This Week: Big Wins for Public Education and Labor
HB 283 – Anti-Public Education Bill Rejected by House Education Committee
The House Education Policy and Administration Committee voted unanimously to kill HB 283, the legislation that would have gutted crucial areas of content as part of the definition of an adequate education. An unprecedented 30,000 people signed in or wrote in to oppose this bill and dozens more came to testify in person against it. This sent a loud and strong message to extreme politicians that New Hampshire values public education. The bill will next go to the full House of Representatives for a floor vote to accept that recommendation from the committee before it is officially dead. Thank you to all the educators who helped to achieve this unanimous vote from the committee!
HB 238 – Anti-Union Right to Work Bill Defeated in the House
The New Hampshire House cast a strong, bipartisan vote (200-180) to Indefinitely Postpone HB 238, the union-busting so-called “Right-to-Work” bill once again. This procedural vote to kill the bill means that it cannot come back for the remainder of the two-year legislative term.
SB 295 – Senate Universal Voucher Bill Heard
The Senate Education Finance Committee also heard SB 295 which would eliminate the income cap entirely from qualifying for the private school voucher program. Thank you to the members and public who turned out to testify and sign in opposed to the bill. If you missed your chance to sign in on this bill, you can still contact committee members to urge them to reject universal vouchers – click here to get their contact information!
Governor Ayotte Delivers State Budget Address
This week, Governor Ayotte delivered her first budget address to lawmakers.
Here are the top line education highlights based on initial reports:
- Increases special education reimbursement aid in response to public outcry over the $16 million gap Commissioner Edelblut notified school districts of last November.
- Allocates $1 million in grants to local communities to develop policies to address cell phones in classrooms and schools.
- Expands New Hampshire’s unaccountable voucher scheme to remove income eligibility requirements for all public school students.
While we are waiting for more details on her budget proposal, it’s disheartening that the Governor chose to dedicate more public dollars to expanding the state’s unaccountable private school voucher program. This is the first step in the process so stay tuned for more details when budget documents are released, and a public hearing gets scheduled.
You can read our full response to Ayotte’s budget proposal here.
Next Week: Hearings for Returning Culture War Bills from Last Term
HB 10 – House Version of Parental Rights
This bill is nearly identical to the original version of a House parental rights bill that was introduced and ultimately defeated in the House back in 2023. This bill, like other versions of this legislation, is vague, extreme, and unnecessary.
HB 10 would establish a set of broad and vaguely written “rights” for parents within NH K-12 public schools. Many of the rights outlined in the bill exist already, such as the right to opt a student out of certain instruction. Part of the trouble with HB 10 is that it goes beyond those types of rights and appears to imply parental rights to direct not just the education of their own child, but to infringe on the rights of other parents to provide an inclusive education for the rest of the children in the classroom. These vaguely defined rights also come with the threat of discipline, misdemeanor penalties, license suspension, or in some cases litigation for educators.
Parents and educators have been working well together for a long time in New Hampshire. Instead of criminal threats about vaguely defined laws, we should be focused on making sure parents and educators have the resources they need to give their children the best education possible.
HB 520 – Granting Subpoena Powers to the Commissioner of Education
Another returning bill is HB 520, which would allow the Commissioner of Education or their designee to issue a subpoena when carrying out investigations under the educator code of conduct. As many have told the legislature before, this authority is unnecessary because the Department has never demonstrated a situation where they have not been able to obtain information needed for such an investigation. We know Commissioner Edelblut has used the code of conduct as a weapon in his efforts to further a culture war agenda. There is no need for this bill so please tell the House Judiciary Committee to reject this bill.
SB 33 – Senate Book Ban Bill
SB 33 is the latest attempt at creating a tool for banning certain books. Many school districts already have a policy established to allow for the reconsideration of school materials, so this bill is completely unnecessary. Like other bills before it, SB 33 is highly subjective with undefined terms. Without any protections in the bill, our concern is that this will be used as a tool to threaten schools to remove books for reasons that are discriminatory rather than for an objectively reasonable concern.
HB 735 – House Labor Committee Considering Bill to Force Re-Certification Votes for Unions
The House Labor Committee has held a public hearing, but has not yet voted, on HB 735, a bill that would force a re-certification vote just to maintain your local union if the original employees who formed the union no longer make up a majority of the unit. The sponsor said he is working on an amendment to “fix” it, but we know there’s no fix for this anti-union attack.
Full NEA-NH Bill Tracker
You can also follow all the bills we are watching next week, by checking out our NEA-NH bill tracker.
NEA-NH Legislative Advocacy Toolkit
Most of the tools you need to be a legislative advocate for public education are right at your fingertips through NEA-New Hampshire. Check out our new NEA-NH Legislative Advocacy Toolkit here to get all the information you need on how to communicate with your state representatives and senators, support and oppose specific bills, and testify in Concord.
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.
Need help signing in on legislation? Follow these comprehensive instructions (details for public hearings are contained in each action request).
For House bills:
1. Visit this link: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/remotetestimony/default.aspx
2. Enter your personal information
3. Select the hearing date
4. Select the committee
5. Choose the bill
6. I am – A member of the public
7. Choose who you are representing – Myself
8. Indicate your position on this bill
9. Upload remote testimony (Optional)
10. Review information and click submit
For Senate bills:
1. Go to https://bit.ly/3S4Cof1 and click the date that the bill you are interested in is being heard
2. Select the committee that is hearing the bill
3. Select the bill you are interested in
4. Select a category – Member of the Public
5. Indicate your position on 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.