AFT-NH Legislative Bulletin (2023-08)

For most of our members who work in public schools you have made it to winter break. Hopefully whether your break was this week or is next, you find some time to relax and recharge. The legislature is also taking a break next week with most committees not meeting next week and the full House and Senate are taking a breather as well.

While the legislature is taking a break, it also means when it comes back activity will happen at a rapid pace. This week we have seen two dramatic voucher expansion bills. One bill that would eliminate the income requirement so anyone, no matter how much money they make, could take a voucher and have taxpayers subsidize private school tuition, gymnastics, music lessons, summer camp or any other “educational” expense. Another bill that would create a local voucher program which would require localities who opt in to pay out approximately $10,000 from local property taxes that fund the local neighborhood public schools for every person who takes a voucher. This could bankrupt many school districts and lead to barebones programs at your neighborhood public school and higher property taxes. When the legislature returns from the break, the House Education committee will vote on both of these bills.

The full legislature will also have to vote on the other voucher expansion bills that have already made their way through committee, as well as the book ban that we have talked about in previous legislative updates. All of these bills will have to be voted on by the last week of March. There is a lot of work and not a lot of time.

Parental Bill of Rights   Looking ahead we wanted to highlight Tuesday, March 7^th as an important day. On March 7^th, the House Children and Family Law Committee will hear their version of the so-called Parental Bill of Rights (HB 10) and the Senate Education Committee will hear the Senate version of the so-called Parental Bill of Rights (SB 272). Many of you probably remember a version of a Parental Bill of Rights was a big issue at the end last session because it would have made our jobs harder and required us to break the trust of our students. Due to a lot of activism, we were able to beat the bill in the House. Now, the House and Senate each have their own unique version of the bill.  We have said before we know that when teachers and parents work together as a team, that is what supports student learning the best. Our concern with these bills is that they don’t promote partnership between parents and schools but rather gives each parent absolute authority over his or her child. How does this work in a public school classroom? What happens when you have parents who want different things taught or not taught to their particular student, and they each feel empowered by a law like this? Which parent’s rights takes supremacy? Who gets to decide for the whole class? DO you have to teach each student individually? Such an approach will cause confusion and intimidation in the classroom and will hinder some student’s ability to learn.

Also being heard on March 7^th is another bill that would dramatically change the safe and welcoming classroom environment teachers and school staff look to create for their students. HB 619 would make it illegal to call a student any name other than the name on their birth certificate and only refer to the gender that the student was at birth.  It also says that parents are “solely responsible for teaching their children about matters of faith, morals and matters relating to their sexuality.” Teachers often talk to their students about right and wrong, how to treat each other with kindness and how to respect each other. So much of what we do in schools could be construed as teaching morality, from how to get along in a group to identifying themes of almost any great work of literature. Under this bill you could be accused of teaching a child morality and subject to a revocation of your license. If passed this bill will have a chilling effect (yet another one).  Is it any wonder we have difficulty keeping talented professionals in the classroom? This bill is abhorrent for these reasons and many, many more we will not get into in this update and must be defeated by the full House.

If you would like to make sure your opposition is recorded before the relevant House and Senate committees, you can use the following links and information.

Action Needed

Please take action to OPPOSE the above-discussed bills by utilizing the Remote Sign in links below for the House and Senate:

REMOTE SIGN-IN FOR HOUSE COMMITTEES

House Bill 10    (Parental Bill of Rights) 

Children and Family Law, March 7^th at 1:15 p.m.

House Bill 619   (Prohibiting gender transition procedures for minors, relative to sex and gender in public schools, and relative to the definition of conversion therapy)

Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs, March 7^th at 10:00 a.m.

REMOTE SIGN IN FOR SENATE COMMITTEES

Senate Bill 272 (Parental Bill of Rights)

Senate Education, March 7, 2023 at 9:00 a.m.

Directions for Remote Sign-In

You will just need to enter in your personal information and use the above bill numbers and hearing dates to register your opposition.

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You can also read written testimony submitted to the legislature at STATE HOUSE NEWS.