House Education Funding Committee Wraps up Action on Retained Bills
In last week's legislative update, we focused on the result of some of the highest profile bills that the House Education Policy Committee voted to recommend when the House comes back in January. This week, we're highlighting bills acted on by the House Education Funding Committee, which will be taken up by the full House in January:
- HB 491, establishing a committee to study alternative funding methods for public education and how to reduce its reliance on local real estate property taxes, will go the floor of the House with a recommendation to kill it. This bill was part of an effort to explore revenue options for the legislature to consider in response to recent public education funding related court decisions.
- HB 510, establishing certain due process rights for students, student organizations, and faculty members facing disciplinary actions by state institutions of higher learning, was recommended as “Ought to Pass” with an amendment by a 10 – 8 party line vote. This bill sets out due process rights in statute for both students and faculty, some of which are already met by collective bargaining agreements. We will be monitoring this bill closely as it moves to the Senate to ensure it will not negatively impact higher education union contracts.
- HB 651, modifying the base cost of an adequate education, would have addressed the recent ConVal court decision by increasing the state aid contribution per student as well as differentiated aid. Unfortunately, a party line vote recommended this bill to be killed when it goes to the floor in January as Republican leadership has been adamantly opposed to addressing the court requirements from that decision. More to come on this as we get closer to January.
- HB 665, sponsored by retired NEA-NH member Rep. Muriel Hall, would increase the eligibility for free school meals to 300 percent of federal poverty. While we believe the work to ensure students have the nutrition they need to learn should be a bipartisan effort, this bill was unfortunately recommended as “Inexpedient to Legislate” (aka to be killed) by a party line vote, just like the increased state aid bill.
Senate Education to Meet Next Week: What We're Watching
The Senate Education Committee will meet on Tuesday, November 18 to act on all of the retained bills they held onto from the 2025 Session. You can see the full list here, but some of the major ones to keep an eye on are:
- HB 741/SB 101: This bill would require each public school to open enrollment. The language of this bill had been included in HB 2, the trailer bill to the budget, but was ultimately removed in committee of conference, and not included in the final budget bill sent to the governor.
- HB 208: This bill would remove the requirement that school nurses be certified as a school nurse in addition to being a registered professional nurse.
- HB 292 This bill is the vehicle the Senate is using to create a reciprocal loan fund to help the Claremont School District get back on its feet so that it can operate into the next school year. NEA-NH supported the Senate amendment at the public hearing last month, and we are urging the Senate and House not to wait and to move forward on the legislation. Every day the legislature waits creates more uncertainty for the students and educators as to the future of their school. You can find the committee member contact info here to do the same!
Bill Language Starts to Trickle in: Follow Upcoming Bills on our Tracker!
While we are still waiting for language for 2026 bills, you can now check out all of the retained bills and legislative service requests for next year (LSRs) we are tracking by visiting: Bill Tracker | NEA-NH. You can also look at them by subject categories we have broken them down to as well. Our tracker will also allow you to subscribe to that list of bills and get regular updates on where they are in the process. Simply go to the list you want to follow, and then click on “Subscribe to this bill list.”
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 [email protected].
