As the 2025 New Hampshire legislative session kicks off, educators are bracing for what could be a pivotal year for our students, our classrooms, and our profession. Click here to read a powerful call to action from NEA-New Hampshire President Megan Tuttle.
First Week of Hearings Begins with House Universal Vouchers!
ACTION REQUESTED: SIGN IN TO OPPOSE HB 115 being heard in the HOUSE Education Funding Committee on Thursday, January 16th at 1:00 pm. Please find step-by-step instructions to sign in below.
One of the biggest bills of the year will have its hearing during the very first week of public hearings in the House. HB 115 would expand our unaccountable voucher program by eliminating the income qualifying cap entirely. That means taxpayers would be subsidizing extremely wealthy families who send their kids to elite private schools. A recent report from Reaching Higher NH indicates that expanding our voucher program with no income limit could cost the state over $100 million dollars per year. That is $100 million in public money that would be diverted away from supporting public education – even though Granite Staters overwhelmingly support their community public schools, which are attended by nearly 90% of New Hampshire students.
In Kearsarge recently, over 1,500 people showed up at their deliberative session to protect school funding by rejecting an effort to put an artificial budget cap on their local schools. Like many communities across the state, the support for local public schools and educators is deep and wide. The question is: will the state support them or will they choose to divert more taxpayer money toward the unaccountable voucher program.
Instead of sinking more money into a program that its advocates refuse to place any accountability on, tell the legislature they should support local communities by fully funding special education costs, maintaining or increasing aid to be able to hire or retain qualified educators, and funding building aid so that students have safe and health environments to learn.
SIGN IN NOW to register your opposition to HB 115 to the House Education Funding Committee
More Key Bills Get Bill Numbers and Language
There is now language out on most bills, although they have yet to be scheduled for a public hearing.
Here just a few of the major bills which now have bill number and language:
- HB 10: Parental Rights bill
- HB 90: creating unlicensed part-time teacher status
- HB 238: So-called “right to work legislation”
- HB 131: Requiring school boards to develop and enact policies regarding personal cell phone use in schools
- HB 324: book ban legislation
- HB 329: relative to school district policies governing air quality and temperature issues in schools
You can also follow all the bills we are watching next week including the ones that we still only have titles for by visiting 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 [email protected].
