AFT-NH Legislative Bulletin, 2021-07

February 14, 2021 ~ Bow, NH

Another week has passed and the NH Legislature continues to churn through committee hearings on proposed legislation.  House bills that need to go to a second committee (usually Finance) must be reported out of the initial policy committee by Thursday, Feb. 18, and will be considered by the entire House during its scheduled session on Feb. 24 and 25.  This in-person session will be held at the Sportsplex in Bedford NH, providing a large space for social distancing.  Specific rules and seating arrangements, however, have not been announced by Republican leadership, which continues pandering to the strong faction in the Republican caucus who refuse to wear masks and decry any regulations regarding COVID-19.  As for those members with significant health issues or immuno-compromised challenges, Republican leaders have as yet failed to devise any sort of remote-access method of attendance.  Businesses, schools, and public meetings across NH are all utilizing remote-access but apparently House Republican leaders remain baffled.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that many of the House members unable to risk personal health by attending in-person are Democrats?  Hmmm. 

School vouchers. The House Education committee concluded its public hearing on HB 20, school vouchers, this past Thursday, taking in another 4 ½ hours of public testimony.  Once again, the majority of witnesses opposed HB 20, and in the final tally of those registering their position on HB 20, 1100 citizens registered in support and over 5200 registered in opposition, a nearly 5:1 margin against the bill. Over the course of Thursday’s continued hearing, many parents testified to the benefits of home-schooling, though virtually none acknowledged their interest in garnering public funds (i. e. your tax dollars) from the State.  The committee appeared to obtain little new insight from the line of witnesses, and questions regarding accountability (fiscal or academic), eligibility, discrimination, conflicts of interest, or costs to the State and localities remain unanswered.  HB 20 continues to be the broadest and most unregulated voucher program proposed or implemented in the United States, and will immediately drain anywhere from $70 to $100 million from the NH education fund just to pay out to current private school and home-schooled students.  It was interesting that Governor Sununu, in his budget address delivered on Thursday, made no mention of this major hole in his proposed budget, the budget that promises to spend more but lower taxes.  Quick translation:  be prepared for more downshifting of costs to counties and localities. 

Next step for HB 20.   HB 20 will be voted upon by the Education Committee on this coming Wednesday, Feb. 17.  The committee will likely take up a number of amendments to the bill, but attempts to improve this travesty of legislation are akin to putting lipstick on a pig.  Might look a little better, but it is still a pig.  Please contact members of the House Education Committee by using the following link and ask them to Defeat HB 20 and Say No to Vouchers .

HB 607, a local voucher bill. Earlier in the week, the House Education Committee held a public hearing on HB 607, to establish local education savings accounts (vouchers).  HB 607 does what one might think is impossible—it is even more loosely drawn than HB20!  In this case, the legislation proposes to allow the parent to withdraw the student from the district public school and in turn, be provided with 85% of the average local per student cost of education.  The parent who pays, for example, $6000 in school taxes could be provided $10,000 to $13,000 per student in an education savings account (voucher).  Multiply that by the number of students the family decides to home-school and one can easily see this as a major financial windfall for certain families.  Moreover, HB 607 is even more vague than HB 20 on how this money could be spent, and again, provides no real or independent accountability (fiscal or academic).  At one point, the prime sponsor even admitted the parent could legitimately pay a sibling to “tutor” the child, meaning the money is then freely retained within the family.  As for the local school district, the financial losses would be incalculable, which the prime sponsor also admitted (he was asked about his own town and could offer no response on estimated costs).  For a party that used to pride itself on fiscal conservatism and responsibility, HB 20 and HB 607 are straightforward giveaways of public funds, with virtually no strings attached.  All they will accomplish is further destabilize the public schools of NH whose students annually rank within the top 5 nationally in terms of academic achievement.  The system works, so let’s dismantle it!

The Education Committee will vote on HB 607 on Tuesday morning, February 16.  As with HB 20, it is important that your voice be heard. Please take action and Ask the committee members to vote Inexpedient to Legislate on HB 607.

Right to Work. In other news, the Senate unsurprisingly voted to pass SB 61, the so-called “right to work” bill, and send it to the House.  Prime sponsor Senator Reagan, about whom more is written below, promised this would bring in more jobs and higher wages.  The evidence, of course, is to the contrary, since states with “right to work” laws have lower average wages, since unions are drastically weakened by this sort of legislation, and labor unions lead the way in raising wages for all working people.  Back in 2017, when a similar bill was heard before the House Labor Committee, the president of the Business and Industry Association (BIA) testified in favor of “right to work,” but under relentless questioning, finally admitted the truth—it had nothing to do with wages, the BIA just hates unions.  Plain and simple, and nothing has changed over the last four years.

SB 61 will presumably now go to the House Labor Committee for hearings, and come to the floor of the House for a vote sometime in March.  Be prepared to join in the campaign to defeat “right to work” once again here in NH.

More bad behavior. We close with two additional notes.  First, in this week’s catalog of Republican bad behavior, the winner is the aforementioned Senator Regan.  During a Senate committee hearing, Senator Sharon Carson recessed the hearing for 10 minutes in order to take a phone call concerning her daughter’s serious medical condition.  A gentleman as always, Regan complained about it, then muttered “b****” before realizing (or being told) his microphone was still on.  While he later apologized, this behavior fits in perfectly with the boorish, unprofessional and frankly disgusting behaviors being exhibited by Republicans in the legislature. 

CDC Guidance. Second and last, you likely have heard Governor Sununu repeatedly chastising teachers for seeking to be vaccinated as part of a return to in-person teaching.  Late this week, the CDC issued detailed and scientifically-based recommendations on school reopening.  The CDC calls for universal mask-wearing in schools, 6-foot distancing between students (not the 3-feet some districts are peddling), and the prioritizing of teachers and school staff as frontline essential workers in regards to vaccination.  Nowhere does the CDC urge immediate vaccination of ski patrol staff, such as those who work at Waterville Valley, the ski resort owned by the Sununu family.  While everyone, parents, teachers, students, and even the governor want schools to resume face-to-face teaching and learning, the CDC does not mandate reopening, and in fact continues to urge temporary closures in cases of active in-school outbreaks of COVID or when there is persistent and high community rates of transfer.  As usual, the governor will likely bark some more about those “teacher unions” who suddenly seem to have the power to determine school reopening.  As in the summer when the governor and the Dept. of Education provided no serious guidance to school districts regarding re-opening, there will be no real leadership once again, only political posturing.  Political gamesmanship while putting the health of students, teachers, and school staff at risk. 

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The Week Ahead. Here is a schedule of hearings and executive sessions for other bills being tracked by AFT-NH.