Yearly Archives: 2025

04/18/2025: NEA-NH Legislative Update

Re-Cap of the Week  Senate budget writers dug into their work this week. First, members of the House Finance Committee presented their changes to the Governor’s budget proposal. Next, they’ll hear from state agencies about what those changes will mean.   On May 6, members of the public will have another opportunity to weigh in on the state budget. The Senate has scheduled their public hearing to begin at 1pm; there will be a break for an hour between 5 and 6 pm and the hearing will continue into the evening. Please mark March 6 on your calendar; if you can […]

4/11/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week: NH House Passes Their Budget but Rejects Mandatory School Budget Caps  The Good Stuff  The House state budget proposal passed this week on largely a party line vote, but not before some major changes occurred on the House floor. Thanks in large part to educator-led advocacy, the House cast a strong, bipartisan vote (206 – 165) to remove the devastating language of HB 675 from the budget bill. That language would have imposed a draconian, mandatory budget cap on all school districts that would have essentially frozen school budgets without a 2/3 supermajority override vote. This would have […]

PRESS RELEASE: NH House Budget Prioritizes Handouts for Wealthy at the Expense of Kids

CONCORD, NH – Today, the New Hampshire House voted 185-175 in support of a state budget proposal that would erode the foundation of public education and jeopardize the health and wellbeing of New Hampshire’s children and families.   Megan Tuttle, President of NEA-New Hampshire, provided the following statement after the vote: “Budgets are about choices and reflect the values of their creators.   New Hampshire politicians are choosing to prioritize business tax cuts and handouts for the wealthy over programs that support our most vulnerable citizens – children. Politicians are choosing to slash funding for higher education, Medicaid, and developmental disability services […]

PRESS RELEASE: Bipartisan NH House Vote Rejects Mandatory Statewide School Budget Cap 

CONCORD, NH – Today, the New Hampshire House voted 206-165 in support of an amendment to HB 2 that removes the mandatory statewide school budget cap. The legislative language taken from HB 675 was originally inserted by the House Finance Committee; it would have placed an arbitrary cap on school district budgets based on inflation and enrollment trends—regardless of real costs like teacher salaries, special education services, or rising utility bills. Today’s vote comes on the heels of communities across New Hampshire overwhelmingly rejecting petition warrant articles to institute local per pupil spending caps during their annual school district meetings.   […]

PRESS RELEASE: Agreement Temporarily Halts Enforcement of Department of Education’s Unlawful Directive

CONCORD, N.H. – In a major development in the lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s February 14, 2025, Dear Colleague Letter and its April 3, 2025, Certification Requirement, the parties have reached an agreement that blocks the department from taking any enforcement action under either directive until at least April 24, 2025. The agreement, reached after plaintiffs filed an emergency motion to block the Certification Requirement, ensures that no school district, state agency, or higher education institution will face investigation or penalties for failure to return the challenged certification that diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts do not exist within their curriculums.   As part of the agreement, states and […]

4/5/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week: Draconian House Budget Leaves Finance Committee; Goes to Full Floor Vote  The House Finance Committee finished its work this week on their changes to the state budget. On a 14 – 11 party line vote, the Committee is recommending a draconian state budget that slashes programs and positions while at the same time expanding the unaccountable state voucher program to give your hard-earned tax dollars to wealthy people who already send their kids to elite private schools.  This budget shifts major expenses onto working families, including downshifting costs onto families to pay for adult and for children’s Medicaid […]