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Open‑Enrollment Hearing Reveals Legal Uncertainty, Local Concerns over Tuition Burden
Summary
Committee heard extensive testimony on HB 771, the open‑enrollment statute. Witnesses warned a pending New Hampshire Supreme Court case affects the statute's interpretation; school boards and town officials said proposed language could force sending districts to pay tuition without voter approval and create uneven fiscal impacts across districts.
A lengthy hearing on HB 771 drew school administrators, board representatives and residents worried the bill would change how tuition is charged when students attend schools outside their home districts.
Representative Ladd introduced the bill as a modification to the existing open‑enrollment statute that allows a receiving school to accept students from outside a district by parental request and requires the sending district to pay tuition. Testimony and questions focused on the dollar mechanics and a pending legal challenge.
Barrick Christina, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association (NHSBA), urged caution and asked the Legislature to await a pending New Hampshire Supreme Court decision interpreting whether a sending district must have adopted open enrollment for a receiving district’s acceptance to obligate tuition payments. “Until this statute is clarified as to what is the tuition obligation of a sending school district that has not adopted the open enrollment statute, NHSBA believes that we should let the litigation sort itself out,” Christina said.
Speakers from small towns, including Timothy Robinson of Pittsfield, told the committee the bill could force local taxpayers to pay tuition bills they never voted to accept. Robinson said Pittsfield and other small districts risk losing local fiscal control if parental choices outside districts trigger tuition obligations without local warrant article approval.
Several committee members pressed the sponsor on practical details: how districts should show tuition estimates in budgets, whether open‑enrollment receiving schools can limit grade levels, and whether a receiving school might be undercompensated by the 80% formula in some cases. Representative Fellows pointed out accounting practices that require a non‑zero budget line to allow transfers and said the proposed “estimated expenditures” language could have unintended local budgeting consequences.
NHSBA and other witnesses also noted a related administrative question: only one district in New Hampshire currently uses the open‑enrollment statute, and a pending appeal before the state Supreme Court hinges on competing interpretations between a hearings officer and the State Board of Education.
The bill drew a mix of public testimony — United Way of Greater Nashua and hunger‑relief advocates appeared at later hearings on other bills and not this one — but on HB 771 the committee concluded it needs more time and legal clarity; members asked the sponsor to consult with the attorney general’s office, NHSBA, and the governor’s counsel to reconcile the statutory language with the pending court case.
