Consequential House Finance Committee Vote on

State Budget Up Next

Another tough week at the State House for those who want to see every public school student in the Granite State get the robust public education they deserve in their own school district. This past week, the Senate passed their version of the Universal School Voucher Program on its financial vote. It previously passed a policy vote. With this latest vote, the Senators and Representatives who voted for the Universal School Voucher Program made one thing very clear. They support sending our tax dollars to the wealthiest individuals in our state for private education, all while failing to provide anywhere near enough tax dollars to allow the more than 155,000 public school students to learn and thrive in their public schools.

Concord, NH - Today, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order shutting down the US Dept. of Education, endangering access to a robust public education for more than 55 million American students. Deb Howes, President of  AFT-NH, released the following statement:

“Shutting down the US Department of Education so it cannot fulfill its mission of supporting all students’ access to public education, frankly, attacks the pathway to opportunity for so many American students.

CONCORD, NH—The following is a statement by AFT-New Hampshire President Deb Howes on two universal voucher bills that passed today in the House and Senate and a House bill that imposes a cap on local budgets for school districts:

“In their twisted priorities, an out-of-touch majority of anti-public education extremists in New Hampshire have decided that the rich need help to send their kids to private school and once again showed their utter contempt for adequate funding for public schools, the support our students need or the burden this places on local property taxpayers. The universal voucher bills are ludicrous because they allow the well-to-do—even if they already send their kids to private school—to use a state-funded voucher to pay for private education. This is a gift to the wealthy and puts public education on a death watch.

I am here today to express our opposition to the Governor’s budget as presented in HB 1 and HB 2. It is often said that a budget is a statement of values, yet this budget does not protect or adequately support the needs of most Granite State students, their families or local property taxpayers. Our public schools, which serve nearly 90% of students in our state, and our public universities are pathways to opportunity for our students, their chance to learn and work towards a brighter future, to the benefit of their communities and the Granite State. Rather than meet our state’s obligation to those students, this budget chooses to focus its limited revenue on helping just a few, while leaving so many behind.