Monthly Archives: December 2021

NEA-New Hampshire Sues Edelblut and State Over Divisive Concepts Law

ACLU, LARGEST TEACHERS’ UNION NEA-NH, LEADING DISABILITY AND LGBTQ+ ADVOCACY GROUPS, AND NH LAW FIRMS FILE FEDERAL LAWSUIT CHALLENGING NH CLASSROOM CENSORSHIP LAW “Banned concepts” law unconstitutionally chills discourse on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and gender identity in schools and public workplaces Lawsuit brought by two NH diversity, equity, and inclusion school administrators and teachers’ union NEA-NH CONCORD, N.H. – A diverse group of educators, advocacy groups, and law firms filed a federal lawsuit today challenging a New Hampshire classroom censorship law, contained within state budget bill HB2, which discourages public school teachers from teaching and talking about race, […]

2022 NEA-NH Elections Notice

Filing Deadline is January 18, 2022 Did you know NEA-NH has been around for 165 years? Founded in 1854, the New Hampshire State Teachers Association became one of the “founding ten” state education associations that formed the National Education Association in 1857. Known today as NEA-NH, and comprised of more than 17,000 members, our mission to advocate for the children of New Hampshire and public school employees and to promote lifelong learning remains true after more than 165 years. Our members are public school educators in all stages of their careers, including classroom teachers and other certified professionals, instructors at […]

NEA-NH Supports AFT’s Legal Action to Ensure Every Child Has Access to a Quality Public Education

CONCORD, NH – December 13, 2021 – New Hampshire educators want to provide every child an accurate and quality education that imparts honesty about who we are and integrity in how we treat others. Certain politicians want to censor the truth of our history and ban us from learning from the mistakes of our past. “We agree with our colleagues at AFT that the divisive concepts law is flawed, and we support their efforts to advocate for students in court,” said Megan Tuttle, NEA-New Hampshire President. From the time the bill was introduced until Governor Sununu signed it into law, […]

Legislative Update – Voucher Expansion Proposal to Lead-off Session in January

By Brian Hawkins, NEA-New Hampshire Government Relations Director When the legislature returns for the 2022 legislative session, the first order of business will be addressing vetoes and retained bills (bills held in committee from 2021). One of those retained bills held in House Education was HB 607, creating a local school voucher program. Republican leadership on the House Education committee muscled a recommendation to pass this bill with an amendment, even permanently replacing one of their own members from committee who would not vote for this bill, to do so. The legislation would grant parents 80% of money raised and […]

The Scott McGilvray Children’s Fund – Real Students, Real Families, Real Help

Created by NEA–New Hampshire, the Scott McGilvray Children’s Fund helps kids be ready to learn because a child’s physical, social, or emotional needs should never stand in the way of classroom success.  For more than 25 years we’ve helped children obtain items or services essential to their well-being and success in school, including clothes, medical care, food, transportation, or related services not provided by other agencies. We all know that educators are caring and empathetic – it’s what drove many of us to the profession in the first place. Very often, an educator is the first one to notice when […]

To Some NH Politicians, Loyalty Means Silence

Representatives Lekas, Layon, Cordelli, and Ammon have introduced HB 1255 to “expand the prohibition on teacher advocacy of subversive doctrines.” Digging back to a New Hampshire Teacher Loyalty law that prohibits educators from advocating communism as a political doctrine, they added prohibitions on advocating “any doctrine or theory promoting a negative account or representation of the founding and history of the United States of America” including teaching that “the United States was founded on racism.” For good measure they also propose that “a violation of this section shall be considered a violation of the New Hampshire code of ethics and […]