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School board letter warns Portsmouth subcommittee that fast-tracked open-enrollment amendment could destabilize budgets
Summary
A school-board-backed open letter reviewed by Portsmouth's legislative subcommittee warned that a recently fast-tracked open-enrollment amendment could shift costs to local taxpayers, create planning chaos and leave transportation and special-education busing unresolved.
School officials told the Portsmouth Legislative Subcommittee that a fast-tracked open-enrollment amendment being debated in the Legislature could create "potentially devastating" budget and planning problems for local districts.
Lisa Rat, speaking on behalf of the school board and introducing a letter from the School Board Advocacy Network, said the proposal raises many unanswered questions for Portsmouth schools, including how existing area tuition agreements (SAU50) and an embedded alternative high school with a tuition model would be affected. "For all of those reasons and probably more, we are working hard in opposition to this," Rat said, citing risk to local budget predictability and services.
Nathan, chair of the Education Coalition Communities 2.0, confirmed the coalition had submitted written testimony on related education bills and described the funding mechanics of the draft amendment. He said the bill as drafted does not include provisions to cover transportation costs and that special-education busing ownership is "a little murky" under the current language. "The bill does not have provisions to compensate for transportation at this time," he said.
Members asked whether districts could limit outgoing students by adopting a zero-in/zero-out regional agreement to preserve local budgets, and staff said legal risks and implementation questions remain. Nathan compared the proposal to earlier charter and voucher debates and warned that New Hampshire's unique funding structure (the state pays a comparatively low tuition contribution) makes the current draft unusual and potentially destabilizing.
The subcommittee agreed to register opposition to the bill where possible and asked staff to track crossover and, where appropriate, prepare testimony and fiscal analyses. A committee member said the package might come to a vote quickly: "It may be coming to a vote next Thursday and potentially getting to the governor very quickly," the member said, citing a fast-track amendment process.
