Republican’s open enrollment legislation won’t make it to Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who had indicated last week she would veto it. State senators voted to table the bill Thursday without discussion.
House Bill 751 would have let students enroll in any public school in the state and take their local tax dollars with them. Ayotte said last week the legislation was “not ready for prime time.”
Thursday’s vote won’t stop students in most communities from attending schools outside their districts because that’s already allowed under New Hampshire’s existing open enrollment law. But the Senate’s vote to table the bill means communities can prevent their students from using open enrollment to go elsewhere.
Dozens of communities took that step in March by adopting policies that limit the number of non-resident students who can enroll in their schools and prohibit their students from using open enrollment to go elsewhere. Many public school district leaders said those policies will allow them to control costs given the financial implication of open enrollment.
A 2025 state Supreme Court ruling clarified that under that law, a student's home district must send 80% of what it spends per student to the new district. That payment is a mix of local taxes and state education aid, and costs can range from $15,000 to more than $30,000 per student, depending on how much a district spends on education.
The pending legislation would have overturned those local policies and required districts to allow at least 10% of their students to choose a school outside their local district. In Manchester, the state’s largest school district, that would have meant a minimum of 1,200 students could have enrolled elsewhere and taken local tax dollars with them. In Bow, it would have been about 165 students.
The bill’s opponents said the open enrollment bill would have created too many uncertainties, including how students’ home districts would ensure children are getting legally required special education services at their new school.
Republicans said the bill would have given families options if their local public school wasn’t working for them. It’s nearly certain Republican lawmakers will try again next year to pass open enrollment legislation. During a legislative committee meeting last month, the bill’s supporters said the work they did this year will be useful for future legislation.
