House Education Policy Committee Jams Through Non-Germane Amendments
This week, the House Education Policy and Administration Committee heard two amendments from Rep. Glenn Cordelli on House bills from last year they had retained; both efforts would negatively impact our students and our schools.
- School District Takeover Authority – The first is a rushed amendment to HB 121 that would give the NH State Board of Education the ability to appoint an administrator to rule over a school district under certain circumstances, some of which are extremely vague. NEA-NH opposed this amendment at the hearing. Fiscal accountability is important so that districts do not get into a situation that puts students and educators at risk, but this effort is far too broad and misguided.
- Ill-Advised Bullying Overhaul – The other amendment heard this week proposes replacing the contents of HB 131 with language that would completely overhaul the bullying statute. Rep. Cordelli had attempted this identical change twice before and was rejected each time. NEA-NH opposed this amendment as well along with several other advocates because of its proposed changes to the definition of bullying, along with its one size-fits-all disciplinary requirements. The bill also put educators at risk by mandating licensure penalties related to bullying reports.
Despite the opposition to both non-germane amendments, the Committee recommended both bills with the Cordelli amendments. Stay tuned for upcoming calls to action about each of these bills before they go to the full House of Representatives for floor votes in January.
Book Ban Bill Revived
Earlier this year, Governor Ayotte vetoed HB 324 – a book ban bill. But this week, the House Education Policy Committee amended a retained bill of the same subject matter, SB 33, to add components of HB 324 before recommending its adoption. As amended, the bill sets up a process we’ve seen in other states that could result in books being banned from schools on a very subjective basis. Further, SB 33 as amended threatens educators with penalties for running afoul of the bill. Once again, please look for upcoming action alerts as we get closer to the turn of the year.
Local Voucher Bill Recommended as a Study Committee
Also, this week the House Education Policy and Administration Committee recommended turning HB 748 into a study committee. As originally filed, this legislation would have created a local school district level voucher program that could be voted in at annual meetings.
SAU Consolidation Study Committee Report Leaves Lots of Questions
Finally, the School Administrative Unit (SAU) study report was filed at the end of last week. While the study committee split along party lines, the majority report is essentially recommending legislation that would consolidate all SAUs (except Manchester and Nashua) into ten county wide administrations, each headed by an elected County School Administrator. Those administrators would assume the “administrative functions like accounting, labor relations, HR, insurance, compliance, transportation, purchasing, etc.” of the former SAUs, while “academic functions like curriculum, discipline, interviewing and hiring teachers, back to the local school districts.” The transition process proposed would take place in 2027 for Manchester and Nashua and the remaining county seats in 2028. A lot of the specifics about how this transition would work is left out of the report and left up to future legislation beyond what will be filed next year to begin this process. Needless to say, a lot of questions remain as to how such a move could work and whether it would save school districts and property taxpayers any money as we await actual bill language next year. In contrast, the Minority Report called into question not just the majority recommendations but the process they followed to reach them. The minority is recommending further study by a joint legislative commission that is bipartisan in its makeup before taking on such a monumental overhaul of our public school systems.
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].
