Advocacy

ADVoCACY NOTES - March 2022

State Report: On Tuesday, February 15, NH Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut and Representative Rick Ladd (R-Haverhill) introduced to the House Education Committee House Bill (HB) 1671, which would overhaul key elements of the state law that governs the content and requirements for a public education in New Hampshire.

The biggest change to the education laws would be that public schools would only be required to teach English Language Arts, math, science, and social studies. It would remove art, health and physical education, engineering, computer science, digital literacy, and world languages from the core academic domains. (Ref: Reaching Higher NH)

This bill would turn over the power of deciding the minimum standards of education directly to the legislature, with no prior input from education professionals or citizens.

Locate Legislative updates on (HB) 1671 at https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1671/2022
Read March 6th Opinion Letter from Concord Monitor re: (HB) 1671 - https://www.concordmonitor.com/-45295743

ADVOCACY NOTES - FEBRUARY 2022

Federal - I have received an invitation to attend the (CoSN, ISTE, SETDA, & SIAA) Advocacy event this year that is being offered in two formats, virtually and f2f in DC. I plan to attend virtually based on the current level of COVID spread. I have attended the last 2 years virtually where meetings with congressional and senatorial aids were scheduled. In these meetings this year, there will be a specific focus on the discussions of privacy of student data and cybersecurity, as well as evidence and innovation. There will also be an opportunity to meet with the USDOE in virtual roundtable discussions. Please let me know if you have any interest in participating virtually. As I have experienced in the last two years, there would be planning meetings that you would need to attend to participate virtually.

State* - Statewide Voucher Program: There are currently about 15 bills proposed this session that seek to address concerns with the statewide school voucher program’s accountability, transparency, and administration. Further information on the bills and related issues

can be found at the Reaching Higher NH website.

FYI: YouTube link to a video about the NHCTO Data Privacy Alliance.

*Please note that the AFT-NH email regarding HB 52 is about congressional and state house maps and if you were opposed to it, you needed to voice it by January 31, 2022.

Advocacy Notes - January 2022

State: The House and Senate are meeting on Wednesday, January 5, to vote on outstanding bills from the 2021 session. The House will be voting on HB 607, the local school voucher bill, which the House Education Committee voted along party lines to recommend passing. The bill would undercut our public schools and communities, and divert taxpayer funds to pay for school vouchers totaling up to $41,000 per student, per year. (Source: NH Education Network)

Kathleen McClaskey, NHSTE's Advocacy Chair

NHSTE Advocacy Plan

Broadband Access & Network Connectivity

Short Term Goal - Increase the involvement of NHSTE’s technical membership in broadband efforts across the state.
Medium Term Goal - Encourage the collaborative development of architecture standards, policies, and protocols resulting in reliable networks that remove “network down/slow” issues from learning environments.
Long Term Goal - Initiate a NH ConnectEd collaborative effort to address broadband needs/solutions.

Professional Learning

Short Term Goal - Define emerging professional learning paradigms through multiple partner collaborations (NHSTE, NHDoE, IHE).
Medium Term Goal - Continue to work with institutes of higher education through Bob McLaughlin’s effort to support the development of 21st century teachers emerging from NH teacher preparation programs.

Meta-discipline of STEM

Short Term Goal - Provide the Governor’s STEM Task force with existing federal, regional, state, and local initiatives and resources that are aligned with their final recommendations.
Short Term Goal - Emphasize and promote the STEM focus at CMTC.
Medium Term Goal - Collaborate with NH ConnectED and other organizations (e.g. SERESC) on professional learning opportunities that would support STEM efforts across the state.
Long Term Goal - Conduct a review of inclusive STEM efforts to help ensure that students with learning challenges have access to STEM experiences.

Digital Learning Environments & Strategies

Short Term Goal - Monitor state and federal legislation around data security and privacy issues as they impact cloud-based and web-based services, tools, and digital resources.
Medium Term Goal - Inform and support schools about new learning environments that include access to digital resources, instructional models. and learner needs/preferences.

NHConnected

This is a collaborative group of state-wide organizations focusing on education and communicating with one another. For more information, please contact Kathleen McClaskey (NHSTE's Advocacy Chair).
Calendar - New Hampshire Educational Events

5 Ways to Advocate Today! (from ISTE)

Do you have . . .

One minute? Tweet! Enter your zip code at tweetcongress.org to find the Twitter handle of your U.S. representative and send him/her a tweet. Be sure to include your city and state and use the hashtag: #edtech

Two minutes? Spread the word. Send a customizable letter or email through the ISTE Take Action webpage and share this website with 5 friends:
www.Iste.org/TakeAction

Five minutes? Develop an effective elevator speech. Imagine yourself in a situation where you unexpectedly are in contact with someone who could be very effective in raising support for educational technology. You have less than a minute to make a positive impression on this person. Learn how to make a compelling case.

Fifteen minutes? Educate yourself and join the conversation. Read the latest advocacy news and articles about detect from ISTE. https://www.iste.org/advocacy/news

Sixty minutes or more? Get involved with the advocacy activities for your state’s ISTE Affiliate. Join their Advocacy Committee. If they don’t have one, start one. Set up a meeting with a policy maker or their staff locally. Can’t get to D.C.? That’s okay. Policy makers have offices throughout the state and they or their staff will meet with you. It’s a great way to share your expertise and become the go-to person for advice.

Anyone interested in working on any of the NHSTE Advocacy goals or joining the NHSTE Advocacy Committee, please contact Kathleen McClaskey at khmcclaskey@gmail.com.