Press

AFT-NH: House Budget Deal Appreciated CONCORD, N.H.—The following is a statement from AFT-New Hampshire President Deb Howes on the New Hampshire House’s budget deal: “Thank goodness the House approved a deal that rejected several proposals which would have endangered public education funding and raised local property taxes to fund what our public school students need to succeed and thrive. It’s become exhausting as extremist lawmakers try repeatedly to destroy public education with culture-war, pro-privatization education proposals and then, thankfully, the House throws most of them out in the end. Today’s successful House budget deal removes any expansion of school vouchers and changes the education funding formula to put more money in targeted education aid for towns with poor property-tax bases. This means 185 out of 245 districts get more funding to better support student learning. The deal also removed proposed language that would have cut off new employees in the community college system from joining the New Hampshire Retirement System pension plan. “Not everything was a victory, however. The House also narrowly voted down the proposal to restore the Education Trust Fund as a lockbox for funding public education, as it was intended. That will be a fight with the next budget and the next Legislature.” MORE

AFT-NH: House Should Reject Budget Proposed Budget Would Raid State’s Education Trust Fund Howes: It Would Become a Reverse “Rob Peter to Pay Paul” Scheme CONCORD, N.H.—The following is a statement from AFT-New Hampshire President Deb Howes, urging the New Hampshire House to reject the proposed budget for many reasons, including the fact that it would raid the Education Trust Fund for any non-education purposes and make public schools depend on even more local property taxes and lottery revenues: “All 165,000 Granite State public school students should be guaranteed safe and welcoming public schools that are fully staffed, well-resourced and provide curriculum to meet their learning needs. Instead, the proposed budget would raid the Education Trust Fund of hundreds of millions of dollars for non-education purposes, even tax cuts for the wealthy. This would become a reverse ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ scheme that would mean more tax cuts for the rich, less money for our public schools, and therefore inadequate and inequitable education funding. Our public schools would be totally dependent on lottery revenues and local property taxpayers, who already are buckling under the burden. This budget demonstrates that New Hampshire couldn’t care less about properly supporting our public school students. Budgets are about values; this proposed budget gambles with our children’s future. The House must reject it.” # # # MORE

CONCORD, N.H.—The following is a statement from AFT-New Hampshire President Deb Howes on today’s N.H. House defeat of parental bill of rights legislation and the tabling of two voucher bills: “The defeat of these bills signals that the Granite State doesn’t support extremist politicians’ efforts to wage culture wars in the classroom and divert more public dollars for expanded voucher programs. Students and families deserve a state government and Legislature that is laser focused on ensuring that our public schools provide robust academic programs and offer appropriate social and emotional assistance to students. “The proposed parental bill of rights legislation was a shameful effort straight out of a culture war handbook, rather than a sincere effort to enable teachers and parents to work together in the best interest of students. Let’s hope this brings an end to a terrible foray into the euphemism of parental rights but really was an abuse of students’ and educators’ rights. MORE

Public News Service - March 20, 2023 Educators in New Hampshire say a proposed "parental bill of rights" before lawmakers discriminates against LGBTQ students. The legislation requires schools to inform parents of a student's sexual orientation or gender identity should a parent inquire. Educators could be sued in civil court, face fines or even jail time if they fail to truthfully respond. Deb Howes, president of the American Federation of Teachers-New Hampshire, said teachers should not be forced to "out" students, and parents should talk with their children themselves. MORE

CONCORD, N.H.— Today, Governor Sununu delivered his budget address. During the budget address the governor announced more money to our neighborhood public schools while also increasing public money to the ballooning, unaccountable and unproven voucher program.  AFT-NH President Deb Howes released the following statement: “The money to our local neighborhood public schools is welcome and long overdue. Our public schools have long been some of the least funded in the country and local property taxpayers have been forced to pick up the tab. We are happy to see more state funds going to support the educational needs of our students in our local neighborhood schools by increasing the base adequacy aid and free and reduced aid per student. However, the governor’s budget also included a dramatic increase of funding for the state’s voucher program. The funding for the program, which is already massively over-budget, should not come out of the education trust fund, which is constitutionally obligated to fund only our public schools.  MORE

CONCORD, N.H.—The following is a statement from AFT-New Hampshire President Deb Howes on HB 514, a bill to provide a procedure for people to complain about so-called obscene materials in K-12 and higher education classes and public libraries but that does not even clearly define what would be considered obscene: “For all intents and purposes, this legislation about the dissemination of obscene materials is a book ban bill. Incredibly, the bill’s sponsors don’t even have the guts to clearly define what would be considered obscene, so it’s really meant to intimidate teachers and deprive students—both school-aged and adults—of books that one person who files a complaint deems objectionable. It practically begs parents or guardians to complain about a particular book to their local school board in the case of public schools, opening the way to a chaotic free-for-all. For public universities, public libraries and museums, it adds the Department of Education to the agencies that can initiate legal hearings to find material ‘obscene’ after receiving anonymous citizen complaints. Higher education faculty actually could be arrested, charged and indicted if they are found to be using a book that is judged to be obscene, whatever that means. MORE

New Hampshire Educators Pleased Federal Court Rules to Allow Lawsuit Against State’s ‘Divisive Concepts’ Law to Proceed AFT-NH: A Victory for New Hampshire’s Teachers and Students CONCORD, N.H.—The American Federation of Teachers and AFT-New Hampshire reacted to news today that a federal court will allow AFT-New Hampshire’s lawsuit against the state’s so-called divisive concepts law to proceed, with the judge writing that teachers should not be in a position where they must instruct students on certain concepts but face losing their jobs. The controversial law, passed in 2021, is called the “Right to Freedom from Discrimination in Public Workplaces and Education.” AFT-NH contends it violates teachers’ free speech rights when teaching as well as students’ First Amendment rights not to have censored instruction block their right to learn. The lawsuit went on to argue that the divisive concepts statute is unconstitutionally vague and contradicts the U.S. Constitution as well as a state law mandating that public school curriculum include the teaching of accurate, honest history and social studies. AFT-NH’s case against the law has been consolidated with a similar one brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire. It was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire. U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro used AFT-NH’s actual wording in its suit to agree that the law is flawed and the lawsuit should proceed. MORE

State Education Commissioner Sued Over Funding of Voucher Program CONCORD, N.H.—New Hampshire is violating the N.H. Constitution and state law by using state lottery dollars and money from the Education Trust Fund to fund the state’s private school voucher program called the Education Freedom Account program, according to a complaint filed today in state court against state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut. The complaint (https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/2022/Howes-v-Ed…) is asking the Merrimack County Superior Court for an injunction against use of these funds intended for New Hampshire public schools for the voucher program. It says: “If the state desires to operate an Education Freedom Account or similar program, whereby it grants public money for parents to utilize for private use, it must separately fund it through additional taxation or another source of funds,” noting there currently is no mechanism for doing so. MORE

AFT-New Hampshire Tells Federal Court Its Lawsuit Against Divisive Concepts Law Should Proceed CONCORD, N.H.—AFT-New Hampshire urged a federal court today to allow its federal lawsuit against the so-called divisive concepts law to proceed, arguing the law is unconstitutionally vague and violates teachers’ and students’ free speech rights. According to the lawsuit, AFT-NH contends the “Right to Freedom from Discrimination in Public Workplaces and Education” law violates teachers’ free speech rights when teaching, as well as students’ First Amendment rights not to have censored instruction block their right to learn. The state has asked the U.S. District Court in Concord to dismiss AFT-NH’s lawsuit and a similar one by the American Civil Liberties Union. MORE

CONCORD, N.H.— Today, the Department of Education released its latest data on the voucher program enacted by Republicans in last year's budget. AFT-NH President Deb Howes released the following statement: “The numbers show a disturbing trend of the vast majority of vouchers being used by students who were already in private school or already being homeschooled.  The voucher program has cost the state $14.7 million since its inception, a tab local property taxpayers will be forced to absorb in their city and town budgets. All of this while we know our local neighborhood public schools continue to support the majority of our students in New Hampshire. The state should be focusing on how to support the almost 170,000 public school students so that every child in New Hampshire is receiving the best education possible instead of just focusing on a few students who use a voucher.” MORE