AFT-NH Legislative Bulletin (March 14, 2025) Action Needed

Extremists in NH Legislature Turn Their Backs

on Public Schools and Local Control of School Budgets

RED ALERT - ACTION NEEDED

On Thursday, the extremist majority in the State House showed once again how out of touch they are with Granite State voters. In the same week that many Granite Staters participated in their local school district meetings, carefully considering school budgets, weighing the impact on public school students against the effect on local property taxes, extremist legislators in Concord pushed through harmful legislation that disregards both students and voters. In fact, one of the most extreme legislators, House Majority Leader Jason Osbourne, referred to local citizens voting on their local school district budgets as a “tyranny of special interests.”

The House and Senate each passed their own versions of universal school vouchers, and the House also passed the statewide spending cap on every local school budget. These bills attack education from both ends. Universal school vouchers are simply a taxpayer subsidy for wealthy families who don’t need it to do something they are already doing and can already afford, which is send their children to private school or homeschool them. School vouchers will continue to take the very limited public money available from the state and instead of giving that money to our local neighborhood public schools will give it to the ultra-wealthy while hard working Granite Staters struggle with their property tax bills.

The statewide school budget cap locks in local school spending at its current level. It takes the local control away from taxpayers and any sudden increase in expenses would cause schools to have to make deep and severe cuts. Make no mistake, your kids’ school will no longer have sports, arts, music, or any academic classes beyond core math, English language arts, science and history. This past week at town meeting ZERO towns adopted the voluntary spending caps presented in their towns. In spite of or maybe because of voter rejection of such caps, the extremist, anti-public education majority decided that they know better than you the voters and took your choice away. The way to fix the funding of our schools is for the legislature to step up and have the state properly fund our public schools. Our students deserve better than they received this week,

That being said, this fight is not over. Both the votes, in the House, on vouchers and the spending cap had bi-partisan opposition. The House and Senate Finance Committees now have these bills, and we need to tell them that the budget should focus on funding schools for all our students and not just more tax breaks for the wealthy few.

ALERT ~  Please take each of these two actions. We must keep reaching out to both the House and Senate.  Click each link below.

Tell the House Finance Committee to oppose expansion of school vouchers and no to HB 675 which imposes local spending caps on school district budgets. 

Tell the Senate Finance Committee we cannot afford school voucher expansion.

There are many bills on the docket for next week which are scheduled for Executive Session which is when the committees will make recommendations on the bills. Remember, you can’t submit your testimony when bills have already had their hearing and are scheduled for an executive session.  You can submit your position on a bill by using the remote tools below when a bill is scheduled for a hearing.

Submitting Your Position and Testimony

Here is easy access to submit your position on bills before House and Senate Committees.

Remember, if a bill is already scheduled for an Executive Session, you will not be able to submit your position.

To submit your position, click SUBMIT YOUR POSITION TO A HOUSE COMMITTEE HERE.

To submit your position, click SUBMIT YOUR POSITION TO A SENATE COMMITTEE HERE.

• Fill in your Personal Information
• Select the relevant date and committee for the hearing by clicking on it in the Meeting Schedule Calendar (make sure you are on the right week!). [Select Bill # and select the date].
• In the dropbox below "Select the Committee," select committee.
• In the dropbox below "Choose the Bill," select the appropriate time and bill number.
• Select the appropriate option for the "I am" dropbox (likely "Member of the Public").
• Fill in the content box under "I'm Representing" with the business, organization, or group you are representing. If you are representing yourself only, write "myself."
• Under the “Indicate Your Position on this Bill,” check the circle stating your position on the bill. “I Oppose this Bill” or “I Support this Bill”
• After filling in all of the appropriate dropboxes, click “Submit.”
• After clicking submit, you will be brought to the next page, where you will fill in the content boxes with your first and last name, as well as your town, state, and email address.
• Press “Continue.”
• If you wish to speak during the hearing to present your testimony, you will need to attend in person at the State House, but you upload your testimony if you cannot attend.
• If you wish to submit testimony on the bill, email the relevant committee and upload the testimony file from your computer (if you need assistance in this, we are happy to help).

For breaking news and other legislative information, please be sure to like us on Facebook at AFT New Hampshire or follow us on Bluesky at aftnh.bsky.social.  Please share this with friends so they can sign up for this bulletin at http://nh.aft.org/.

Upcoming Legislative Hearings

Week of March 17, 2025