Thank you, Chair Ladd and Members of the House Education Committee
My name is Debrah Howes. I am president of the American Federation of Teachers – New Hampshire. I am here to speak on behalf of our 3,700 members. Our members include PreK through 12 public school educators and support staff, university faculty as well as town employees across the Granite State. We are parents and grandparents of public school students as well as taxpayers in New Hampshire. We have serious concerns with SB 341 and urge you to find it Inexpedient to Legislate.
This bill seems simple: if a parent asks a question about a student, the teacher or school employee must answer “completely and honestly” in writing. Ideally parents and teachers should be working together as a team both focusing on the best interest of the student because we all know that is when students make the most progress academically and thrive socially and emotionally. And if this bill were limited to questions about student academic progress, classwork, homework, whether the student follows school rules while in class, gets along with classmates and is kind to others, it might be a starting point for a collaboration between parents and teachers. That is if it didn’t come with the threat of punishment because genuine teamwork in the best interest of seeing a student succeed is not produced under coercive threats.
This bill contains no limits on the sorts of information teachers are expected to keep track of and report back to parents about. If passed will actually get in the way of teachers and parents working together effectively as a team in the best interest of the student. It will also create a climate of mistrust in schools as students will rightfully feel concerned that everything they express, say and do will be reported back to their parents. This bill will get in the way of student learning!
In addition, the seemingly simple “completely and honestly” standard is legally so vague as to make it hard to understand what is required to comply with the bill. There is no definition in this bill or in statute of what “completely and honestly” means, which can lead to confusion over exactly how much of what a school employee knows needs to be reported.
- Do you need to disclose only direct statements the student has made to you?
- Do you disclose actions and behaviors you have observed, which are subject to interpretation?
- How much should you pay attention to student fashion choices to report them to parents, who might consider them an important marker of an alteration of self-expression?
- Do you report what other students have said about a student? What if those students were actually trying to bully or harass another student by making false claims, and you pass that information on as something you have heard?
Another concerning point is that the bill seems to presume that individual teachers would be responsible for knowing everything a student does or says while at school. This law could actually lead to parents being given a mixture of accurate information, secondhand information and perhaps simple rumor because school employees are trying to tell everything they know or think they might know for fear of being accused of not meeting that “complete and honest” standard!
That leads to another major concern. This bill will add to the climate of fear amongst school employees by requiring disciplinary action including termination for those who violate a vague and hard to follow standard. The bill would overrule the progressive discipline models negotiated between unions and local school boards in most collective bargaining agreements. It mandates a specific path for parent complaints to take and gives employees no rights of appeal. It is already hard enough to recruit teachers and school staff and retain the ones that are working. This is one more state mandate interfering in the public school, creating a climate of fear that doesn’t help students learn.
The focus of public schools should be on creating welcoming, inclusive classroom communities where every student belongs and can learn and thrive. It should be about providing a challenging curriculum, learning through doing and individual attention from the teacher. It should be on giving students academic support when they need it. Parents and teachers should work together to support students, but the focus has to be on how the student is succeeding with the curriculum and in the classroom community.
That is what Granite Staters truly want, and they have shown in local school board elections across the state. They want parents and teachers working together as true partners. They want them focused on helping public school students learn and thrive. They don’t want a climate of threats and intimidation in our public schools.
For these reasons I urge you to find SB 341 Inexpedient to Legislate.
Sincerely,
Debrah Howes