The upcoming 2024 Legislative Session will once again put education in the spotlight. Of the nearly 1,000 bills that were filed for the upcoming session, there are well over 100 that deal directly with public education, and even more that impact public school educators and students in some form or fashion.
The state Senate also has a practice of filing bills confidentially, meaning that the public cannot see them until the language is signed off on by the sponsor. This means there are likely more pieces of legislation that we will find out about after this publication is sent out. As bill language continues to be published, NEA-NH will be reviewing all proposed legislation, categorizing them by specific topic, and by priority, whether they be positive or negative so that you know what could affect you or your local union.
Before the session begins, we will send a more in-depth legislative preview. And please start to look out for the weekly Legislative Updates that will once again begin the first week of January.
For our final Educator of the year, though, we wanted to give you a sense of what the legislative priorities are broadly, knowing what we know now, and that things can change as we enter next year:
- Fight for more financial support for local school districts from the state, building on our 2023 success. This past year as part of the state budget, the Legislature included an additional $72 million in FY2024 and $85 million in FY2025 through increases in the base adequacy formula and targeted school funding. While the state still has a long way to go to improve its school funding formula, the increase in the school aid formula along with a boost in targeted aid programs have created more room to help negotiate wage increases for teachers and ESPs. With the Education Trust Fund forecasted to end this biennium with a significant surplus, we want to make sure that those dollars remain in public education and go to our local districts so that communities can continue to do things like raise educator wages and provide a better education for our students.
- Continue to advocate for more policies and programs that can help address the educator shortage. This past year NEA-NH advocated for several individual pieces of legislation that would help to revitalize the pipeline of new educators into the profession and to help better support those who are new to the classroom. Some of these initiatives though require more advocacy work in the coming year to see they are passed and properly implemented. We successfully passed a student teacher stipend program in the state budget, but it was left with uncertain funding, and we hope to see some consistent state dollars put toward that program. Recently, the Senate Education Committee unanimously endorsed our rural and underserved educator loan repayment program (SB 217) after retaining it over the summer and fall. That bill will be one of the first bills that goes to the floor of the Senate in January for a vote. Similarly, a professional development grant fund to help mentor new educators was also retained in House Education but will go to the floor of the House in January as well (SB 218). We will be asking members to contact their legislators about both bills to see that they move onto the next step in the legislative process. In addition to continuing to push these initiatives, we will also look toward other recommendations contained in the recently issued majority report from the legislative Committee to Study the New Hampshire Teacher Shortages and Recruitment Incentives, including advocating for stronger retirement benefits for educators, funding that will incentivize pay increases at the local level, and improving the physical and cultural climate in our schools so that they are welcoming places that are conducive environments to work in and to learn.
- Defeat efforts to attempt to privatize or expand current privatization schemes of public education. We know that there will be a push by the New Hampshire Education Commissioner, and other privatization advocates, to further privatize public education once again this session. This includes attempts to weaken our minimum standards for public school approval and of course to expand the school voucher scheme that has already diverted more than $24 million away from public education. There are several bills filed for the upcoming year to expand eligibility to the school voucher program, or to create new voucher programs that would further siphon money away from our local public schools who serve the vast majority of students in New Hampshire. Similar proposed voucher expansions that have passed in other states have resulted in an explosion of education funding going to fund private and religious schools and decimating public schools as a result.
- Defeat legislation that would silence educator voices or discriminate against any group of students. Once again, we are seeing numerous pieces of legislation that seek to bring right-wing funded culture wars to New Hampshire. These bills range from book bans like the ones we have seen in Florida, to piecemeal versions of last year’s so-called “parental bill of rights”, as well as other legislation that seeks to stifle honest and accurate classroom instruction and discussion. NEA-NH will be monitoring all these bills and asking for members to help oppose any legislation that would seek to intimidate educators or prevent you from providing an education to students that will best prepare them to succeed in the future.
The 2024 legislative session will also be influenced heavily by the fact that it will be an election year. With an open gubernatorial seat, control of the legislature at stake, and a presidential election as well, election year politics will hang over much of the atmosphere when the New Hampshire House and Senate meet again next year. We hope that we can be successful in achieving our priority goals by also engaging the vast majority of voters who believe in strong public schools for their communities.
If you have any questions about the close of the current year or about the upcoming session, please contact me at bhawkins@nhnea.org or call the NEA-NH offices. I am also happy to visit with you at your upcoming local union or regional council meetings to discuss more of what we are seeing at the NH State House.
NEA-NH GR Director Brian Hawkins