By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — The House approved a bill that would allow parents to enroll their child in any public school in the state.

The House also approved bills prohibiting school districts from mandating masks be worn in schools and requiring school boards to print the district’s per pupil costs on budget warrant articles along with student assessment scores.

House Bill 741 would make every public school in the state have open enrollment which would free public schools from the “zip code discrimination” in education supporters claimed.

While supporters said the change would create competition and improve the system, opponents argued it would be a financial and academic nightmare and exacerbate the very inequities that currently plague the system.

“Open enrollment would require adjusting resources without input from the taxpayers who fund them,” said Rep. Muriel Hall, D-Bow. “This legislation creates more problems than it solves.”
But proponents said it would expand parents’ choices in education by opening up all public schools to every student.

“How often have you heard public schools are open to all students?” asked Rep. Glenn Cordelli, R-Tuftonboro, the prime sponsor of the bill. “It’s a lie. There is zip code discrimination. Many people are sent to jail because they used a relative’s address to get their child into a better school.”
Under the bill each school would prepare a report of their capacity with the number of slots available by grade.

The school district the child is assigned would send 80 percent of its per pupil cost to the district receiving the student and retain the remaining 20 percent.

An application can only be turned down if there is no room at the school, Cordelli said, and a school can deny an application if a student has been expelled or has a history of disciplinary problems.

The receiving district is not responsible for transportation costs, which would be at the parents’ expense.

Rep. Patricia Cornell, D-Manchester, said low-income parents would find it difficult to take advantage of the open enrollment if they have to transport the student to another school.

She called the bill an unfunded mandate because it will cost the receiving school additional money.

The bill passed on a 198-174 vote and goes to the Senate.

Masks

House Bill 361 would prohibit school boards from approving mandatory mask policies in schools. A similar bill passed last session but was vetoed by former Gov. Chris Sununu who said local boards need flexibility.

On Thursday opponents argued the bill is once again upsetting the long tradition of local control, while the legislature is now telling local governing bodies what to do.

Rep. Hope Damon, D-Croydon, said school boards need flexibility because you do not know what is going to happen in the future or what students will need.

“This completely overrides our highly respected local control,” she said, noting the measles outbreak in Texas that has now spread coast to coast.

Masking reduces transmission significantly, Damon said, school boards need to decide what is best for their communities “based on facts not on fears.”

But Rep. Kristin Noble, R-Bedford, claimed the mask mandates created many problems for students in many areas from academic to social.

Many still do not acknowledge the problems that masks created, she said, and that is why you cannot let this be a local decision based on fact and not fear, it should be left to the experts at the state.

School boards, no matter what they do, they will lose, while most local decisions should be left with parents, Noble said.

The bill passed on a 203-164 vote and goes to the Senate.

The House also approved House Bill 446, which would allow parents to opt in to non-academic surveys at school rather than opt out.

The bill targets the youth risk assessment survey which opponents said could bring the participation rate below the 60 percent mark which is the lowest to have any meaningful data analysis for results.

But supporters said the risk assessment survey is the only non-academic survey that is currently opt out.

House Bill 557 was approved requiring school boards include the districts per-pupil costs on budget warrant articles as well as the school assessment test results, and House Bill 749 also passed requiring that schools teach the history and nature of communism in high schools.

Elections

The House approved House Bill 217 which would require anyone wishing to vote absentee to prove they are a citizen of the United States as they do when registering to vote.

The House also passed House Bill 274 which requires town and city clerks to verify their voter checklist every year and the secretary of state to purge the state’s rolls every five years instead of every 10 years.

The last purge eliminated nearly 250,000 voters from checklists.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.