HB 709
Lets parents enroll kids in any district where they pay property taxes.
Status
Dead. ITL vote 5-0 on March 3, 2026.
Sponsor
Unknown
TL;DR
If you pay property taxes in multiple towns (e.g., own a vacation home), your kids could attend school in any of those towns. On its face, this sounds like open enrollment — but it could drain resources from smaller districts. The committee unanimously recommended killing it (5-0 Inexpedient to Legislate), so even the legislature thought this was a bad idea. Dead.
Full Analysis
HB 709 would have allowed families who pay property taxes in multiple municipalities to enroll their children in any of those districts. The most obvious scenario: wealthy families with vacation properties in desirable towns could send their kids to those schools.
The committee killed it 5-0, recognizing that this would create an inequitable advantage for wealthy families while potentially straining the budgets and capacity of smaller, popular districts. It's dead, but the concept keeps getting reintroduced in various forms.
Bill statuses as of March 2026. Check LegiScan or NH General Court for the latest.