AFT-NH Legislative Bulletin (2024-04)

More Book Banning and Retirement Bills

Week in Review    The noise and activity of the presidential primary campaigns have cleared out, but the NH legislature continues to churn in Concord. This past week the legislature heard, and committees voted on, dozens of bills including one bill that would expand the school voucher program so that municipalities would have to foot the bill and one bill that would eliminate all but history, math, English and social studies from mandatory public school curricula. This bill, as introduced, would further exacerbate the gap in our public schools where schools in property rich communities will be able to continue offering a robust variety of subjects important to a well-rounded education like art or music, advanced sciences and upper-level math or in-person financial literacy. Students in property poor towns won’t have those as dedicated subjects, although they could get a passing mention in a core class. Their public education will suffer because of it, yet they are still Granite State citizens with the same constitutional right to an equally robust public education regardless of which district they reside in New Hampshire.

Looking Ahead    Next week the House and Senate Education Committees will be back at work and the House will meet in a full session.  We have already heard a one book ban bill in the House last week and next week the Senate will be hearing their own version of a book ban bill. While Senate Education hears a blanket book ban bill, House Education will hear a bill that lays out a proper procedure to challenge books in schools, particularly school libraries while protecting First Amendment rights.

Over in the House Finance Committee there is a bill that would ease the burden on municipalities by re-establishing the state’s responsibility to pay their fair share of retirement costs for teachers, fire fighters and police officers. Also, in House Finance another bill would raid the education trust fund instead of using the surplus to help better fund our public schools and help the state meet its constitutional duty to its youngest citizens and property taxpayers.

Highlights for Next Week

SB 523 is the Senate version of the book ban. We have said it here before, blanket books bans do not work. Students need to be able to access a wide variety of quality books through their school library that can let them see life experiences that reflect their own as well as explore the whole world. It is up to parents to talk to their own children about what they do or do not want them to read. A parent has the right to contact the school and prohibit his or her own child from accessing specific materials. It is not up to one parent to decide what all other families should allow their children to read in the public school. Oppose

HB 1311 establishes a review process for policies to be created at the local level that involves a review panel made up of school and community members. The process requires consideration of the entirety of the challenged material, not just a few passages or illustrations. It is in keeping with US Supreme Court rulings on the First Amendment protections of student access to materials in school libraries. The bill also provides a means of appeal if someone doesn’t like the decisions a review panel makes. Support

HB 1279 restores the state’s funding of a portion of the employer’s cost of retirement for teachers, firefighters and police to 7.5%. New Hampshire used to fund the employer’s share of the retirement contribution at a 35% level until 2010 when it was slashed to save money at the state level which caused drastic rises in costs to cities, towns and school districts. The State should pay its fair share, and this is a modest step towards providing some relief to our local communities and property taxpayers. This bill will be heard on Monday, January 29^th at 10:00 am before the House Finance Committee. Support

HB 1560 would take unassigned money from the education trust fund and give it to the general fund. New Hampshire is and has consistently underfunded public education. Money in the trust fund should be used to better fund our local neighborhood public schools. Anything less is unacceptable. This bill will be heard on Monday, January 29^th at 11:00 am before the House Finance Committee. Oppose

SB 368 is a bill that would help our teachers and other Group I employees to make sure the social security reduction on their pension payment would not kick in until the retiree had reached full retirement age according to Social Security (not the current age 65) for any employee who has not reached age 65 prior to July 1, 2024 including those who retired before July 1, 2023.  This bill will be heard before the Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee on January 31^st at 9:15 am.  Support

SB 309 would reduce the vesting period for the NH Retirement System from 10 years to 5 years. This would certainly help with employee recruitment and retention. The bill will be heard before the Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee on January 31^st at 9:30 am. Support

ACTION REQUESTED

Please email the Senate Education Committee  to OPPOSE book bans and find SB 523 Inexpedient to Legislate. One parent does not get decide for all parents what their children can read! The date of the hearing is Tuesday, January 30^th at 9:15 am before the Senate Education Committee.

Please register your opinion in SUPPORT of HB 1311 so cities and towns can come up with reasonable policies to make sure age-appropriate materials are in our schools without just targeting and banning books that one parent may not agree with.  You can register your opposition by clicking this link REGISTER YOUR SUPPORT. The date of the hearing is Monday, January 29^th at 10:15 am before the House Education Committee.

We encourage you to take action on other bills which are noted above as well as any bills which appear on our tracker. Please note our position is not noted on the current tracker for bills that have already been heard and are now pending executive session action in committee since the period for testimony has passed.

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

We will post next week’s schedule of bill we are monitoring at the end of the weekly bulletin. If you want to find out more information about any bill, you can simply enter the bill at the following link:  FIND A BILL.

Upcoming Legislative Hearings