also announcing that we will be taking action to ban cell phones in our schools. Screens are negatively impacting our learning environments, drawing students’ attention away from their classes, and becoming a barrier for teachers to do their jobs — no more,” said Gov. Ayotte on X.

Ayotte has not yet elaborated on her plan or specified whether she will try to impose the ban on private and public schools, although her comments came as she specifically discussed public schools.

Her comments drew praise from Jonathan Haidt, an author and New York University professor.

Haidt authored The Anxious Generation, dedicated to exposing the harms done to children by social media and phones, and connecting those harms to the rise in mental illness across the country.

“Kids in New Hampshire will thank you for this…. though maybe not in the first week that their school goes phone free. But after a few weeks, they find out how much fun it is to just talk with friends without phones,” said Haidt on X.

The governor also promised to fight against lowering standards for graduation, arguing that lower standards produce graduates unprepared to enter the workforce or college.

“We have done struggling students a disservice by passing them along when they don’t grasp the material at hand. This problem only snowballs the longer it goes on. We can’t allow our standards to slide because the student is the one who pays the price for our unwillingness to have tough conversations about whether they are truly prepared for the next step,” said Ayotte.

During her speech, Ayotte expressed a desire to see schools encourage students to go into trades rather than accruing debt for university degrees that, in many cases, do not lead to a career.

Since her inauguration, Ayotte has also promised to expand New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Accounts (EFA) program.

Under the EFA program, families can apply for grants to help afford sending their children to a private school or homeschooling them if they do not want to enroll them in the public school system.

Although Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine) has not taken action to get cell phones out of schools, individual schools and school districts have moved to restrict the devices.

As of September 20, over 40 Maine public schools have either banned or restricted cell phone use throughout the school day.