This Week: “Parental Rights” and Forced School Spending Caps
This past week the House approved its own version of a so-called “parental rights” bill (HB 10) that will now go over to the Senate. On a largely party line vote, each Chamber has now approved its own version of the bill. After Crossover, the process will start again.
In addition, the House Finance Committee Division II, a subcommittee of the full Finance Committee, elected to put the forced school spending cap bill (HB 675) and their universal voucher bill (HB 115) into HB 2, which is the trailer bill to the state budget.
Unfortunately, the House of Representatives voted “Inexpedient to Legislate” on HB 329, legislation to address air quality and extreme temperatures in classrooms. You can read a statement from NEA-NH President Megan Tuttle on the vote here.
Next Week: Major House and Senate Floor Votes
There is no shortage of major votes this week in the NH House and Senate. With so many bills in play, we are highlighting a few for e-mail actions and a whole series of them that people should contact their state representatives or senator to ask them to vote against.
SB 295 – Senate Universal Voucher Bill
The Senate Finance Committee passed their version of a universal voucher bill. As amended, 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, give our students more one-on-one attention and increase salaries to address the teacher and staff shortages.
SB 96 – Mandatory Disclosure Bill
SB 96 is the exact same bill from last year that was an outgrowth of a senate parental rights bill provision, requiring educators to be agents for a forced “outing” of a student. Like the unconstitutional banned concepts law, this culture war bill targets educators with the threat of a violation of the educator code of conduct. Proponents say this is just requiring educators to be honest, but we know the undercurrent of what this bill is. Please tell your state senator we don’t need this bill and let educators work with students and parents without these kinds of bills!
HB 520 – Subpoena Power for the Department of Education
HB 520 is on the floor this week with a recommendation to pass it. The bill 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. We defeated this bill twice in the past two years – and now we must do it again. Click here to urge your state representatives to OPPOSE HB 520!
HB 90 – Creating an Unlicensed Part-Time Teacher Status
The House Education Policy Committee is sending HB 90 to the floor with a new amendment. This bill as originally written creates the status of a part-time unlicensed teacher if they work no more than 20 hours, seek a criminal history records check, adhere to code of conduct, and are employed or contracted as a full-time or adjunct faculty member by the university system or the community college system. The amendment only adds some soft additional requirements, around those who may teach in a dual and concurrent enrollment class, but there are no time limits or pathways toward the benefits of licensure. Unfortunately, a bipartisan amendment offered by the sponsor to narrow the scope of the bill was rejected by Republicans.
HB 324 – House Book Ban Legislation
Rep. Glenn Cordelli is back this week with yet another book ban attempt. HB 324 is unnecessary because we already have an objectionable materials law for our public schools which allows ANY parent to opt their child out of any required coursework, curriculum, or material. Like a lot these culture war bills, HB 324 would go way beyond parental opt-out by potentially imposing one parent’s objections on other students and families. Additionally, this bill imposes potential criminal and licensure penalties for educators in what is otherwise another vaguely established process written by national interests attempting to pass this cookie-cutter legislation in other states. Please tell your state representatives we don’t need book bans in New Hampshire.
HB 741 – Statewide Required Open Enrollment for Schools
HB 741 would essentially create an open enrollment public school system. We do not believe that New Hampshire is able to enact such a model currently. The state only contributes less than a third of the revenue spent on funding our public schools, leaving local property taxpayers responsible for picking up the lion’s share of the costs. This dynamic creates a large disparity between school districts who are considered property wealthy, and those who are property poor, when it comes to delivery of a robust public education. Tell your state representatives to vote no until we can adequately support all our local school districts!
HB 356 – Allowing School Districts to Adopt Partisan School Board Elections
This bill allows school districts the option to adopt partisan elections for their district officers, diverging from the current non-partisan system. It amends various sections of RSA 671 to facilitate this change, including provisions for filing candidacy, preparation of ballots, and the conduct of elections. We don’t need to push more politics into education; please ask your state representatives to vote no on HB 356!
HB 613 – Adding a Reduced Default Budget
This bill provides for a second method for adopting default budgets. The additional method would reduce the default by 1% to 10% of the proposed default. The legislative body is prohibited from amending the percentage, a method of disenfranchisement of democratic rights. The provision may be adopted or rescinded every year adding to the difficulty in understanding the method of default budget calculations. The bill also requires a 3/5 affirmative vote calculated by only those voting on the question to pass. The purpose of this bill is to decrease budgets every year and it will force a race to the bottom that will have a negative impact on our towns and school districts. Please tell your state representatives to vote no on HB 613!
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.