12/14/2024: NEA-NH Legislative Update

 in Legislative Action / Legislative Update / Legislative Update Report (updated on )

New Legislature Sworn In – New Majority Priorities Clear So Let’s Get Ready! 

New Leadership in Senate 

The new state Legislature was sworn in on December 4th. Senator Sharon Carson is the new Senate President and Representative Sherm Packard is returning as Speaker of the House. We also know that Senator Regina Birdsell is the new Senate leader for Republicans and Senator Rebecca Perkins Kwoka will lead Senate Democrats. In the House, Representative Jason Osborne is returning as Majority Leader for the Republicans and Representative Alexis Simpson has been picked as Minority Leader for the Democrats. 

Committee Assignments 

While we know Senate committee assignments, we are still awaiting House committee makeup. The new twist with the House this year is that the Education committee will be split into two separate standing committees: one will handle the Administration and Policy and the other will handle the Education Finance issues. Both are still considered to handle policy and will not affect the authority of the House finance committee to make final recommendations on bills with a fiscal impact. 

Landscape Ahead 

We knew this would be a challenging year coming up and the list of more than 900 bills filed already definitely indicates that will be the case. Currently, we can only see titles of most bills; language won’t be published until late December or early January. However, based on titles we know we will see the following categories rise to the top as major concerns thus far: 

  • Major voucher expansion legislation  
  • Culture war bills we had previously been able to stop (parental bill of rights, book bans, etc…) 
  • Legislation that waters down the teaching profession 
  • Threats to collective bargaining like so-called “right-to-work” and more 
  • Changes to state aid to local public schools that would be a downshift to local communities 

What is coming up so you can help 

This session will be intense, and we will need all the help and time you can give. So, what can you do? 

  1. Follow updates on e-mail and social media and please share with your fellow members. 
  1. Look out for an upcoming toolkit to help guide you to reach out to your local legislators early on in the session. 
  1. Be a point of contact for your local when major needs arrive contact me to sign up at bhawkins@nhnea.org. 
  1. Participate in an upcoming zoom training on how to make your voice heard this session (testimony, writing in on a bill, contacting your own legislator) 
  1. Participate in upcoming “in-district” meetings we or our partner organizations host with lawmakers and coordinated with our partner organizations 

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.