New Hampshire lawmakers have a number of changes in mind for students and teachers, from protecting recess and expanding school choice, to mandating gun safety classes. The state’s voucher-style school choice program could also see some tweaks.
The Legislature is expected to take those and at least 1,000 other bills up when they return in January.
The recess bill proposed by Sen. Victoria Sullivan will no doubt be a hit with students — and likely mean policy change for some schools if it passes. Sullivan, a Manchester Republican, wants to ban schools from disciplining students by taking away recess.
Sullivan said she’s heard from parents concerned about their children losing recess. She said her own son had recess taken away as a student.
“He was an avid reader, but was not diligent when it came to logging his reading for the teacher,” Sullivan said in an email. “That is not a way to reinforce positive moods toward reading.”
Sullivan, who has also advocated for play-based kindergarten, wants to see students encouraged to be more physically active, not less. “Schools need to learn to work with children and understand that they are not made to sit still for hours on end,” she said.
Students and teachers would see changes under other bills, too.
One would require students to learn about hunting and responsible gun use in school. Lawmakers rejected similar legislation last year that would have required gun safety training but not have guns in the school.
Lawmakers want to take another pass at requiring students to watch videos of a fetus’s development in health class. A similar proposal passed this year but Gov. Kelly Ayotte vetoed it.
The state’s school choice program, which Republicans expanded significantly this year by opening it to all families, regardless of income, will be a focus again next year. The 10,000 families using the Education Freedom Account program can use state money for homeschooling and private school tuition.
Rep. Tori Weinstein, a Newmarket Democrat, wants to stop the program from growing. Current law will increase the 10,000 cap on enrollment by 25% each year. Weinstein’s legislation would eliminate that annual increase.
She said she’s concerned that the program is taking money that would have gone to public schools and giving it to families. She’s hearing the same worries from constituents, she said.
I've heard concerns about just the fact that we are not adequately funding our public schools,” Weinstein said. “And maybe the biggest is the concern that our public funds are being spent at religious schools.”
Republicans will almost certainly fight that plan and try to expand the program to more families. In addition to her recess bill, Sullivan wants to eliminate the enrollment cap on the school choice program altogether.
“We hit that cap very quickly, showing that New Hampshire families desire education freedom for their families,” Sullivan said.
She said she’s heard from families who want to use the money to move their children out of public school because they feel schools are not meeting their child's needs, failing to adequately address bullying, and favoring a political agenda they disagree with.
“Until traditional public schools begin to listen to and respect parents and their values and make policy changes within the buildings in regard to student safety, parents will continue to demand more choices in education,” Sullivan said.