IMPORTANT: Town and School Meetings!
Many New Hampshire communities will be convening in March, and specifically the next week, for town and school elections and annual meetings. Don’t miss your opportunity to vote for local leaders who will protect public education, support budgets that support our students, and approve educator contracts. To find out information about your community, contact your town clerk – and then make a plan to vote!
House and Senate Floor Votes on Vouchers, Forced Spending Cap and Parental Rights Next Week!
SB 295 & HB 115 – Act Now to Stop Universal Vouchers!
House and Senate education finance policy committees each moved their own voucher expansion proposals forward this week. Sadly, even in the wake of what is anticipated to be a tight state budget, these committees decided to press ahead with a dramatic expansion of this unaccountable private school voucher scheme rather than the state adequately funding public education. Make no mistake about it – any vote to expand our state’s unaccountable voucher program is a vote to take public dollars away from public schools, which are attended by nearly 90% of Granite State students and 95% of students with a disability.
As amended by the House Education Funding Committee, HB 115, would lift the income cap entirely on the school voucher program, subsidizing private schools for the ultra-wealthy at the expense of local property taxpayers who will have to make up the difference in state funding. HB 115 will be on the floor of the House on Thursday, March 13th so please act now to urge your state representative(s) to reject universal vouchers!
As amended by the Senate Education Finance Committee, SB 295 would still lift the income cap on the voucher program entirely but would institute a soft cap of 10,000 participants this next fiscal year. However, they also built in an automatic increase of 25% in the cap if enrollment in the program (the number of participants in any year) approaches the cap. At a minimum, this more than doubles the size of New Hampshire’s already over-budget and unaccountable program. Instead of sending taxpayer money to private schools, we should focus on public schools, work to reduce class sizes, and give our students more one-on-one attention and increase salaries to address the teacher and staff shortages. SB 295 will be on the floor of the Senate on Thursday, March 13th so please act now to urge your state senator to reject universal vouchers!
You can also send a send a postcard to your lawmakers – click here!
HB 675 – Forced School Spending Caps
On top of moves to take more public dollars away from public schools, this week the House Education Funding committee also moved forward a bill to place 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. Mandating budget caps will hurt our ability to provide a well-rounded education for all our students. There are many services school districts are required to provide, so an arbitrary budget cap like the one proposed under HB 675 would likely force schools to reduce or eliminate areas like arts, sports, AP offerings, and more.
Instead of fixing our state’s broken public education funding system, HB 675 will lock in the existing disparities around our state and make it very difficult for districts that are already underfunded to make up ground. HB 675 will be on the floor of the House on Thursday, March 13th – click here to urge lawmakers to reject this arbitrary statewide spending cap!
HB 2 – Public Hearing on State Budget Wednesday Afternoon!
The public hearing on HB 1 (State spending bill) and HB 2 (the “trailer bill” that contains all the statute changes) will be held on Wednesday, March 12th at 2:00 pm at the State House in Representatives Hall. The State budget contains everything from what we spend on health and human services, to roads, to public education. Some of the central issues in the budget for educators, many of you already know—how much aid the State gives school districts to help pay for special education, school building aid to pay for major repairs and new construction, and of course how much we spend on school vouchers. We also know that HB 2 has been used in the past to put into place things that have nothing to do with the budget, like when the “banned concepts law” was snuck into that bill.
We anticipate this being a long hearing so for those of you who are able to get to the State House that afternoon we encourage you to come and tell the House Finance Committee to fund our public schools so we can do things like hire and retain qualified educators for our students, instead of spending more money on an unaccountable voucher scheme. Let us know you’ll be at the HB 2 public hearing on Wednesday, March 12 – email bhawkins@nhnea.org!
This Week’s Re-Cap
SB 206 & HB 781 – House and Senate Policy Committees Each Recommend Cell Phone Restrictions
This week, the House and Senate policy committees each recommended an amended version of a bill that would require each school district to have a policy around restricting the use of cell phones in schools. HB 781 and SB 206 are both on the consent calendar with amendments. Each bill has slightly different minimum requirements for what these policies contain. Both bills require a locally determined policy restricting the use of cell phones and outline several required exceptions such as if a device is part of an IEP or 504 plan.
SB 72 & HB 10 – Multiple Parental Rights Bills Move Forward
This week, the full Senate passed SB 72 – so called “parental bill of rights” legislation. This bill contains vague language regarding the rights and ability for parents to file litigation against public schools if a broad set of rights are “infringed” upon. In addition, the Senate added a provision around answering parental inquiries as well. Because the bill had a Fiscal Note, it does not leave the Senate yet, as it is being sent to the Senate Finance Committee where more amendments to the bill could be proposed.
On the House side, the Children and Family Law Committee recommended HB 10 – their version of a so-called “parental rights” bill this week. While an amendment removed any specific penalties, it leaves a series of vaguely stated rights in the bill that already exist. This bill is a threat to our profession and our students’ wellbeing because we know that the New Hampshire Department of Education will broadly interpret bills like this in order to target educators in the name of the Commissioner’s culture war initiatives. The bill will NOT be on the calendar for next week, but it will be coming up for a vote likely on the 20th of this month.
HB 748 – Retained by House Education Policy Committee
This week, the House Education Policy and Administration Committee held a public hearing – and decided to retain on the same day – HB 748, which would have created a local voucher program. This means that the House will have to meet again in the fall to make some kind of subsequent recommendation that would be voted on the floor next January. So, for now, this bill has been put by the wayside.
SB 33 & SB 101 – Senate Ed Committee Recommends More Study and Work on Book Ban and Open Enrollment Bills
The Senate Education Committee this week voted to “re-refer” two major bills this week which means that they will hold onto them for more work this year. Both will require a full senate vote to adopt that recommendation:
- SB 101 would require each school district to accept any K-12 eligible student in the state.
- SB 33 would put in place a requirement around removing certain materials from schools and school libraries. The committee considered an amendment but elected to do more work on the bill and so therefore elected to recommend the “re-refer” motion.
Note: There are still active House bills on both of these issues that have not been acted upon, so these issues are not dead by any stretch for the session.
HB 520 – Subpoena Bill Heard This Week
This week, NEA-NH also opposed HB 520, which would allow the Commissioner of Education or their designee to obtain 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. Thank you to those who signed in against the bill. The bill will be voted on in Committee on Monday, March 10, likely setting it up for a floor vote on the 26th or 27th of March.
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.