Big issues before the Senate Education Committee

By RUTH WARD
The Legislature started up on January 2, 2024. Many new bills were filed and then there were also those re-referred bills from last year that had to be voted on. The Senate had about 310 bills in total. The Senate Judiciary Committee had the most with 64. The committee of which I am the chair, Senate Education, received 25.

We took a look to see how we could accommodate the committees that had many bills to process. We ended up cutting out a couple of shorter floor session days where we listen and debate and vote on bills that have come out of committees. All the committee chairs were encouraged to give their unused time to the committees with the most bills so they could schedule and hear bills in a timely manner.

There is a time restraint. Under state law, we must hear all bills that are filed and we must also finish the session by the end of June. Therefore, all Senate bills have to be ready to go to the House on April 11 and the Senate will receive all the bills that passed the House. This is called “crossover,” when the bills cross over from one chamber to the other.

The Education Committee received 25 bills. This past week, we heard SB 443-FN, which had to do with school building aid. The request was to appropriate more money to the fund and to pay municipalities 50 percent of the costs they had incurred because of lack of state funding at the time the projects took place. The price tag: $60 million for the building fund and at least $5 million from this fund per year for the municipalities who had not received any state aid due to the moratorium. How that will go is uncertain. I have heard that requests for appropriations for various projects have been unusually high this session and it is unclear how much funding is available. Many testified to the importance of having “safe” buildings for the public schools, citing some buildings were 50+ years old.

Another interesting bill, SB 525-FN, asked for yearly audits for one third of families receiving financial aid from Education Freedom Accounts (EFA). The families would be selected at random. At this point, EFAs are available to families whose income is at or below 350% of the federal poverty line (FPL). Up to now, families receiving EFAs have only been evaluated for income at the entrance to the program. No further assessment has taken place. The sponsor of the bill also asked for yearly income evaluations to make sure no one exceeded the 350% of FPL. Those who do not like EFAs testified in favor, others were questioning the cost of doing yearly income checks on the families receiving EFAs and the staffing to do randomized audit on one third of families every year. No decision was rendered by the committee on either of these two bills.

What about women’s sports? SB 375 addresses this. Should biological males that have transitioned or are transitioning to female be allowed to compete on a women’s’ team? The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) says “yes,” others say “no.” In general, biological males that have transitioned to female still have more muscle mass than women.

These are some of the issues currently coming before the legislature. It is helpful for committee members to know how their constituents feel about these issues so I would encourage readers to go to www.Gencourt.state.nh.us, scroll down to “meeting resources,” choose Senate or House bills and register your support or opposition online. Your opinions are important and we want to hear from you!

— Sen. Ruth Ward (R-Stoddard) represents District 8 in the New Hampshire Senate.