Ask your State Senators to Support Parental Rights in HB 542 and HB 429 on Wednesday, June 1st
NH Families for Education asks your support for Parental Rights in two important bills: HB 542, which has been tabled by the Senate, and HB 429. Please call or email your senator for their vote.
The opposition to HB 542 suggests that compulsory attendance would end if HB 542 passes, but that’s not true. If that were, it would have ended decades ago when RSA 186:11 XXIX was enacted for it contains the same language. HB 542 was modeled upon RSA 186:1 XXIX.
NH RSA 186:11 Duties of State Board of Education.
XXIX. Adopt rules, pursuant to RSA 541-A, relative to reasonable criteria for approving non-public schools for the purpose of compulsory attendance requirements. The rules may contain criteria for conditional approval as specified by the state board. The state board of education may, upon request, designate which schools meet those criteria, and may, upon the request of a non-public school, approve or disapprove its education program and curriculum.
Despite regulation which exceeds statutory authority, state law does not allow the NH Department of Education to approve or disapprove the academic programs of non-public schools without the explicit request of the non-public school for such a review.
HB 542 affords parents this same statutory protection from State interference. The State may not control non-public programs. When parents object to public school programs, where is the alternative if the district must also approve the parent’s alternative program? The purpose of this bill is to remove control from the district and give it to parents should they encounter a program which they are conscientiously opposed. Parents must be allowed to determine and provide their own alternative in such cases.
RSA 186:11 XXIX was written as the fulfillment of Art. 6, Pt. 1 of the NH Constitution which guarantees districts political independence from State interference. Parents need similar protection from interference, especially in the current political environment where districts are trading their constitutional guarantee of independence from the state in exchange for funding. Non-public alternatives are the only refuge for parents who have a conscientious opposition to particular public school programs.
HB 542 adds the following: RSA 193:1 V.(a) No school district shall compel a parent to send his or her child to any school or participate in a course or program in a school’s curriculum to which he or she may be conscientiously opposed, nor shall a school district approve or disapprove a parent’s education program or curriculum.
The Senate should also support Parental Rights in HB 429, an act allowing parents to withdraw their 16 year olds from public school and find their own alternative educational experiences.
State control of education without a provision for conscientious objection can only end in State indoctrination of our children. This is not an acceptable.
Please support Parental Rights by voting in support of HB 542 and HB 429 on Wednesday, June 1st.
NH Families for Education will be evaluating legislators based on their voting record on these and other important education bills which uphold parental rights.
Thank you.