Legislative Update

5/2/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

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 […]

04/25/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week: Hearings and Committee Votes  SB 297 – House Commerce Hears Risk Pool Regulation Legislation  This week, the House Commerce Committee heard SB 297, the bill proposed by the Secretary of State to establish new regulations for the organizations that operate as risk pools to offer health insurance and workers compensation for most of the public employers and employees at the local level in New Hampshire.  As NEA-New Hampshire President Megan Tuttle testified, our priority is the preservation of affordable and reliable health insurance options for NEA-NH members across the state. She also indicated that as the Committee deliberates, […]

04/18/2025: NEA-NH Legislative Update

Re-Cap of the Week  Senate budget writers dug into their work this week. First, members of the House Finance Committee presented their changes to the Governor’s budget proposal. Next, they’ll hear from state agencies about what those changes will mean.   On May 6, members of the public will have another opportunity to weigh in on the state budget. The Senate has scheduled their public hearing to begin at 1pm; there will be a break for an hour between 5 and 6 pm and the hearing will continue into the evening. Please mark March 6 on your calendar; if you can […]

4/11/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week: NH House Passes Their Budget but Rejects Mandatory School Budget Caps  The Good Stuff  The House state budget proposal passed this week on largely a party line vote, but not before some major changes occurred on the House floor. Thanks in large part to educator-led advocacy, the House cast a strong, bipartisan vote (206 – 165) to remove the devastating language of HB 675 from the budget bill. That language would have imposed a draconian, mandatory budget cap on all school districts that would have essentially frozen school budgets without a 2/3 supermajority override vote. This would have […]

4/5/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week: Draconian House Budget Leaves Finance Committee; Goes to Full Floor Vote  The House Finance Committee finished its work this week on their changes to the state budget. On a 14 – 11 party line vote, the Committee is recommending a draconian state budget that slashes programs and positions while at the same time expanding the unaccountable state voucher program to give your hard-earned tax dollars to wealthy people who already send their kids to elite private schools.  This budget shifts major expenses onto working families, including downshifting costs onto families to pay for adult and for children’s Medicaid […]

3/28/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week’s Re-Cap  This week was another tough week; the House and Senate cast floor votes, largely on party line, to approve the following bills:   Each of these bills will now “crossover” to the other body and start the process again. This begins with a new round of public hearings, most likely sometime in April. You can look up the bill language on each of these bills and their status using theNEA-NH bill tracker.  HB 2 – State Budget: Voucher Expansion and Mandatory School Budget Caps  This week, the House wrapped up much of its work on the state budget […]