Voucher expansion is right around the corner. We thought we would see a vote of the full House on voucher expansion on Tuesday, February 14th, but it was not placed on the House calendar. The full House will have to vote by the week of February 20th. We need your help to make sure our legislators understand the out-of-control voucher program cannot be expanded and that they should be making sure all students have a robust public education system. The two bills which would expand the current voucher program are HB 464 and HB 367.
In case you missed it, you can read the written testimony submitted by AFT-NH on these two bills at the following link AFT-NH President Deb Howes' Written Testimony In Opposition to HB 464 and HB 367.
Update on Action Needed We need you to start today by contacting your state representatives even though the vote won’t be this week. Once you take action, please share the action with family, friends, and allies.
You can click on the following link to find the contact information for your own state representative.
https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/
Once you locate your state representative(s), please send them a quick email.
You may wish to share some of the following points as you ask them to oppose HB 464 and HB 367.
- Our legislature has a duty to fully fund our public schools that serve more than 160,000 children. Expanding the already over-budget voucher program will only increase local property taxes and drain necessary resources from our public schools.
- NH Families need our legislature to focus on fully funding public schools to help ALL students, not spending tax money on just a few kids. House Bills 464 and 367 would significantly expand the already over-budget school voucher plan. This spending on VOUCHERS is out of control and YOUR property taxes are going to go up to fill that hole.
- Our children deserve great public schools and our legislature has an obligation to fully fund local public schools.