Panel considers bill clarifying funding, payments for open-enrollment public schools

Representative Katie Petternel introduced House Bill 771 to the Senate Funding Committee as a Department of Education-requested clarification to RSA 194-d, the open-enrollment statute. The bill seeks to clarify which district pays tuition for students who enroll in an open-enrollment public school and to codify a funding split in which the sending district pays the receiving district no less than 80 percent of its per-pupil cost and the receiving school retains 20 percent.

"This bill corrects some of the issues that arose when Prospect Mountain High School became eligible to receive open enrollment students," Petternel said, and she emphasized that the bill does not ask the state for additional funding but rather aims to make the statute operate as intended.

Supporters described the measure as a way to keep public dollars in public schools and to permit smaller districts or schools with available seats to sustain and expand programming. Rick Ladd reiterated that open enrollment is…