March Elections - Open Enrollment

March Elections - Open Enrollment

 Alex Dobbins

You might remember not having school on Tuesday, March 10th. It happened to be a beautiful 70-degree day. But why did you have that random Tuesday in March off? Well, all across New Hampshire, people went to vote in their municipal elections. Registered voters cast sometimes 3 different ballots, 1 for their town, 1 for their school, and 1 for their cooperative school (this would be the case for all SAU16 towns, since each town operates its own elementary school, but shares CMS and EHS, and therefore each town gets a say in funding, etc).

This wasn’t a particularly out-of-the-ordinary year except for one thing: open enrollment. Essentially, the idea is that any student in New Hampshire can attend any public school. Kind of a wild concept. At the state level, there is a Republican trifecta- the governor, the House, and the Senate- and a priority of this trifecta is to have open enrollment.

Possible theories as to why they want this:

- Simply… more choice. The idea that students shouldn’t be bound to attend school in the districts where they live. Potentially the chance for students to attend schools that better fit their needs.

- Competition between schools. Basically, the money follows the student. If a student from Winnacunnet enrolls at Exeter, Winnacunnet will pay “tuition” to Exeter for that student. So, with this in mind, schools might have more incentive to improve quality, to try to A) keep their current students and B) attract more students and the money that comes with them.

- Fits what NH is already doing. The state has long tried to shimmy out of its constitutional obligation to fund public education. The reason property taxes are so high is simply that the state doesn’t provide enough funding to schools, and therefore it’s up to the taxpayers to fund their own schools. The state has siphoned more money from public education to put into things like charter schools and Education Freedom Accounts, which give money to parents so their children can seek other types of education… private school, homeschool, etc.

- Lowering their obligation even more. The state would likely never admit to it, but there have been proposals in the State Legislature to lower the amount of SAUs in the state… significantly. There are currently 107. If open enrollment lowers the number of students at certain schools, they become extremely inefficient. Underused buildings, having too many employees, and overall just operating for more students than you actually have is not efficient in the grand scheme of things, and the idea of finding an alternative and simply closing schools becomes a better option, which saves the state tons of money, even if they already don’t fund much.

So how did it go?

Due to some New Hampshire Supreme Court rulings and complicated things at the state level, districts were required to create some sort of policy for open enrollment. The default was “0% in, 0% out” or no open enrollment. The language on the ballot was particularly misleading, as essentially a yes vote meant you would be voting for no open enrollment. 

For the district:

Yes: 3,654

No: 1,865

The people of SAU16 overwhelmingly voted not to allow any students to leave or join the district. 

However, the state is still determined. HB 101 would make open enrollment a reality, allowing students to attend any public school in the state. It’s still in the public opinion phase; however, it is believed that the legislature has the votes to make it happen. 

What schools would people leave and go to? Most schools in the seacoast are rated relatively well. Nobody from Northern New Hampshire is making a multi-hour trek down to the seacoast daily for one of these schools. Will kids from Winnacunnet come to Exeter? Will kids from Somersworth go to Dover? Will kids from Manchester leave for other districts? Districts that have lost a significant amount of students over the past years could possibly benefit- Pembroke SAU has stated they would be interested in taking on an additional 300+ students. Pembroke is out near Concord, would kids actually leave their smaller districts for it? Unknown

To go into the argument against open enrollment, it starts pretty basic but gets complicated fast. When a student enrolls in a different school than their home district, the tax dollars used to teach the student leave as well. So, someone who is in SAU16 enrolls at Portsmouth. The SAU16 tax dollars, paid by residents of the 6 towns that make up SAU16, leave for Portsmouth. Why should the people of SAU16 pay for a student to go to Portsmouth? Additionally, the sending school (the school losing the kid to open enrollment) is required to pay at least 80% tuition to the receiving school. Different districts in New Hampshire have different “per-pupil spending” - Bedford and Manchester are two districts that would likely be impacted by this. Bedford per-pupil spending averages around $20,000. Manchester is around $14,000. You do the math, and Bedford ends up having a shortfall. Who pays? Bedford taxpayers. Additionally, any school that receives a large number of students will also have to deal with possibly needing to hire more teachers and people to deal with the influx. Open enrollment isn’t a foreign thing. 46 states allow a form of open enrollment, which is highly regulated by the state itself. And, by design, it’s easier for states (literally, every other state, since no state funds public education less than New Hampshire) that actually fund public education to have open enrollment systems. With that, most of the states that have open enrollment have safeguards to prevent the Manchester-Bedford funding gap. Additionally, superintendents remain confused on what it means, principals, school administrators, and legislators. Do we really want this if the experts don’t know what it means?

Ultimately, who knows what will happen? Proponents think school choice is good for letting students go to a school that best fits their needs, while opponents believe that it’s confusing, unneeded, and just part of the state’s priority to lower their public school funding obligation.

NOTE: If a student enrolls at a different public school than the one in their home district, it is up to their guardians or parents to provide transportation to and from school, daily.