Re-Cap of the Week
What a rollercoaster of a week yet again, ahead of what will be a school vacation week for most. Here is the rundown of major developments:
HB 283 – Bill to Eliminate Content Areas Officially Defeated!
This week the full New Hampshire House of Representatives rejected HB 283, which would have gutted crucial areas of content as part of the definition of an adequate education by removing Art, Music, World Languages, Personal Finance Literacy, and more. Thanks to the 30,000+ Granite Staters – including many of our members – who took action to #ProtectPublicSchools!
HB 735 – Forced Union Decertification Bill Unanimously Recommended to be Killed by House Labor Committee!
After three weeks of inaction, the House Labor Committee finally recommended “Inexpedient to Legislate” (kill) on HB 735, a bill to 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. This bill will be on the consent calendar when the full NH House of Representatives meets again on March 6th, which means the House will take up adopting the recommendation to kill HB 735 along with all other recommendations that were also unanimous, just like what happened with the content areas bill this past week.
5 Steps to Protect Public Education During Public Schools Week!
Next week is Public Schools Week! Here are the TOP 5 Things YOU can do to protect the future of public education in New Hampshire:
- Make a plan to vote in your local school district elections! In March, most New Hampshire school districts hold an “Annual Meeting” in which school board members are elected and voters consider school budgets, educator contracts, and more warrant articles that could impact community public schools. Contact your Town Clerk’s office or SAU today to find out if and when the vote is in your district. Then, mark your calendar and invite five friends to join you!
- Urge your lawmakers to reject universal vouchers! Two universal voucher bills are being considered in the New Hampshire House and Senate – HB 115 and SB 295. Both will be acted on during the first week of March, so now is the time to contact your elected officials and make sure they know that expanding the unaccountable voucher scheme will force Granite Staters to pay for two school systems – one private, and one public. Legislators should vote this bill down to protect public education funding and prevent more local property tax hikes. Act now!
- Keep politics out of the classroom – urge the House Children and Family Law Committee to Oppose HB 10. This week, the House Children and Family Law Committee held a public hearing on HB 10, their version of a so-called “parent bill of rights.” NEA-NH offered testimony in opposition to both the original bill and a draft of an amendment that was brought in that day. The amendment removed the criminal penalties stipulated in the bill but still left vague language about what rights parents had to direct their student’s education and the potential penalties that could arise because of running afoul a vague or unnamed parental right. Click here to join us to tell lawmakers we should be passing legislation that supports the relationships between parents, students, and educators – not fracturing them with broadly subjective language and possible educator penalties.
- Reject book bans! The Senate Education committee also heard SB 33 this week, 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. Contact members of the Senate Education Committee and urge them to reject SB 33, which would require school districts to infringe on students’ freedom to read.
- Follow New Hampshire’s largest educator union on social media! Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky are the best ways to stay in touch with NEA-New Hampshire and get rapid response legislative updates and action opportunities.
Next Week at the State House: Senate and House (mostly) On Break
The Senate is breaking completely in conjunction with school vacation week next week. The Senate will hold no hearings or votes. The House will not be holding a session, but some committees will still be meeting and having hearings.
The bills impacting public education being heard next week are all focused in two committees having to do with local school district elections and the adoption of school budgets.
- HB 200 (House Municipal & County Government Committee Public Hearing: 02/27/2025 09:00 am LOB 301-303) – This bill would specify that a tax cap adopted by a municipality or school district can only be overridden by a 3/5 supermajority. The bill also stipulates even more restrictive measures for individual school district budgets that are in a school administrative unit (SAU). Please oppose this bill that will artificially hurt local school district budgets.
- HB 356 (House Election Law Public Hearing: 02/25/2025 10:00 am LOB 306-308) – Allowing Partisan School Board Elections: This bill would allow school district voters to make their elections for school boards partisan elections where the candidate’s political party must be listed on the ballot. We don’t need more partisan politics in education so please sign in or write in opposed!
- HB 475 (House Municipal & County Government Committee Public Hearing: 02/27/2025 01:45 pm LOB 301-303) – Cutting school default budgets – this bill would reduce the default budget by the amount of salary and benefit reductions as part of position turnover before the public hearing for the proposed budget takes place. This would artificially reduce the default budget simply because someone leaves their funded job voluntarily or retires. Sometimes a default budget is all that ensures a school district is not decimated by other outside fringe attempts. Please register your opposition to this bill!
- HB 613 (House Municipal & County Government Committee Public Hearing: 02/27/2025 01:00 pm LOB 301-303) – This bill would create a mechanism for SB 2/ballot voting towns to adopt a “reduced default budget” to replace the default budget that is adopted should the proposed budget warrant article fail. The reduced default amount would be based on an arbitrary percentage reduction from the proposed budget picked by the petitioner. Like the new school spending caps people are seeing this year, this would be yet another way for extreme politicians to try and cut their school budgets. Don’t allow them to hurt our students’ education by creating this new budget slashing tool!
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.