State House News

My name is Debrah Howes. I am the president of the American Federation of Teachers-NH.AFT-NH represents 3,500 teachers, paraeducators and school support staff, public service employees and higher education staff across New Hampshire.

I am here to express the concerns my members have with HB 1434 – relative to the availability of school curriculum materials. We feel that if passed, this bill will take time and focus away from student learning, create additional paperwork and recordkeeping for teachers and not improve parental knowledge of what is being taught in the classroom. We urge you to find this bill Inexpedient to Legislate.

March 19, 2022 ~ Bow, NH
We are now through the busiest part of the legislative season. While “crossover” is technically not for another two weeks the majority of the bills that were voted “ought to pass” in the House are now on their way to the Senate. Senate bills are also making their way over to the House. There are still bills that we will need action on in the coming weeks, but we want to take a minute to celebrate some victories.

Victories! This week we saw HB1255, “Relative to Teacher’s Loyalty” sent to the trash bin of history where it belongs. HB1671, a bill that started as an extreme attempt by Commissioner Edelblut to destroy public education, transformed into a bill that would strengthen education and was passed by the House. We also saw the House table HB1072 which would have allowed School Board members unfettered access to personnel files, student records, and to our school facilities.  These bills were victories for public education, but predictably it was not all good news this week.

March 5, 2022 ~ Bow, NH

March is shaping up to be very busy with scheduled House sessions and committees working to make final recommendations on outstanding bills. The full House will meet this week on Thursday, March 10th. The other tentative dates for the next House sessions are March 15, 16, 17, and 31st. There are no bills from the House Education committee being voted on by the House on March 10th.

Action Needed (HB 1393-local school budget cap) However, there is an important bill to be considered by the full House in the near future. This bill has been recommended Ought to Pass by a 10-9 vote in the Municipal and County Government committee. HB 1393 would adversely affect local school districts by allowing local school districts to adopt a budget cap with a formula that is primarily based on average daily attendance of pupils. Such a formula would not take into account actual costs in the school district such as transportation contracts, fuel, or even out-of-district costs for special education. This would leave districts with a budget that could not even meet the basic needs of the district.

Action Request   Please contact your legislator by clicking the following link: Defeat HB 1393

To the NH House Education Committee

Dear Chairman Ladd and Members of the Committee:

My name is Debrah Howes. I am the president of the American Federation of Teachers -NH. AFT-NH represents 3,500 teachers, paraeducators and school support staff, public service employees, and higher education staff across New Hampshire.

I write to express the overwhelming opposition of my members to HB 1671. The global problems that we arere experiencing in New Hampshire and across the country will be solved by the students within our schools today. We must ensure that every child has a complete, robust, and engaging curriculum that builds their minds, bodies, and characters. All public-school students deserve to learn in their neighborhood public schools the academic content, problem-solving, critical thinking, and teamwork skills that will allow them to succeed in a 21st-century economy as global citizens. To do anything less would be selling the more than 160,000 Granite State students who rely on public schools short. Indeed, it would be selling our future short.