Commissioner Subpoena Power, Partisan School Board Races, and Educator Student Surveillance Lead House and Senate Votes Next Week
This week we are packed with a slew of major bills that will impact educators, students, and public education as a whole. Educator voices are critical to the outcome of these bills. After some razor thin wins and losses last week in the House in particular, please take a close look at the bills and contact your state representative(s) where we have links to take action.
Key House Votes Next Week
HB 1353 – Education Commissioners Should Not Have Subpoena Power
ACTION REQUESTED: Please contact your state representatives today and tell them subpoena power does not belong in the hands of political appointees like Frank Edelblut!
HB 1353 will be on the floor this week. As a reminder, this bill would give the Commissioner of Education the authority to issue subpoenas in certain educator code of conduct cases. This bill was voted out of the House Judiciary Committee this week with no recommendation because the committee vote on the bill tied 10 – 10. NEA-NH opposes this bill because it is too broad and its authority could be abused for fishing expeditions for unrelated issues to the ones named in the bill. HB 1353 does not set out a process that is fair to credential holders or designed to properly achieve the stated results its proponents claim. Also, by the Department’s own account from past hearings and at the hearing on this bill, the subpoena authority has not been needed to properly conduct code of conduct investigations and so it is unnecessary.
NEA-NH attempted to work with the sponsors to craft a bill amendment that would protect members’ due process rights and guard against the abuse of subpoena authority, but ultimately there was not a version that would do those things adequately that we could support.
HB 1175 – Putting SB 2 on the Ballot
HB 1175 would allow towns and school districts who have the town meeting form of government to switch to the ballot referendum form of meeting (commonly known as SB 2) by having the question on whether to switch be a ballot vote, rather than at the town or school district meeting form they currently use to make these kinds of decisions. This makes no sense and is just an effort by those who want to slash school budgets to make it easier to change to ballot vote.
Please email your state representatives and urge them to reject HB 1175.
HB 1099 – Partisan School Board Elections
HB 1099 would allow school districts to adopt partisan school board elections. NEA-NH opposes this bill because we should be trying to take the politics out of our students’ education – not injecting more partisan political activity into our local schools and classrooms.
Please email your state representatives and urge them to reject HB 1099.
HB 1205 – Excluding Youth Athletes from School Sports
HB 1205 is one of the anti-trans sports bills which is more election year politics than doing anything that supports inclusion of students. Quoting Rep. Tanner’s write up on the bill, The NH Interscholastic Athletic Association has concluded ‘that it would be fundamentally unjust and contrary to applicable State and Federal laws to preclude a student from participation on a gender specific sports team that is consistent with the public gender identity of that student for all other purposes.’ The bill sponsors also added an amendment that allows for private rights of action that further make this bill unacceptable.
Please email your state representatives and urge them to reject HB 1205.
Key Senate Votes Next Week
SB 341 – Educator Student Surveillance Bill
ACTION REQUESTED: Please contact your state senator today and urge them to let educators and parents work together in the best interests of their students by rejecting SB 341!
Next week the full Senate will vote on SB 341, relative to mandatory disclosure by school district employees to parents. This bill is essentially an excerpt from a previous version of the so-called “parental rights” legislation. A recent committee amendment to the bill does nothing to improve it.
Even as amended, this bill would require educators to answer written inquiries within a 10-day period, “completely and honestly”, a standard that is so subjective that even the NH Department of Education identified it as such. The bill serves only to turn school employees into student surveillance drones, rather than educators – all under the threat of licensure removal. It also puts educators in the middle of families without the opportunity to ensure they are doing no harm. The bill also does not consider protocols established at the local level for how to handle complex inquiries, causing concern that this bill could create tremendous liability for individual educators.
Like so many bills we have seen over the last several years, this legislation combines vague language with harsh punishments, and in doing so uses the educator-parent relationship as a political football. Parents and educators have been working together well for a long time and this sort of legislation only serves to damage that relationship.
SB 522 – Pre-K Voucher Expansion
ACTION REQUESTED: Urge your state senator to oppose further voucher expansion by rejecting SB 522!
SB 522 would expand the school voucher program by extending the program to ages 2½ to 5, but the expansion would place few standards that public money be used for pre-school education that best prepares a child to enter Kindergarten. SB 522 prescribes similar wide-open usages of these public funds as the current K-12 voucher program does. The amendment does little to change the core of this bill, it is still a school voucher expansion bill by another name and not a true Pre-Kindergarten bill. We expect that if this bill passes it will next be referred to the Senate Finance Committee.
Key Bill Hearings Next Week
SB 593 – Support Gun Free Schools!
ACTION REQUESTED: Sign in to SUPPORT SB 593, which is being heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, March 19 at 1pm. Please find step-by-step instructions to sign in below.
The federal Gun Free Schools Act prohibits students from bringing firearms into schools, and the Gun Free Schools Zone Act prohibits all other persons from bringing firearms within 1,000 feet of school property unless they are licensed by the state to carry a firearm. While federal law establishes gun free school zones with qualifications, gaps in state law and a statement from the Attorney General’s office has left school districts and police departments in murky water on enforcement and jeopardizes safe spaces for our children to learn and grow. This is further complicated by a law that Gov. Sununu signed into law in summer of 2022 that seeks to prevent local and state law enforcement and school officials from acting swiftly in response to the presence of firearms in our K-12 schools. Join us to call for a state gun free schools law by supporting SB 593!
SB 516 – Final “Right-to-Work” Bill to Defeat
ACTION REQUESTED: Sign in to OPPOSE SB 516, another anti-worker bill being heard on Tuesday, March 19 at 9:15 am in the Senate Commerce Committee. Please find step-by-step instructions to sign in below.
The Senate also filed a so-called “right-to-work” bill this year. Earlier this year the House Indefinitely Postponed its version but we still must defeat this bill in the Senate. For decades NEA-NH has fought against this legislation because it is the centerpiece of a decades-long agenda to maximize corporate profits by passing laws that weaken basic worker protections, undo safety standards, keep wages low and undermine the ability of labor unions to improve jobs and keep corporate power in check by giving workers a stronger voice.
This kind of legislation is an attack on both public and private sector unions and their members so please take the time to sign in against this bill before the hearing to remind your state representatives that after decades of special interest groups trying to pass this legislation, “right-to-work” is still wrong for NH!
Recap of This Week at the State House
HB 1162 – NH House Preserves “Banned Concepts” Law
This week, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to Indefinitely Postpone HB 1162, 192-183. This bill would have prohibited the state from enacting education laws that would bar public school employees from teaching the historical or current experiences of any group that is protected from discrimination and repealed the “banned concepts” law which has had a chilling effect on the delivery of honest and accurate education in our state.
To learn more, read our press release on the House vote against HB 1162.
HB 1312 – NH House Expands Objectionable Material Law
This week the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 186-185 in support of HB 1312, which would expand the notification requirement for objectionable material beyond sex education to also include sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. This bill also unnecessarily puts educators between students and their families and creates a liability for educators as to how certain personal information should be handled. HB 1312 next goes to the New Hampshire Senate for further consideration. We will have more when it crosses over about how to advocate against this bill.
To learn more, read our press release on the House vote to pass HB 1312.
HB 1311 – “Students’ Freedom to Read” Bill Passes
On a positive front the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed HB 1311, 194-180. The “Students’ Freedom to Read Bill” requires school boards to adopt transparent processes for addressing and resolving requests to remove materials while protecting the right of students to see themselves represented in their school libraries and media centers, regardless of gender identity, race, sexual orientation, or ability. This is a more sensible way to balance ensuring students have the freedom to an honest education and to ensure parents have a voice and process to follow in school library material considerations. The bill will now go to the Senate for further consideration.
To learn more, read our press release on the House vote to pass HB 1311.
These are just the highlights of another busy week at the State House for public education. Click here to view our full legislative tracker to see all the bills we are following this session.
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.
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