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 code of conduct for educational professionals and shall justify disciplinary sanctions.”
Translation: Their version of loyalty means staying silent on teaching an accurate representation of our nation’s history and failing to stay silent will result in taking away your teaching credentials. This is the state of New Hampshire politics in 2021.
“Our children deserve the freedom to learn to develop the knowledge and skills to reckon with our past, shape a better future, and pursue their dreams. Bills like this one take away that freedom,” said Megan Tuttle, NEA-NH President.
“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 pass laws to ban learning from the mistakes of our past and erase leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. who stood up to racism and changed our country for the better. This is clearly an anti-freedom bill,” said Tuttle.
“Where are the bills to help us provide engaging lessons in small classes, nurses and counselors who care for our kids, and safe schools where every child belongs? Proposing anti-freedom censorship bills is not the work of a pro-education legislature.”
This bill is one of many introduced this year by anti-education politicians that we will be actively opposing. Very soon our Legislative Dashboard and Action Center will be updated with these bills and the actions you can take to make a difference.