Legislature Convenes

HB 675 State-Mandated School Budget Caps Defeated

Huge Victory

The legislative session began on January 7^th and scores of retained bills from the 2025 session were addressed. The BIG news of the week is that HB 675 which would have established mandatory budget caps for public schools was defeated this week. The defeat of this harmful legislation only happened because you answered the call to contact your state representative. A big thank you for all your work. It was a great victory to start the session and we know we can count on you all to step up as we see the continued attacks on public education and workers’ rights.

On January 7^th, the NH House will vote on HB 675 which would establish state-mandated budget caps for local school districts despite the will of the voters. This bill would strip away local control from voters and limit school district budgets to an unreasonable state formula that does not reflect what NH students really need. We need to preserve local control and protect public schools.

On her very first day of student teaching at Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, N.Y., Martha Strever pushed, pulled and pounded on the school’s door, which was locked. No one came. Where was everybody? It was, after all, the first day of school.

It turned out everybody was exactly where they were supposed to be: inside, having entered through the school’s front entrance. Strever had been knocking on a side door. Flustered but undeterred, she not only found her way inside, she also found her life’s calling.

Paraprofessionals and school-related personnel are often overlooked because of their support roles. They are the last ones hired and often the first ones fired when budgets get tight. This certainly seems true right now as the Trump administration withholds nearly $7 billion in education funds, effective July 1, which has hamstrung summer school programs, hindered English language support, halted professional development this summer, and left before- and after-school programs in limbo for the coming school year.

It is clear that higher education is under attack. The Trump administration has frozen funding for science, from cancer research to reproductive care; has hamstrung student financial aid programs; has stripped colleges and universities of diversity, equity and inclusion programming; has strangled affirmative action designed to expand access to college; and is demanding that some institutions sign a “compact” that forces them to adopt Trump’s ideology in exchange for federal funding.