Senate Punts Multiple Ed Bills to March 21 Session, Including Student Surveillance Bill
This week the New Hampshire Senate was supposed to vote on SB 341 relative to mandatory disclosure by school district employees to parents, which is essentially so-called “parental rights” legislation. However, this bill along with legislation about putting financial qualification guard rails around the school voucher program, were special ordered (or postponed) to the March 21st full Senate session. More to come on any changes being contemplated to these various pieces of legislation but there is still time to use our action link to urge your state senator to oppose SB 341.
Key House Floor Votes Next Week!
HB 1162 – Repeal Banned Concepts
Sponsored by longtime NEA-NH member and former Teacher of the Year, Rep. Peter Petrigno, HB 1162 would repeal the banned concepts law currently under litigation that was passed as part of the 2021 state budget bill. The bill would also protect educators from the threat of civil liability for trying to provide an honest education that best prepares our students for the future. As President Tuttle testified to during the hearing “Our students deserve the freedom to learn. They deserve to be a part of an education that helps them learn from the mistakes of the past, so they are better prepared to succeed. To inhibit New Hampshire’s educators from engaging in the kinds of discussions that help teach and challenge students to use this knowledge to form their own opinions is a disservice to them, the State of New Hampshire, and our country.”
Important Committee Recommendations
Several important bills were acted on in committee but will not be in the House or Senate calendars until two weeks from now. Here is an update on some of the most crucial ones from this week.
House Education Committee Rejects Watering Down Core Subject Areas
HB 1691 was recommended by the House Education Committee to go to Interim Study by a unanimous vote. This bill would remove arts education, world languages, health, and physical education, engineering, personal finance literacy and computers science, out of the core content areas that define an adequate education and put them in a category where they are to be given “attention to” is essentially what this committee rejected two years ago. It’s good to see the House Education Committee once again recognize that watering down these core standards is a bad idea for our students. A full House vote will likely be held in two weeks. If adopted by the full House, Interim Study means that the House will not take any further action on the bill this session other than to study the subject further.
House Judiciary Committee Votes No Recommendation on Commissioner Subpoena Power Bill
HB 1353 would give the Commissioner of Education the authority to issue subpoenas in certain code of conduct cases. This bill was voted out of the House Judiciary Committee this week with no recommendation because the committee vote on the bill tied 10 – 10. We expect this bill to be on the floor in two weeks. NEA-NH opposed this bill because it is too broad the way it is written and would allow its authority to be abused. HB 1353 does not set out a process that is fair to credential holders or designed to properly achieve the stated results its proponents claim. Also, by the Department’s own account from past hearings and at the hearing on this bill, the subpoena authority is not needed to properly conduct code of conduct investigations. NEA-NH attempted to work with the sponsors to craft a bill amendment that would protect members’ due process rights and guard against abuse of subpoena authority, but ultimately there was not a version that would do those things adequately that could support. Stay tuned for action alerts on this bill that will likely go to the floor on March 21st.
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. You can also follow all the bills we are watching next week and check on a bill’s status by visiting our NEA-NH bill tracker.