Karen Burnett-Kurie: Late amendments limit review, oversight by citizens

To The Daily Sun,

At the end of April a non-germane amendment was added to Senate Bill 54, a bill about testing for alcohol and penalties for driving while intoxicated. What was the amendment about? Mandatory firearms safety training in schools.

Why are non-germane (does not relate to the subject of the bill) amendments even allowed? And why this late in the process? This method and timing for an amendment limits review by citizens and our oversight, which all legislation should be subject to. (Similarly when they insert bills into the budget.)

Representatives' job is not to circumvent New Hampshire citizens. It is to represent them. Using these strategies are undemocratic and disingenuous.

As for the amendment itself, it requires an hour of training in every school year for all public school students, unless parents request an exemption for their child.

We have a process by which we, the state and local boards, determine what every students should learn and when. These are our state standards. Anything which is added to these state standards should go through the process for standards — not passed as a one off bill by the Legislature.

The state works with everyone to establish the standards and the local districts determine how to implement those standards. Curriculum in NH is a local decision. The state should not be usurping or micromanaged local curriculum.

There is another bill this session which requires showing specific videos about abortion in every public school and our colleges. Since when does the state Legislature dictate specific videos, or anything in the college curriculum? This is total overreach by the state Legislature.

There are lots of things people think should be taught — driver's education, additional health education, etc. All additions should go through the same standards process. Implementation should then be left to local districts.

Karen Burnett-Kurie

Wolfeboro