AFT-New Hampshire President Doug Ley has posted an end-of-session look-back at significant education and labor legislation considered by the state legislature in 2018. Of special note, Senate Bill 193, which would have authorized redirecting taxpayer dollars earmarked for funding public education as “grants” (i.e., vouchers) to private households to pay for private school tuition or homeschooling costs, was finally put on the shelf after Senate members attempted to resurrect the bill after a bi-partisan majority of House members voted to send the bill to interim study (and voted again to keep it there). Senate Bill 193, described as the most radical school voucher bill to be introduced by any state legislature in the United States, was supported by Governor Chris Sununu. This wrong-headed and harmful bill deserved to be stopped in its tracks, and fortunately, it was.

On a less upbeat note, Senate Bill 318, a watered-down version of a bill that expands the maximum number of hours 16-and-17-year-old students are permitted to work during the school week and makes it harder for the Department of Labor to investigate suspected violations of youth employment regulations, was passed on the recommendation of a conference committee dominated by legislators with ties to the restaurant and hospitality industry. New Hampshire AFL-CIO actively fought the passage of the bill and similar 2018 bills to weaken wage & hour protections for teen employees.

Read more about these and other legislative developments on the AFT-NH web site.