New Hampshire bill allowing universal open enrollment passes Senate

The New Hampshire Senate has passed a bill allowing universal open enrollment in public schools, with supporters praising the move as a way to provide greater choice to families.

“That’s where our focus should be,” said Senate President Sharon Carson as reported by WMUR, the local ABC affiliate. “What can we do to deliver the best education? And it’s not always about money.”

Opponents of the legislation, including state Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, expressed concerns over the implementation of such a policy – which could be as soon as this year if signed into law.

“I have already heard from superintendents in my district – and should this pass, you’ll hear from yours, too – that this is not something that can be implemented on the fly,” Altschiller said. ‘It’s going to hurt students. It’s going to raise our property taxes.”

Critics also highlighted the possibility of high school athletics changing under open enrollment, in case “districts would try to actively recruit athletes to transfer,” WMUR reported.

The conflict fell mainly along partisan lines with Republicans typically supporting the legislation and Democrats opposed, according to the news article.

“The sky isn’t falling here in New Hampshire,” said state Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester. “We need to take the remarks of the people who are saying ‘this is going to happen, that’s going to happen, something else is going to happen’ with a grain of salt.”

While Gov. Kelly Ayotte has not publicly expressed a stance regarding open enrollment, she is monitoring the legislation, WMUR noted.

“There are now two open enrollment bills moving forward. If the House signs off, one will be on its way to the governor’s desk next week.”

‘Nation’s largest decline in enrollment’

The legislation comes as New Hampshire records “the nation’s largest decline in enrollment” despite boosting per-pupil spending by 60.5% over two decades.

During this time, the state’s reading and math scores fell by 21 points, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

“New Hampshire’s K-12 public school students have more resources devoted to their educations than ever before,” wrote Andrew Cline, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy. “Unfortunately, this increase in resources has not led to performance gains.”

Much of the per-pupil increase came from higher spending on employee benefits and more nonteaching positions, including instructional aides, counselors, speech pathologists and social workers.