AFT-NH Legislative Bulletin, 2022-02

Attacks on Public School Educators Continue

   Teacher Loyalty Bill   This week was another packed week at the State House with the House Education Committee hearing almost forty bills. This week’s bills included HB 1255, Relative to Teachers Loyalty. The bill is frankly an insult to every hardworking teacher in this state. The sponsor of the bills spoke to teachers indoctrinating their students but was of course unable to provide any concrete examples of teachers doing that. The committee heard the bill but has yet to vote on it so there is still time to make your voice heard.

Action Needed! 

 Please email the committee members at HouseEducationCommittee@leg.state.nh.us and ask them to vote NO on HB 1255.

The Week Ahead   Next week will be another week full of bills that affect public education. We have seen multiple themes of bills and next week’s themes including banning masks in school, dissolving cooperative school districts, and demanding that curriculum be shown to any parent at any time.

Masks    Let’s talk about masks first.  Our members have done everything in their power over the last 2 years to protect our students and to keep our schools open whenever it was possible.  While we all want, more than anything, a return to normal we also recognize that masks can help to slow the spread of COVID-19 and keep our schools open. It is unfathomable that in a time with so much spread of the virus, the legislature would seek to remove an important tool that keeps our schools open. We’re not sure anyone loves putting on masks in the morning but leaving the option for our local districts to make that decision is of the utmost importance.

Dissolution of Cooperative School Districts   The cooperative school district dissolution bills are equally disturbing and confusing. HB 1679 which is being heard next week would demand that any cooperative district dissolve in the next 3 years—whether they want to or not! Local control be damned. Towns have entered into these cooperative districts because it is what is best for students and taxpayers alike.  We are not aware of much demand across the state to dissolve these districts. So why do it? It seems clear that the sponsor of these bills wants to continue to dismantle public education. When you dissolve cooperative districts, you could see an increase of vouchers from school districts that cannot afford their own schools. This seems a very clear continuation of the effort by many in the legislature to dismantle our public schools.

Action Needed! 

Please be sure to sign our Petition to tell House Education Committee members to vote no on HB 1679.

Lastly, we have seen more bills that ever this session demanding curriculum from teachers and bills like HB 1015 that would demand that a parent can deem material “objectionable” and that the curriculum be produced two weeks before a new curriculum can be introduced. We cannot think of anything more damaging to our students than removing a teacher’s ability to use current events to emphasize a topic and help our students relate so they can better understand the material. Are teachers supposed to forgo using current events in the classroom? Also heard this week was HB 1434 which would require that curriculum course materials taught to pupils in public schools and public academies be available to the public.  These bills, like HB 1255, are born out of the idea that teachers are “indoctrinating” our students which is not the reality in our classrooms.  Bills like these do nothing to support our teachers and students but will do real damage to students’ abilities to learn.

Action Needed!   Email the House Education Committee Members and ask them to vote no on HB 1015.

We will continue to fight against these bills and many more like them this year but we do need your voice to let the legislature know where Granite Staters stand. Please take the actions above so they can hear directly from you.

You will find written testimony on priority bills on our website under State House News at www.aft-nh.org.

A schedule of upcoming hearings on our priority bills appears at the end of this bulletin.

Thank you as always for all that you are doing to defend public education in NH.

NH Retirement Security Coalition  The NHRSC will be tracking all bills related to the NH Retirement System and continuing advocacy for our members.  You can find the legislation tracker following retirement bills by clicking on the following link  NHRSC Updates . AFT-NH is a proud member of this coalition.

AFT-NH Legislative Activity for the Week of January 24th