By TERRY FARISH, InDepthNH.org
President of the Timberlane Teachers’ Association Coral Hampe has called on lawmakers to vote no on HB 1015.
The bill seeks to require teachers to provide curricular materials for all courses to the community and allow parents to place objections on materials and require schools to provide alternative instruction.
In some areas of instruction, the bill requires teachers to provide two weeks of advance notice of their curriculum, a barrier to discussion of current events.
Hampe wrote in public testimony to the House Education Committee, “Please vote NO on HB 1015. Your calling is to the legislature. Others are called to medicine. Teachers are called to teach. Let us do our jobs without interference from parents and laws.”
Hampe wrote, “Do your job and vote NO so we can do our job and teach.”
In response to Hampe’s testimony, NH House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, released a statement in which he said. “It is appalling, although not surprising, that a teachers’ union believes they are above the law. They want to indoctrinate our children in the same Marxist theories they hold without recourse.”
Megan Tuttle, National Education Association-NH President, also provided testimony in opposition of HB 1015 on January 20. She wrote that as president of NEA-New Hampshire she represents more than 17,000 professional educators.
“Teachers are trained and experienced in education and have a duty to set their students up to be successful contributors to society. To do that, the ability to teach honest, complete facts about historical and current events without being censored by politicians must be protected. All children deserve a fact-based education that helps prepare them for their future.”