State House News

HB 1311, also known as the Freedom to Read bill, strikes the right balance in recognizing the needs, interests and responsibilities of students, families, and schools when it comes to school libraries. It requires that all school boards adopt clear policies for their district on how they build their library collections and on what steps to take if a parent or guardian feels  there is material in the collection that doesn’t belong there or is accessible to the wrong age level. This is the right balance, respecting the rights and interests of all involved.

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:

I am here to speak on behalf of our 3700 members across the state, as well as the students, families, and communities we serve. Our members include preK through 12 public school educators and support staff, university faculty as well as town employees. I am here today to testify in support of HB 1583 relative to the per pupil cost of the opportunity for an adequate education.

Every Granite State child has a constitutional right to the opportunity for a robust public education through our local neighborhood public schools no matter where they live in the state. Whether families choose to enroll in the local neighborhood public schools for their children’s education, or choose private school, homeschooling, or a charter school, it is the child’s constitutional right to have that opportunity for a robust public education and the state’s constitutional duty to fund it. In fact, our Granite State students have a right to more than just a barebones public education, as a series of court cases have clarified over the past  three decades. They have a right to a public education that prepares them for college, entering the workforce, joining an apprenticeship program or the service and to become productive citizens of their communities and our state, or wherever their goals and dreams take them after high school.

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.

Thank you, Chair Ladd and Members of the House Education Committee

My name is Debrah Howes. I am president of the American Federation of Teachers – New Hampshire. I am here to speak on behalf of our 3,700 members. Our members include PreK through 12 public school educators and support staff, university faculty as well as town employees across the Granite State. We are parents and grandparents of public school students as well as taxpayers in New Hampshire. We have serious concerns with SB 341 and urge you to find it Inexpedient to Legislate.

This bill seems simple: if a parent asks a question about a student, the teacher or school employee must answer “completely and honestly” in writing. Ideally parents and teachers should be working together as a team both focusing on the best interest of the student because we all know that is when students make the most progress academically and thrive socially and emotionally. And if this bill were limited to questions about student academic progress, classwork, homework, whether the student follows school rules while in class, gets along with classmates and is kind to others, it might be a starting point for a collaboration between parents and teachers. That is if it didn’t come with the threat of punishment because genuine teamwork in the best interest of seeing a student succeed is not produced under coercive threats.

Your Action Requested

We wanted to provide a quick (and early!) bulletin this week before many of our members who are public school educators and school staff take a well-deserved April break.

This week, the House heard and then immediately voted to defeat SB 442 in committee. SB 442 would have raised the income cap on the school voucher program to 400% of federal poverty, which is about $125,000 a year for a family of 4. The Republicans on the House Education Committee has made it clear that they voted against this bill not because they understand that the already over-budget, unaccountable voucher scheme is bad for New Hampshire students, school and property taxpayers but because they already passed HB1665 which raises the voucher program to 500% of the federal poverty level, which is about $156,000 for a family of 4. They want to give away more of our tax money to families, most of whom are already managing to pay for private school or home schooling without a state funded tax subsidy.

Thank you, Chair Ward and Members of the Senate Education Committee.

My name is Debrah Howes. I am president of the American Federation of Teachers – New Hampshire. I am here to speak on behalf of our 3700 members across the state. Our members include preK through 12 public school educators and support staff, university faculty as well as town employees. We are parents and grandparents of public school students as well as property owners and taxpayers in the Granite State. I am here today to testify in opposition to HB 1665 relative to eligibility for the school voucher program.

The State of New Hampshire has a constitutional duty to all its children to provide the opportunity for a robust public education through its public district schools. It is currently failing to meet this obligation in a way that provides the same robust public education to the students in Claremont, Berlin, and Franklin as it does to the students in Windham, Bedford, and Hanover. Moreover, the taxes raised to fund those schools so students can have everything that makes up a robust public school education: the teachers, the paraeducator support, the books, the school libraries, the counselors, safe buildings, transportation – those taxes must fall equally upon citizens across the state as providing a public education is constitutionally a state responsibility. Numerous court cases have enumerated these principles over the past three decades. It is each Granite State child's right to have access to that quality public education, but the state is still not living up to its obligation!

House Refuses to Debate Expanding Free School Meals

Part-time teacher bills   This week, the House Education Committee voted unanimously to defeat HB 374 which was the Senate’s version of the so-called uncertified part-time teacher bill. This version of the bill allowed anyone to teach in a public school classroom up to 30 hours a week with no guidelines or guardrails.

The House version of this bill, HB1298, was heard in the Senate Education Committee this week. This bill, while better than the Senate version, still contains many of the same problems and would still lead to uncertified, unqualified individuals teaching students in public school classrooms across the state without the skills and preparation they need to do so effectively. It continues to be a bill that would shortchange our students and not lead to better educational outcomes.

House Refuses to Consider Free School Meal Expansion Also, this week, the House refused to even debate HB 1212, a bill that would have increased the number of students who qualified for free meals in our public schools. We know that feeding kids is vital, not just for their health but also for their ability to learn.  New Hampshire students deserve better and in the words of the late Rep. Art Ellison “Feed the damn kids!” While a few commonsense Republicans joined all of the Democrats in voting to move the bill forward, the rest of the razor thin Republican majority in the House voted as a block to table the bill without so much as a discussion, and then adjourned for a corporate sponsored lunch in the House cafeteria. Feeding hungry children so they can learn in school should not be a partisan issue. It is really a shame so many of our lawmakers in Concord have forgotten that.