AFT-NH Legislative Bulletin (2024-12)

Action Needed to Stop Voucher Expansion and Part-time Teacher Bills

Subpoena bill tabled.  Another long week this week in the New Hampshire House but with some good news. HB 1353, the bill that would have given the Commissioner of Education subpoena power was tabled by the full House. The amendment was voted on first and lost by 9 votes before the bill was laid on the table. This means that this bill did not have the vote to pass this week but can be taken off the table by a simple majority vote through next week when the number of representatives in attendance might be different. Once next week is finished, it would require a two-thirds vote to remove from the table which means the bill is effectively dead. Thank you for all of your advocacy on this subject, reaching out to your legislators once again made a difference. We will keep tracking this bill next week, but for now we celebrate this victory.

NH DOE rebuffs full audit of voucher program. Also, this week Education Commissioner Edelblut testified in front of the Joint Legislative Performance Audit Committee on the ongoing audit of the school voucher program which is required by state law. In what will come as no surprise to all those reading this update, the commissioner believes that the scholarship organization that administers the voucher program, and pockets up to 10% of the money in administrative fees, cannot be audited by the state, keeping all information on how our tax dollars are being spent a secret. This budget busting program continues to exist with no proof of effectiveness and no proof that the money being spent is furthering a child’s education. Now, with the legally mandated audit finally happening, the DOE is stonewalling instead of letting us find answers.

Minimum Standards. We are also two weeks away from the public hearing on the proposed changes to the Minimum Standards for Public Schools, also known as the 306 rules which define a baseline of what all public schools must have for staffing, facilities and what educational programs they must offer. The draft changes to the 306 rules, given preliminary approval in Feb. by the State Board of Education, will restructure our public schools and the way students experience their public education in fundamental ways. Here are a few examples:

• By changing the word “shall” to “may” in reference to academic programs offered at the elementary and high school level, the rules reduce the amount and variety of classes public schools must offer (and fund.) Other changes make classes less rigorous. Why? Don’t we want high standards for our students?

• Shifts the role of teacher from one who designs learning activities and engages students in those learning activities to a bureaucratic, record-keeping role of one who signs off on competencies mastered elsewhere with no knowledge of the quality or rigor of that learning experience. Further deprofessionalizes teaching by removing many of the requirements for schools to have certified teachers while also removing limits on class sizes.

• Takes the power of decision making over many educational issues away from locally elected school boards and places it with the appointed Commissioner of Education and the unelected State Board of Education.

• For a more comprehensive look at what these rules would mean for our local neighborhood public schools you can watching this video from Reaching Higher New Hampshire.

The State Board of Education will hold two public hearings on April 3 and April 11, if you would like to express your opinion of these changes in person. They will also take written comments by email until April 30^th. More on this in next week’s bulletin.  

We are asking you to take two actions this week.

ACTION – NO TO MORE VOUCHER EXPANSION

Right now, Senate Finance has two major voucher expansion bills.  SB 442 expands the voucher program for anyone who has been denied an manifest hardship and SB 522 creates a whole new voucher program for pre-k in New Hampshire even though we do not have a public pre-k program yet in this state. These programs would be a massive expansion of the already overbudget voucher program, all while we are being denied an audit to make sure the current voucher funds are being spent correctly and while state revenues have flattened. Please tell the Senate Finance Committee we cannot afford voucher expansion and to vote no on SB 442 and SB 522.

ACTION – NO TO SB 374 AND PART-TIME TEACHER BILL (NO CREDENTIALS)

On Tuesday, in the House Education Committee,  they are hearing SB 374  that weakens the standards for becoming a teacher allowing someone who does not have a credential to work up to 30 hours a week. Teaching is not only about knowing academic content, but also about understanding communication, classroom management, child development and pedagogy.  Our students deserve educators who understand how to best educate them so they can be set up for success in their lives. Lowering standards does not do that but could very well lower the educational experience for our students. If this action looks familiar it is because the House has its own version which was amended and is up for a vote next week. Please tell the House Education Committee Reject SB 374 and Respect Professional Standards for Educators.  Our students deserve better.

We appreciate your advocacy during this challenging legislative session.

Legislative Action Toolkit

For breaking news and other legislative information, please be sure to like us on Facebook at AFT New Hampshire or follow us on Twitter @AFTNewHampshire to receive the latest news.  Please share this with friends so they can sign up for this bulletin at http://nh.aft.org/.

You can also read written testimony submitted to the legislature at STATE HOUSE NEWS.

We will post the next week’s schedule of bills we are monitoring at the end of the weekly bulletin. If you want to find out more information about any bill, you can simply enter the bill at the following link:  FIND A BILL.

We encourage you to take action on other bills. Please note our position is not noted on the current tracker for bills that have already been heard and are now pending executive session action or in a work session in committee since the period for testimony has passed.

For any of the bills scheduled for a hearing you can register your position on any bill scheduled for a public hearing at the following link: SUBMIT YOUR POSITION ON A BILL.

Legislative Hearings for the Week of March 25, 2024