The official report of the Senate Finance Committee on SB268, including the text of the amendment it is recommending, is now available on-line in a Senate Calendar Addendum:

http://gencourt.state.nh.us/scaljourns/Calendars/2006/SC%2011A.pdf

The vote on the bill as Ought to Pass with Amendment on a voice vote of  6-2.  (This would mean that Senator Clegg voted for the amended bill, because I saw Senators Boyce and Morse vote against it. It sure did sound like there were three "Nay" voice votes, though.) The bill is scheduled to come to the floor of the Senate on Wednesday, March 22.

The amendment is below. Because the changes may be hard to follow, I have put what the bill would look like if amended at a webpage:

[this webpage is now obsolete]

NOTE: The effect of the interplay between the repeal of Paragraph II of Section 7 and the effective date of Section 5 and Section 7  is to enact the pilot program for two years and then repeal it.

Just before the vote on the amendment, Senator Morse pointed out to Senator Green that, in supporting the amendment, Senator Green was admitting that there was a cost associated with the bill, even if the attorney general finds that that increased cost is not an additional mandate. Senator Green did not respond. (After reading the amendment, I now understand why that comment was so important.)

Chris Hamilton
Beaver Lodge Homeschool
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Amendment to SB 268

Amend the title of the bill by replacing it with the following:

AN ACT raising the age of required attendance of children in school and establishing a 2-year pilot program for increasing vocational education opportunities in the Manchester and Nashua school districts and making an appropriation therefor.

Amend the bill by replacing all after section 4 with the following:

5 Vocational Education Programs; Manchester and Nashua School Districts; Pilot Program. There is hereby established a 2-year pilot program to be conducted in the Manchester and Nashua school districts to identify pupils in those school districts who are interested in vocational education programs and to establish procedures for increasing opportunities for such pupils to participate in vocational education programs. The commissioner of the department of education, or designee, shall work with the superintendents of the Manchester and Nashua school administrative units, the relevant school principals and teachers, and any other individuals who the commissioner and superintendents jointly determine are necessary for accomplishing the purpose of the pilot program.

6 Appropriation. There is hereby appropriated the sum of $600,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007 and the sum of $600,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, to the department of education for the purposes of section 5 of this act. The governor shall draw a warrant for such sums out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

7 Repeal. The following are repealed:

   I. RSA 193:1, IV, relative to withdrawal from school for children
   who are at least 16 years of age but under 18 years of age.

   II. Section 5 of this act, relative to the pilot project in the
   Manchester and Nashua school districts.

8 Effective Date.

   I. Sections 5, 6, and 8 of this act shall take effect January 1, 2007.

   II. Paragraph II of section 7 of this act shall take effect January
   1, 2009.

   III. The remainder of this act shall take effect July 1, 2008.

2006-1459s

AMENDED ANALYSIS
This bill raises from 16 to 18 the age for compulsory school attendance and provides a procedure for a pupil who is at least 16 years of age to obtain an attendance waiver from school. The bill also establishes a 2-year pilot program in the Manchester and Nashua school districts to increase opportunities for interested pupils in those school districts to attend vocational education programs and making an appropriation therefor.