First Week of 2024 Session Starts with Action on Retained Bills and Hearings on Extreme Voucher Expansion Bills and “Parental Bill of Rights”

This is the first week of the 2024 Legislative Session. The state Senate is in session on January 3 and the House of Representatives is in session on January 3 and 4.  

Let’s start with a state legislature primer/refresh. In New Hampshire, all bills eventually get a floor vote in their respective chamber. First up this week, the House and Senate will act on all bills that were held in committees from last year (retained bills). Each bill has a recommendation from the committee it was heard in. Committee recommendations include Ought to Pass (OTP), Ought to Pass with Amendment (OTP/A), Inexpedient to Legislate or ITL (kill the bill), and Interim Study (study this issue further but take no further action on it). 

NEA-New Hampshire is tracking more than 250 bills filed this year that would impact our members and public education in our state.

In New Hampshire, every bill gets a hearing – and the Senate is wasting no time jumping straight in to bill hearings for 2024 bills this week, including in the Senate Education Committee.

SB 341: Reject Return of Parental Bill of Rights Provision

ACTION REQUESTED: Please sign in and/or submit written testimony in OPPOSITION to this bill being heard at 9am on Thursday, January 4th in the Senate Education Committee using the Senate remote sign in page (full instructions below).

The first hearing of the 2024 Senate Education Committee will be SB 341, relative to mandatory disclosure by school district employees to parents. This bill is nothing more than an attempt to pass a portion of a version of previously considered so-called “parental rights” legislation that was rejected in the House two years in a row and opposed overwhelmingly by educators, LGBTQ+ rights advocates, and the public at large.  

SB 341 proposes a new law regarding communication between parents and employees of a public school district. The bill would require that within 10-days, “written requests by parents regarding information relating to their child submitted to any employee of the school district in which the child is enrolled shall be answered completely and honestly to the extent permitted by law.” As with similarly proposed bills, this legislation lacks sufficient student privacy protections and definition. This approach is once again coupled with threatening language stipulating that a violation of this law would require the employee be terminated, and that a parent can appeal any school board decision on discipline to the State Board of Education.  

SB 341 is yet another example of extreme politicians seeking to drive a wedge between parents and educators because of politics, not because it is in the best interest of the student. Parents and educators have been working well together for a long time in New Hampshire. The recent report from the legislative Committee to Study New Hampshire Teacher Shortages and Recruitment Incentives found that: “Classroom teachers are feeling and reporting stress and concerns for consequence as a result of legislation proposed and passed in our state house.” Specifically, the report identified teachers leaving the profession often citing the climate and culture as their biggest factor in their departure from education in New Hampshire altogether. SB 341 would further exacerbate those stressors with no benefit to students and could drive current and prospective educators away from the profession.  

Please click here to urge the Senate Education Committee to reject this attack on family-educator relationships by opposing SB 341. Follow these steps: 

1. Click the date that the bill you are interested in is being heard – January 4 
2. Select the committee that is hearing the bill – Senate Education 
3. Select the bill you are interested in – SB 341 
4. Select a category – Member of the public 
5. Indicate your position on this bill – “I OPPOSE this bill” 
6. Click continue 
7. Enter your name and contact information 
8. Click continue 
9. Carefully review the information to ensure it is entered correctly. If it is correct, check the box and click continue.  

SB 442 would expand the private school voucher program without any income restriction for a student who was denied a transfer under the state’s manifest hardship law. Under current law, a parent or guardian can apply for a manifest hardship exemption, which means that “a student has a documented hardship in his or her current educational placement; and that such hardship has a detrimental or negative impact on the student’s academic achievement or growth, physical safety, or social and emotional well-being. Such hardship must be so severe, pervasive, or persistent that it interferes with or limits the ability of the student to receive an education.” But SB 442 would allow any student who has NOT met that test to receive a school voucher, regardless of their family’s means, making this a potentially dramatic expansion of our private school voucher program. 

SB 522 would expand the school voucher program by extending the program to ages 2 ½ to 5. The expansion would place no requirement that funds be used for pre-school education that best prepares a child to enter Kindergarten, contains similar wide-open usages of these public funds as the current K-12 voucher program does, and would fund all of this with money from the Education Trust Fund. The proposed program would be equally, if not more, unaccountable than the current voucher scheme. Funding to help parents afford childcare is important, but there are other proposals that exist to do so without expanding vouchers that siphon critical funds away from public education. 

New Hampshire public schools have protections, services, and standards for students not required at private schools or online programs. Recent studies have indicated that voucher programs overall produce worse academic achievement outcomes for students and don’t protect against discrimination. Rather than diverting further funding for our public schools, we should be investing in them so that students have the kind of welcoming climate and qualified educators they need to be successful. 

Please urge the Senate Education Committee to protect public education funding by rejecting both voucher expansion proposals. Click here to use the Senate remote sign in page to OPPOSE SB 442 and SB 522.

1. Click the date that the bill you are interested in is being heard – January 4 
2. Select the committee that is hearing the bill – Senate Education 
3. Select the bill you are interested in – SB 442 
4. Select a category – Member of the public 
5. Indicate your position on this bill – “I OPPOSE this bill” 
6. Click continue 
7. Enter your name and contact information 
8. Click continue 
9. Carefully review the information to ensure it is entered correctly. If it is correct, check the box and click continue. 
10. Repeat steps 1-9 for SB 522. 

Retained Bills Headed to Senate and House Floor for Votes

This week, the Senate will vote on SB 217. We urge all state senators to vote “yes” on this critical bill to establish a rural and underserved educator incentive program. This initiative was also recommended by the legislature’s Teacher Shortage Committee in their final report. NEA-NH spearheaded this initiative to help support the pipeline of new educators into the profession. 

Over in the House, there are several retained bills we are watching as they head to the floor this week: 

• SB 218 – establishing an early educator professional development grant (NEA-NH supports this bill; Committee report – Without Recommendation) 
• HB 267 – relative to criminal records checks in school employment (NEA-NH opposes this bill as written; Committee report – Interim Study 13 – 7) 
• HB 354 – relative to chartered public school eligibility for state school building aid (NEA-NH opposes this bill; Committee report – Without Recommendation) 
• HB 437 – relative to reading assessment and intervention program (NEA-NH opposes this bill; Committee report – Interim Study 12 – 8) 
• HB 439 – relative to the duty to provide an education and contracts with private schools (NEA-NH opposes this bill; Committee report -Without Recommendation) 
• HB 505/SB 151 – relative to comprehensive mental health education in schools (NEA-NH supports this bill; Committee report – Without Recommendation) 
• HB 628 – requiring certain non-public schools or education service providers that accept public funds to perform background checks on all employees and volunteers (NEA-NH supports this bill; Committee report – Without Recommendation) 

Questions?

If you have questions on any of these bills or ones not mentioned here, please feel free to contact Brian Hawkins, NEA-NH Director of Government Relations at bhawkins@nhnea.org.