HB 533 Will Downshift Costs to Local School Districts

January 4, 2014 5 Comments

The New Hampshire House will vote on many critical issues this coming Wednesday, January 8th, when they open the 2014 legislative session. A noteworthy bill is HB 533, a bill that would increase the high-school graduation requirement from three math courses to four.

Although fundamental knowledge and skills in mathematics are essential, and many college majors require four years of math, it is not necessary for all students’ educational needs and goals; therefore, it is an inappropriate baseline graduation requirement. Also, it is a Granite State tradition for graduation requirements to be defined in rules, not statutes (see Ed 306.27). In addition, this bill would be an unfunded mandate, shifting costs to local school districts which is specifically against Part I Article 28-A of the New Hampshire Constitution.

HB 533 text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB0533.html

Contact your legislator about HB 533 today. Encourage them to take a stand on constitutional principles and defend local control by voting NAY on Ought to Pass (OTP), and YEA on Inexpedient to Legislate (ITL).

For the most impact, briefly phone each of your Representatives about the bill. Emails, while not as effective, are helpful. Representatives are rarely contacted by constituents, so a handful of calls and emails can make a big difference.

Find your legislator: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/wml.aspx

5 thoughts on “HB 533 Will Downshift Costs to Local School Districts”

  1. Michelle, the link to the bill is broken. I went to the GenCourt page and both PDF and HTML links are also broken. The only attainable data at this point is the amendment.

    Did you, by chance, grab an electronic copy of the bill you could post?

  3. School choice might be good when there are many schools to choose from in one area, but that is not the case in NH for the most part. The State needs to leave education requirements to the local districts. If they want to dictate something, they need to pay for it in full and forever, they need to remember that while basic education opportunities should be required to be offered, education is for everyone, not just the top 10%.

  5. The NH House of Representatives voted on HB 533 on Wednesday, January 29th. It passed 209 to 125 on a roll call vote; check to see how your Representatives voted. This bill will move along to the Senate at “Cross Over.” We will let you know when it is scheduled for a public hearing so we can make another attempt to kill this unconstitutional bill.

    http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_Status/Roll_calls/Billstatus_billrollcalls.aspx?lsr=302&sd=2014&sy=2014&sortoption=&txtsessionyear=2014&txtbillnumber=hb533

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