Great News - Teacher Spy Bill (HB 341) Defeated

An important victory this week! SB 341— the bill that would have made teachers spy on all their students, make note of everything they said, did or wore to school in case a parent asked about it later; a bill that would distract teachers from teaching and students from learning, was defeated. A bi-partisan group of pro-education, pro-student, pro-parent, and pro-teacher legislators came together to defeat this legislation for the third year in a row. We are thankful for them and thankful for you, for all of your work to make sure your legislators knew to vote against this bill.

As the House and Senate finish up their business, there are couple of bills we are left tracking:

We oppose this bill because it is not in the best interests of students being able to learn a full and robust curriculum in our public schools. Parents already have the right to notice of the content of curriculum on human sexuality in heath and sexual education classes. The expansion of the areas requiring two week parental notification could conceivably be used to object to content beyond materials in biology or health class directly related to reproduction and human sexuality. Expanding the areas of objection to include sexual orientation, gender,  gender identity or gender expression could require notification before covering any material dealing with gender inequality in hiring or pay in economics or discussing civil rights for gay, lesbian and transgender Americans as part of history or current events classes. It could even require parental notification before reading classics such as  Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” where characters swap gender roles.

HB 1205 looks to limit students to playing on middle and high school student athletic teams that coincide with the sex listed on their original birth certificate. AFT-NH stands in opposition to this bill because in order for students to be successful in school they need to feel welcome, safe, and a part of their school community. Every students needs to find the place they belong and connect to in their school community. For some it is excelling in academics, for some it is in music or drama club and for some it is in playing sports. This bill would force schools to discriminate against some students by either denying them the same opportunity to play sports as their peers have or forcing them to play on a team that does not align with how they and their families perceive their gender.  

Your Action Requested on SB 341

The legislature is entering its final sprint of the regular session of 2024. Much like a lot of schools the legislature has 7 weeks remaining. Once the regular session ends in June, the legislature does not take up any new bills again until Jan 2025. However, AFT-NH is still tracking a number of key priority bills in the 2024 session but at this point it is a lot less fast and furious than it was at the beginning of the year.

This past week there was no action taken on either the school voucher expansion or part time uncertified teacher bill in the Senate, however the House Education Committee dead locked on a 10-10 vote on SB341 which requires teachers to track everything students say, do or wear at school in case a parent asks about it later. Please contact your state representative and ask them to vote Inexpedient to Legislate on SB 341.

I’m here today because the bottom line is simple and the reality is clear. President

Biden defends public education. Donald Trump attacks it. President Biden supports our

educators. Donald Trump supports billionaires.

As President Biden said in his State of the Union address, in order to remain the

strongest economy in the world, we need to have the best education system in the

world. That’s why he’s investing in educators after Donald Trump left them behind.

President Biden invested $170 billion in K-12 schools – the single largest-ever

investment in education funding. Here are some examples of how that helped!

• This investment has allowed us to hire more certified teachers to help students catch up in reading and math. In fact, state test results from last year showed that NH is leading the country in getting student achievement back to where it should be after the disruptions of the COVID pandemic.
• It has allowed negotiated salary increases to retain experienced, certified public school teachers and paraeducators – a very difficult thing to do in this time of educator shortages.
• Pres. Biden’s Infrastructure Law expanded rural broadband – which in a state like NH helps many of our students as well as our staff. It is so much harder for students to do their homework or teachers to do their lesson planning if they have to go to the nearest fast food restaurant to use their wifi. 

CONCORD, N.H.—Statement by AFT-New Hampshire President Deb Howes on SB 341, requiring teachers and other school employees to truthfully and completely answer any question by parents or face termination. The House Education Committee plans to discuss and vote on the bill on Monday, April 22.

“You could call this bill ‘son of parental bill of rights’, which the Legislature rejected in the last session. Teachers should be allowed to simply teach and do their jobs, instead of forcing them to pay attention to what kids wear, say and do and then be tattletales if asked by parents. This is another attempt to intimidate teachers with a scary but vague law that holds career-jeopardizing consequences, not so different from the equally offensive ‘divisive concepts’ law. This is not what most N.H. parents want and doesn’t move the needle at all in terms of improving our schools or student achievement. To be frank, this law will get in the way of teachers being able to focus on their teaching and students being able to feel safe and concentrate on their learning.”