Legislative Update: March 10, 2023

Pensions

Hearings for both House Bill 1040 and Senate Bill 2239 were heard this week. As a reminder, HB 1040 would close the defined-benefit pension plan to new hires by 2025, while SB 2239 would fund and retain the pension plan, keeping a valuable recruitment and retention tool available to workers in North Dakota. The committees handling each of these bills will be working to amend and come to a recommendation in the next few days, so please keep sending messages via the action alerts below opposing HB 1040 and supporting SB 2239!

Vouchers

House Bill 1532 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, March 14, at 9 am. This bill would take $24 million over the next two years and put it in the hands of private schools, who have no obligation to accept every student, nor any regulations as to where they allocate the funds they receive. As we’ve said before, North Dakota United supports a parent’s right to choose where they educate their child, but $12 million dollars per year in the hands of private schools is $24 million dollars taken from our public institutions that rely solely on public funding.

Please head to the Act section below to send an email to the Senate Education Committee telling them your perspective on HB 1532, urging committee members to render a “do not pass” recommendation on the bill. Then submit your message as testimony using the directions in the alert. We CAN convince our legislators to do the right thing, but it will take all of us to do so!

Tenure

The purpose of tenure is to assure academic freedom and allow our institutions of higher education to be centers for free thought and expression. House Bill 1446 would attack tenure by creating a pilot program at Bismarck State College and Dickinson State University that gives University Presidents unilateral power to fire tenured professors with no fear of retaliation. This attack on tenure would not only make North Dakota’s higher ed institutions less attractive to educators looking for employment, it would also have a chilling effect on a faculty member’s willingness to shine a light on fraud or misuse of taxpayer dollars at a public institution.

Our educators should not fear losing their job by exercising their right to academic freedom!

Make your voice heard on this dangerous bill by clicking the link below and sending an email to the Senate Education Committee, which is hearing testimony on HB 1446 Monday, March 3rd, at 11 am. Then submit your message as testimony before the hearing on Monday!