New Hampshire Senate passes bills to allow ban on uncertified books and teachers

CONCORD — Protesters sat calmly outside the New Hampshire Senate chambers on Wednesday, reading books.

They were there to show opposition to an amendment attached to House Bill 1311, which the bill’s sponsor, Rep. David Paige, D-Concord, said would turn it into a “book ban bill.”

As originally written, HB 1311also known as the “Student Freedom to Read Bill,” would have required school boards to adopt transparent and clear procedures for handling requests to remove books, and that such policies could not exclude books based solely on the identity of a student. author or subjects, as a member of a protected class such as race or sexual orientation.

On the Senate floor, Sen. Timothy Lang, R-Sanbornton, introduced the amendment.

“As amended by the Senate Education Committee, House Bill 1311 provides a uniform collections reconsideration process for school libraries and media centers,” Lang said. “Materials should not be prescribed or acquired primarily on the basis of the sex of the author, or the sex, age, gender identity, race, creed, national origin, orientation, or disability of the subject. Furthermore, the acquisition of material cannot be based on a certain point of view.”

Paige said the changes to add the word “primarily” and expand the account for purchasing materials would open the door for discriminatory reasons to be considered factors for excluding materials, as long as it is not the “primary” reason, as well as hindering development of inclusive collections by educators.

“Let’s imagine you have a community of immigrants that came to your city. What this bill, if it passes with amendments, will say is that you cannot choose to buy a book specifically because you want better representation of this new immigrant community in your city,” Paige said. “It hurts all the students, the immigrant student who is trying to see themselves on the resume and in the collection, but it also hurts all the other students in the store who need to get to know their new neighbors.”

Deb Howes, president of the American Federation of Teachers in New Hampshire, said the amended bill would potentially establish two “conflicting and confusing” procedures for acquiring and reconsidering school library materials that could lead to a lawsuit.

The Senate voted to approve the amended bill by voice vote, with little discussion on the floor, although Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth, spoke in opposition. It was one of three education bills passed by the Senate on Wednesday that New Hampshire teachers unions opposed; others included HB 1298which creates an uncertified “part-time teacher” role in schools, and HB 1665which expands eligibility for the Educational Freedom Accounts program.

Senate expands educational freedom bill program

In one of the few roll call votes of the day, the Senate voted along party lines, 14-10, to expand the Education Freedom Account program, increasing the student candidate’s annual family income to 400% of federal poverty guidelines.

The EFA program allows families to use part of the state funding that would go to their children’s public school for private school or homeschooling expenses.

“I believe parents deserve choice in education,” Lang said. “I’ve said it before, we’ve heard it before, I have four children, they all learn differently. They all deserve the best education possible.”

Lang added that the change in federal poverty guidelines percentage is also necessary for inflation.

“We can just stop pretending that the EFA was ever for low-income families,” said Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, who opposed the bill. “Let us abandon the pretense that the effort to destroy our public schools with the death of 1,000 cuts and take more and more money from our Education Trust Fund to defend what essentially amounts to a second school system in which we invest money with absolutely no supervision.”

Both Howes and Megan Tuttle, president of NEA-New Hampshire, released statements opposing the project.

“Public money belongs to public schools. Period,” Tuttle said. “Any vote to expand the state’s irresponsible voucher scheme – once again – is a vote to divert even more taxpayer funds from public schools, which are attended by more than 165,000 Granite State students.”

“The state of New Hampshire still does not meet its constitutional duty to fully fund its public schools,” Howes said. “Remember, this is also the same Legislature that earlier this year decided that feeding hungry children in public schools, whose families earn up to 350% of the poverty level, was too expensive. Voting to expand school vouchers does not reflect Granite State values ​​and is not what voters want.”

Part-time teachers will not need to be certified if the project is sanctioned

HB 1298 would end the requirement that part-time teachers hold a State Board of Education credential as long as they work fewer than 30 hours a week, pass a criminal background check and follow the educator code of conduct. It was approved in the Senate in a verbal vote.

Sen. Carrie Gendreau, R-Littleton, said the bill would mitigate the teacher shortage and improve New Hampshire schools.

Sen. Sue Prentiss, D-West Lebanon, said that while she is not against bringing a community special educator into schools, she sees the bill as creating a “secondary system that could begin to unbundle the fundamental teaching profession in the state of New Hampshire.”

Tuttle said teachers are professionals who have gone through educational programs that allow them to effectively serve their students.

“Studies have shown that teacher quality is the most powerful predictor of student performance in school,” Tuttle wrote in a statement after the vote. “While New Hampshire is facing a teacher shortage, this bill is misguided and will negatively impact students in the Granite State by lowering standards for teachers in our public schools.”

As all projects were amended in the Senate, they will return to the Chamber for a new vote.

Editor’s note: State Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, is the wife of Howard Altschiller, executive editor of Seacoast Media Group.

This article originally appeared in the Portsmouth Herald: NH Senate approves bills to allow ban on uncertified books and teachers