Like most everyone else in Representatives Hall last week, Republican Rep. Bill Boyd of Merrimack believed his party had the votes to pass a universal open enrollment bill.
When the vote tally — 168-184 — flashed across the screen at the front of the hall, Boyd said he was “stunned” that enough Republican colleagues had joined him to at least temporarily sink a signature policy priority for the majority party.
“I was prepared to be one of those few Republicans that was going to be on the losing end of the vote,” Boyd said in an interview.
Instead, 21 Republicans defected — a formidable bloc that proponents of open enrollment must now contend with if they are to revive legislation that many say could transform public education in the state.
Interviews this week with Boyd and seven others who broke with their party reveal that many of the lawmakers harbor reservations about the bill that cannot be easily addressed through a few slight tweaks.
The scope of their concerns suggests it will be a challenge for Republican leaders to flip enough members in the House to pass universal open enrollment this year, despite holding a nearly 40-seat majority.
Many of the Republicans who voted against the bill expressed philosophical support for universal open enrollment, a policy that allows students to attend any district public school in the state with space for them at no cost to their families.
However, several representatives who voted against the bill — particularly those from low-income communities — said they believed open enrollment would harm their home school districts. Under the proposed policy, the state would redirect adequacy payments from the district where a student resides to the one in which they enroll. The enrolling district would also receive a separate state grant of nearly $5,000 per pupil.
“I voted against it because I live in a very poor community, and I think it will be a very heavy fiscal impact on the poor community I’m in,” said Newport Republican Rep. Skip Rollins.
Other lawmakers who represent more middle-income districts said they worried about the broader fiscal strain on property taxes and the state’s education trust fund, from which the adequacy payments and grants would come.
“The funding mechanism and the sole reliance on the trust fund, it gives me heartburn,” Boyd said.
Some concerns were not financial. Republican Rep. Nicholas Bridle of Hampton said he never received assurance that students who enrolled in a school through open enrollment would be allowed to remain there through graduation, even if the school’s capacity later changed.
Many members said they were influenced by conversations with their local school boards and an outpouring of opposition from residents.
“I did not receive one single letter from my constituency in support of it,” Bridle said. “I did receive a number of people asking me not to support it. So I tried to vote from a position of listening to my constituency.”
Despite the unexpected defeat, the bill is not dead. Proponents of open enrollment said they were moving forward with their attempt to get the policy passed this legislative session. Republican Sen. Tim Lang of Sanbornton, the prime sponsor of the bill that was tabled, SB 101, said that he expected the legislature to proceed with a negotiation process known as a committee of conference on a nearly identical bill, HB 751.
“This isn’t over,” Lang wrote in a text message.
He said he was unavailable for an interview.
Republican Rep. Kristin Noble, the chair of the House Education Policy and Administration Committee and a member of the committee of conference on HB 751, did not respond to a question on when the committee would meet. A spokesperson for the House Republican majority leader also did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
‘It wasn’t good for my district’
Claremont Republican Rep. Wayne Hemingway said conversations with his local school board convinced him not to support the bill.
Claremont’s school district, among the most cash-strapped in the state, is in the process of recovering from the consequences of longstanding financial mismanagement, which forced school leaders to close an elementary school.
Hemingway, who is also a city councilor, worried that if open enrollment were to pass, many Claremont students would enroll elsewhere, decimating the district’s finances.
However, the lawmaker said he plans to support a universal open enrollment bill if it returns to the legislature next year or in 2028. Between now and then, he hopes that Claremont’s schools can improve to the point that families won’t want to send their children elsewhere.
“If they can get the curriculum straightened out, I think in the long run, people will come to Claremont,” he said.
One of the people tasked with steadying the district — newly hired Superintendent Tim Broadrick — has played a leading role in the state’s open enrollment debate. Broadrick currently serves as superintendent of the Alton and Barnstead School Districts, which operate the only high school in the state that currently has an active open enrollment program.
Statewide concerns
In explaining their opposition to the bill, lawmakers also cited New Hampshire’s education funding model, which relies on local property taxes at the highest rate in the country.
Republican Rep. John Sytek of Salem said he was concerned about the financial consequences for districts that lose significant numbers of students.
“It might not have a particularly devastating effect in Salem, but while I represent the people here, I have to look at the state impact on policy that we adopt,” Sytek said.
He said he would be more willing to support universal open enrollment if the state increased the share of spending on education. For now, though, he said it “didn’t seem to be fair to be introducing another wild card.”
Republican Rep. Scott Bryer of Northwood said conversations with his school board and superintendent led him to feel particularly concerned about how special education would be funded. Unlike in most states with existing open enrollment programs, the district in which a student resides would remain responsible for providing or paying for special education services when that student enrolls elsewhere.
“I actually think where the money’s being funded should be the one that decides how that money’s spent and to what extent,” Bryer said.
Republican Rep. Louise Andrus of Salisbury said she was concerned the bill would increase property taxes and the administrative burden on school districts, which would have to handle the paperwork associated with students switching schools.
“The taxpayers in New Hampshire are screaming their taxes are too high, and we can’t keep adding to it,” Andrus said.
Intra-party division
In recent years, state Republicans’ education policy agenda has focused on the creation and expansion of so-called “school choice” programs and policies.
Like the state’s education freedom account program, universal open enrollment had been framed by its supporters as a way to ensure that every student could access the educational opportunities that are the best fit for them, no matter where they live. Proponents have said that the public school system, as it exists now, “traps” students by zip code.
The Republican defectors’ split from their party on the universal open enrollment bill could represent a growing sense from some House Republicans that the “school choice” policies come with trade-offs: What might benefit an individual student could come at the expense of other students and school districts at large.
Republican Rep. Kristine Perez of Londonderry said she couldn’t support the policy if “it’s going to hurt students in other schools.”
Some of the lawmakers interviewed said Republican House leaders encouraged members to support the bill, despite any reservations, because their issues could be resolved in the House Finance Committee after the vote.
“To me, that’s a false promise,” Bridle said, because “there have been a number of times this year when the majority party has said it’ll go to second committee…and then the second committee waives the reading, and you never get that opportunity.”
Perez said her vote came with political repercussions. The House Freedom Caucus, which advocates for “personal liberty,” removed her from its group the day after she opposed the bill.
“It’s pretty sad,” Perez said. “Name-calling? Every name in the book I’m being called.”
Asked why Perez was removed, JR Hoell, a co-chair of the Caucus, said in a brief interview that “education reform is important to our group.” He said that “the free market solves problems.”
Hoell, a former state representative from Dunbarton, declined to release a list of members in the caucus, but said Perez was the only individual removed due to the vote.
“If they want to take me off the Freedom Caucus, that’s fine if they want to do that,” Perez said. “I know who I am … I’m honest. Everyone always knows where I stand, and I stick with my principles, and I am not swayed because somebody tells me I have to do something.”
