AFT-NH Testimony on the Non-germane Amendment to SB 54
From Debrah Howes, President AFT-NH
Thank you, Chairman Roy and Members of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, for reading my testimony.
My name is Debrah Howes. I am the president of the American Federation of Teachers-NH.
AFT-NH represents 3,500 teachers, paraeducators and school support staff, higher education staff and public service employees in cities and towns across the Granite State. We work with students in preK through grade 12 public schools across the state, all of them entitled to a robust public education, which is their constitutional right as Granite State citizens.
I am here today to express our staunch opposition to the non-germane amendment to SB 54 which would require providing all public school students firearms safety training at all grade levels as part of their public education. We have many concerns about this proposed legislation as educators, parents, grandparents, and Granite State citizens.
- Many parents have strong opinions about how and when their children should be taught about guns. Introducing a non-germane amendment to make it part of every one of the 160,000 public school students’ curriculum annually with barely a week’s notice that it will be heard is hardly adequate warning to all those families out there that the topic is being discussed. A topic this weighty deserves a stand alone bill so that parents, educators, school board members and community members have many weeks of time to know it is coming up, can reach out to their legislators, express their opinions, and make time to show up at the public hearing. The only reason for such short notice on such a controversial topic is if you are trying to make sure the public can’t weigh in. It erodes the voters trust in the Legislature.
- This would add yet another subject for public schools to cover. Regardless of your opinion of the subject, adding one more content area for public schools, without adequate funding from the state to support the learning needs of all students in those public schools for the content areas they are already required to cover, is irresponsible legislating. At a minimum, schools would need to make sure they hired outside trainers to teach this, as well as acquire materials for students in upper grades to use. If they plan to use their own staff – many of whom may object to the idea that teaching children how to handle firearms makes them safer - those staff would require training.
- This proposed legislations is overstepping the state's role under RSA 193-E to define broad content areas that make up the opportunity for an adequate education and develop academic standards. It is usurping the local school board's role of adopting curriculum to meet both the academic standards and local needs.
- Mandating isolated, stand-alone curriculum that doesn't connect to anything else is disruptive to student learning and makes it less likely students will retain any of the content covered. It is disruptive to student learning! It is unlikely students will retain what they learn in a one-hour safety training the schools are forced to provide by the legislature.
- Most importantly, putting the responsibility for learning about gun safety on public school children before you require it of all adult gun owners is appalling. Let our public school kids be kids. Make the adults responsible for using and storing their guns safely and responsibly at all times.
For all these reasons, we urge you to reject the non-germane amendment on Firearms Training in Public Schools.
Thank you,
Debrah Howes,
President, AFT-New Hampshire