State House News

I am here today to testify in opposition to HB 10 establishing the parental bill of rights.

While this bill gathers together existing statutory parental rights in one place, it also appears to expand on them with some sweeping assertions and vague language. This bill sets up potential conflicts between parents and teachers or other school staff when a parent asserts their unlimited right to direct the education of his child while in a public school and the teacher is teaching the school board approved  curriculum to meet the state approved standards. We know that students do best in school when parents and teachers work together as a team, focusing on the best interest of the child.

Now is a time when we should be focusing on real solutions to make sure our Granite State students can learn and thrive in our public schools. We should be focused on making sure they all feel they are welcome and connected to their school community. In particular, this Legislature should be focusing on ensuring that each neighborhood public school has enough resources to provide every student with individual teacher attention, learning and behavior support from trained paraprofessionals, school counselors and nurses, and a wide variety of quality learning resources and all the other components of a robust public education. Instead, we get a bill that will divide communities, pitting different families against each other, and will make it easier to remove books from school libraries and micromanage the materials available in the classroom. All of this makes it harder to meet students’ learning needs and help them succeed.

SB 208 strikes the right balance in recognizing the needs, interests and responsibilities of students, families, and schools when it comes to school libraries. It strikes a similar balance when it comes to families, individual patrons and community members for public libraries. It requires that all school boards and library trustees adopt clear policies for how to build the library collections and on what steps to take if feels material in the collection is objectionable or accessible to the wrong age level. This is the right balance, respecting the rights and interests of all individuals involved. It is built on the fundamental First Amendment principle that libraries serve as centers of inquiry where patrons, including students, can access a wide variety of information and materials.

HUGE VICTORY FOR NH WORKERS!

So-called Right to Work Defeated (again)

Action Needed - Red Alert

What a week! We had two big victories. The union-busting so called Right to Work bill was killed by a bipartisan vote in the full house this week. The bill was indefinitely postponed meaning that no bill that even broaches the subject of so-called right to work can be even considered for the next two years. We are thrilled with the outcome. If you want to see how your legislator voted on this bill, click Roll Call on HB 238.

This and the other big victory this week, HB 283, would not have been possible without you making your voices heard by reaching out through sign-ins, emails to committees and contacting your legislators. Thank you to every one of you who has spoken up.

I am here today to express our staunch opposition to SB 295.

The NH Constitution places a high value on educating the children of the Granite State. In Part 2, Article 83, the NH Constitution guarantees each Granite State child the opportunity for a robust public education through public district schools and places the responsibility for paying for it squarely on the state. I use the word robust because it is clear the term “adequate” used in the constitution does not have the commonplace meaning of just barely enough, but rather an education sufficient to prepare the student for working life, further studies and full civic participation in the community after finishing school. We saw the overwhelming support for robust public education in the hearing to pare back the 

I write to express the overwhelming opposition of my members to HB 283. All of our public school students have the right to a robust, well rounded public education that prepares them for career, the workforce, higher education and full participation in the civic life of their communities. Not only do all students have this constitutional right in New Hampshire, but it is the state’s obligation to fund it. 

This bill would lower the quality of the education many of our students receive by limiting the subjects considered in the state’s funding formula to Math, English/ Language Arts, Science and History. Anything else would be extra and presumably could be provided at local expense. Many of our local school districts are already

We support HB 655 because there are hungry kids in New Hampshire. As of Sept 2024, almost 40% of Granite State children live in households that don’t have enough food, at least some of the time.

And since we know these children are in New Hampshire, we know that many of them are in our public schools. I know because I have seen them. My members see them on any given day. My members often dig into their own pockets to keep a stash of easy snacks in their classrooms for those in need. Why do we do this? Because we know that hungry kids have a harder time paying attention to their schoolwork. Hungry kids often have more off tasks behaviors and disrupt learning for other students. Hungry kids sometimes act out. What they don’t do is learn as well as they could.

I am here today to express our support for SB 206.

AFT-NH supports SB 206 because giving our educators and students distraction free learning time to focus on learning during the school day is just good common sense. 

We support this bill because the current system isn’t working. As cell phones have become a common, and constant companion for teens, preteens, and even some elementary school students, the issues this causes in our classrooms have multiplied. Cell phones have become a distraction from the learning tasks at hand, competing with the teacher for the attention of students. With ready access to social media aps, student cell phone use during the school day can increase student anxiety, add to feelings of stress, decrease in-person communication and inflame incidents of cyberbullying. 

I am here today to express our support for HB 603.

AFT-NH absolutely supports increasing the amount of differentiated aid for students with special education needs. The current amount of $2142 per pupil is nowhere near the average cost districts are paying, which is approximately $29,000 per student. 

School funding has become a contentious issue in many Granite State communities. Much of this is due to the fact that we rely on local property taxpayers to support 70 to 80 percent of the costs of providing our Granite State children with a public education. Local property taxpayers also fund 80 percent of special education costs. Of course, that has repeatedly been found unconstitutional because it is a State duty to fund the robust opportunity for public education that is the right of every Granite State child, but local districts, and local taxpayers do not have the option of downshifting the responsibility onto someone else.