Legislative Update

June 15, 2024: NEA-NH Legislative Update

2024 Legislative Session Ends with the Defeat of Final Voucher Expansion Bill On the final day of the 2024 legislative session, the New Hampshire House defeated HB 1665 by a vote of 168 -185. This legislation would have expanded the unaccountable private school voucher scheme by lifting the eligibility threshold to enter the program from 350% to 425% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). This was a compromise between the Senate position of expansion to 400% of FPL and the House position of expansion to 500% of FPL. As negotiated, the compromise version of this bill would have more than […]

A white sign held in front of the Legislative Office Building reads: Support Our Public Schools"

NH House Rejects Bill to Expand School Vouchers, Public Education Advocates Praise Vote

Educators, Parents, Public School Advocates Celebrate Defeat of Bill to Expand School Vouchers from 350% to 425% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines CONCORD, NH – Today, the New Hampshire House voted against the Committee of Conference report on HB 1665-FN, the school voucher expansion bill, by a margin of 185-168, which defeated the bill. School voucher expansion is now dead for the legislative session. HB 1665 would have expanded eligibility for the state’s unaccountable school voucher program from 350% to 425% of the federal poverty level. Lawmakers had previously increased the eligibility, from the original 300%. Public education advocates celebrated the vote […]

June 2024: Government Relations Report

Legislative Session Ends with Mixed Results for Educators  This year’s session has seen mixed results at the State House. Coming off the heels of a successful year in working to pass increases in state aid that helped lead to negotiated pay increases for members, we looked to the second year to fend off attacks on the profession, further privatization efforts, and more attempts passing politically motivated culture war legislation that targets LGBTQ+ students. We also sought to make more headway in advancing proactive legislation that we hoped to help energize the pipeline of educators into the profession.  Unfortunately, the state […]

June 8, 2024: NEA-NH Legislative Update

Committees of Conference Conclude   The deadline to sign off on committee of conference reports was this past Thursday, June 6th and many bills saw a compromise product agreed to, but a few did not. In positive news, an effort to allow unlicensed part-time teachers in public schools was rejected and the Rural and Underserved Educator Recruitment Program was revived. Unfortunately, the House and Senate conferees are moving forward with a dramatic expansion of the state’s private school voucher program. More details below!  Voucher Expansion Moves Forward to a Vote June 13th  The most significant education bill moving forward to a […]

May 31, 2024: NEA-NH Legislative Update

House and Senate Head to Committees of Conference Next Week on Major Education Bills  This past week, the House and Senate decided which bills they would agree with the other chamber’s changes (concur), which ones they would go to a committee of conference to work out differences (non-concur and request a committee of conference), and which ones they would simply reject outright without attempting to come to a compromise (non-concur). The aftermath of those decisions is that next week there will be committees of conference meetings on several highly consequential bills for public education and public-school educators.  What are Committees […]

May 24, 2024: NEA-NH Legislative Update

NH Senate Sends Amended Versions of Private School Voucher Expansion and Unlicensed Part-Time Teacher Bill Back to the House  This week, as expected, the New Hampshire Senate amended and passed on a party line vote, two of the most consequential bills attacking public education that remain in play this session. With the Senate having changed both HB 1298, the unlicensed part-time teacher bill, and HB 1665, the last voucher expansion bill, each bill will now go back to the House for a vote on whether to concur with the changes, request a committee of conference to iron out the differences […]