Re-Cap of the Week
While schools were out on April break, the pace at the State House was slower, too, but there were still some significant actions taken in each chamber:
HB 741 – Senate puts off mandatory open enrollment bill: The Senate met in full session and approved the Senate Education Committee recommendation to re-refer HB 741. This bill would mandate that every public school be an open enrollment school, meaning all school districts would be required to accept a student regardless of whether the school is part of their resident district or not. The re-refer action means the Committee and the Senate will not take any action on HB 741 until next year. However, the language of HB 741 was also included in HB 2, the trailer bill to the budget, so this proposal will still be part of the state budget deliberations.
HB 90 – Part-Time Teacher status vote delayed: The Senate also special ordered HB 90 , the bill authorizing a part-time unlicensed teacher status until their session on May 15th. We continue to oppose efforts to water down the standards for the educator workforce in our K-12 public schools, and so there is still time to contact your senator about this bill.
SB 295 – House Committee Sends Another Universal Voucher Bill to the Floor
Along party lines, the House Education Finance Committee recommended an amended version of SB 295, the Senate’s universal voucher bill. The bill lifts the income cap entirely to qualify for the school voucher program and has a pretend enrollment ceiling that is not really a ceiling at all because it automatically increases and eventually goes away. Which version the legislature will ultimately try to pass is still unknown, but now is the time to continue to tell our elected officials to not expand this unaccountable program that will ultimately be subsidized by property tax dollars.
Sign our petition to keep public funds in public schools! We will deliver these to the Senate Finance Committee next week at the public hearing on the budget.
Contact your own state representative(s) asking them to vote this bill down. You can find their contact information here.
State Budget Hearing Next Week – Come on Down to the State House!
The Senate Finance Committee is holding the final public hearing on the state budget on Tuesday, May 6th, beginning at 1:00pm at the State House. The hearing will take place in the House chamber. The Committee will take a dinner break at 5:00pm but then resume the hearing at 6:00pm, so there is plenty of time after school to come on down to the State House and show your support for our public schools and our students. If you want to testify in-person and have questions on how to do so, please e-mail [email protected].
As you may recall, the budget as passed by the House contains numerous provisions that would hurt public schools, but here are a few of the major ones you can tell the Senate Finance Committee to oppose:
- A universal expansion of the state’s unaccountable school voucher program instead of investing in school districts who need additional help to attract and retain qualified educators;
- An unworkable and mandatory open enrollment requirement for all public schools;
- Moving essential aid like special education aid from the Education Trust Fund to the general fund, putting it at risk of being cut in favor of vouchers;
- Unilateral authority for the Commissioner of Education to withhold all public funding to any school that violates a vague ban on topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in public schools.
If you can’t be there in person, you can tell the Senate Finance Committee to remove these provisions by signing in to OPPOSE HB 2, the trailer bill to the budget whe all these harmful policies were included. The hearing is on Tuesday, May 6 at 1:00pm.
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].
