Misty Crompton and Heidi Crumrine: Public Education, The New Hampshire Way

June 4th, 2025

Lawmakers are currently debating whether New Hampshire should continue its centuries old tradition of locally governed, locally operated, and locally controlled public schools. The issue before them, known as Open Enrollment, is a project of several national special interest groups, including supporters of the “school choice” movement and vouchers, but has never been embraced in our state. This session, lawmakers have been quietly pushing this policy forward in bills such as HB 771, while also expanding the state’s wildly unpopular school voucher program.  These two efforts combined aim to dismantle our neighborhood public schools and sow division across New Hampshire communities. 

Granite staters care deeply about their local neighborhood schools.  For generations, our public schools have served as a cornerstone of local neighborhoods, offering accessible, quality education to all children regardless of background. They provide a sense of community, bringing families together through events, shared goals, and civic engagement. Public schools also create opportunities for local employment and foster neighborhood pride by investing in the future of students and the vitality of the community.  Open Enrollment puts all of this at risk.  

In an Open Enrollment system, students are able to attend any public school in the state regardless of where they live and their home district covers the cost of tuition. According to a fiscal analysis conducted by Reaching Higher NH, if even a small number of students use Open Enrollment, entire communities will be impacted, potentially resulting in the closure of small community schools.

This is not a red or a blue issue, but a kid issue.

In an Open Enrollment model, many New Hampshire schools will experience increases in their Cost Per Pupil. Smaller or rural districts, which already face limited resources, could see staff reductions, larger class sizes, and cuts to resources and educational offerings. As few as 20 students transferring out of a school in rural New Hampshire could result in a school permanently closing.

The impact also goes beyond increasing expenses. Open Enrollment restricts the authority of locally elected school boards to determine how their community’s property taxes are spent. HB 771 mandates that every school district develop a line item in their budget to pay for tuition under Open Enrollment. It also mandates a formula for determining the rate of tuition. Local school boards are shut out of policy-decisions in the “receiving” school that influence student outcomes. The broader “sending” community, including the families of participating students, are unable to engage in school board elections and have less say in the day-to-day operations of the school.

If we truly want to ensure strong outcomes for our students, we must do so in a way that reflects our commonly held values and culture. We must properly fund our state’s public schools instead of siphoning valuable dollars away to fund private and for profit options that have little to no accountability.   We must engage local communities, not shut them out. We must be prudent, democratic, and intentional. After all, that is the New Hampshire way.

Misty Crompton and Heidi Crumrine serve as President and Vice President of the Reaching Higher NH Board of Directors.

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