Background/Footnotes: In 1995, the New Hampshire legislature passed the Act Relative to Charter Schools and Open Enrollment (Senate Bill 9).[1] The state allows for intradistrict and interdistrict open enrollment--a provision that is optional for public schools but mandatory for charter schools.[2]

Initially, only the local school board had chartering authority and the number of charters was capped at five...[3] In 1997, then-Governor Jeanne Shaheen signed S.B. 154, which doubled the cap.[4] The limit was removed in 2000.[5]

Charters are granted for five-year terms. For each student, a charter receives 80 percent of the district's average per-pupil expenditure. Half of the teachers at a charter school must have at least three years of teaching experience or a teaching certificate. A charter can be either a new school or a converted public school.[6]

In 1998, House Bill 1476 was introduced to provide reimbursement for public, private, or home-schooling tuition costs. The bill was defeated by a vote of 227 to 109.[7] A companion bill (S.B. 456) would have allowed five districts to implement a parental choice program. This bill was passed in the Senate by a vote of 16 to 8 but died in the House.[8]

In 1999, H.B. 514 was introduced to increase public school choice. The bill was approved by the House but was killed in the Senate.[9] H.B. 514 would have authorized superintendents to transfer students, with parental consent, to other schools within or outside of the district and would have limited transfers to a maximum of 1 percent of the students in a district and 5 percent of the students in a school.[10]

Also in 1999, then-Representative Marie Rabideau (R-16) introduced H.B. 633, which would have created a voucher system to help low-income parents fund primary and secondary education for their children. Parents would have been eligible for the scholarship if their child's school had "average scores in the bottom 1/3 on a statewide basis in the state assessment test" and if their household income was less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level.[11] Scholarships would have been limited to 5 percent of the students in a school. H.B. 633 was passed by the House but was killed in the Senate.

H.B. 701, also introduced in 1999, would have offered vouchers to students to use to attend any school, public or private. The vouchers would have been worth 10 percent of the public schools' average per-pupil cost. If the parent received vouchers for more than one child, the vouchers' value could not have exceeded 50 percent of the town's average per-pupil cost. This bill was defeated in the House by a vote of 283 to 78.[12]

In 2000, H.B.1580 was introduced to allow businesses an investment tax credit equal to 75 percent of a contribution made toward charter schools, scholarship organizations, or public schools. H.B.1580 failed to pass.[13]

New Hampshire's open enrollment law was expanded in 2001 by H.B. 726, signed by then-Governor Shaheen on July 17, 2001. This bill gave superintendents the authority to approve student transfers "where such changes are in the best interests of the pupil." Although the bill limited annual student transfers in a district to 1 percent of the school district's average daily attendance or 5 percent of a participating school's attendance, it allowed the school board to override these stipulations.[14]

In 2001, the Boston Globe reported that New Hampshire private schools were very popular among both students and parents. The surge in applications was attributed to public schools' overcrowding and financial instability.[15]

The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, a New Hampshire think tank, published a study in October 2002 to explore why the state has not opened a single charter school since the law was enacted in 1995. The study reported:

In asking what factors in New Hampshire prevented support for their schools, respondents cited misleading and negative information, time-consuming approval procedures, lack of understanding of the charter school concept, and a system that requires the charter school to compete with other local school board improvement initiatives. Time, money, inability to counteract negative information or, as one person interviewed stated--it was just politics, plain and simple local politics that killed their charter school's approval.[16]

H.B. 515 was introduced in 2002 to provide vouchers for low-income students in poorly performing public schools. In November 2002, the bill was killed by a House Finance Committee vote of 18 to 0.[17]

In January 2003, Representative John B. Hunt (R-28) introduced H.B.135 to enable the State Board of Education to approve 20 charters over the next 10 years. The bill was signed into law on July 18, 2003.[18]

H.B. 785 was also introduced in January 2003, but the bill was referred to the House Finance Committee and saw no action in 2003 or 2004. This legislation would have created a public "school choice initiative" whereby public school districts would evaluate student participation in school choice programs. The program "would provide for the advice and support of pupils, parents, and legal guardians in addition to school officials."[19]

H.B. 754, also introduced in 2003, proposes education certificates worth $1,000 for use at any nonpublic school or for home-schooling.[20]

Tax credit legislation was introduced in the 2003 session. H.B. 756 would provide a credit worth up to $300 for payment of private school tuition.[21] The bill died in committee.[22]

H.B. 603, also introduced in 2003, would require that districts reimburse half of the amount that parents spend for private school tuition. The bill was defeated by a vote of 250 to 112.[23]

H.B. 1345 was introduced in late 2003 to award vouchers to students to attend public or private schools outside their home district. Students with disabilities would have been eligible. The bill stalled in the House Study Committee.[24]

In February 2004, the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy and Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation released a study showing that a school voucher program in New Hampshire could save the state $8.7 million annually.[25] The study was based on H.B. 754 which proposed a voucher program for the state. Researchers reported that "for every 10 percent increase in the percentage of children enrolled in private schools in a community...total education expenditures are 1.75 percent lower and local education tax rates are 1.5 percent lower."[26]

In January, H.B.754 from 2003 was referred back to committee for study by a vote of 233-118. Similar bill language, however, was reintroduced as an amendment to H.B. 1353, a bill to establish public school open enrollment, but the amendment narrowly lost on a 172-171 vote. H.B. 1353 was tabled on a 258-85 vote.[27]

Then-Governor Craig Benson signed H.B. 727 to create a committee to study school choice.[28]

New Hampshire's first two charter schools opened in the 2004-2005 school year. The first to open was the Franklin Career Academy, which opened in August and will enroll 40 students.[29] The state awarded the Academy $165,000 in operational funds and $322,900 to cover start-up costs.[30]

The second school is Seacoast Charter School, which opened in September and plans to enroll 44 students in grades 3-4 for the 2004-2005 school year. Seacoast intends to grow to 120 students in grades 3-6 in the next four years.[31]

In August, then-Governor Benson proposed a voucher program for kindergarten students. The scholarship awards would be worth up to $2,000 for parents to send their children to public or private schools of choice. Under the proposal, communities would receive an extra $300 per pupil from the state.[32]

State legislator Carl Johnson (R-Meredith) introduced S.B. 131 on January 27, 2005. This bill would create a voucher program (called a "school choice certificate" in the legislation) for students from families whose income does not exceed 300 percent of the poverty line. The program would be phased in over eight years, enrolling up to 16,000 students by its eighth year.[33] The bill passed the Senate Education Committee by a vote of 14-9 in early April and was referred to the Senate Finance Committee. Committee Chairman Senator Charles Morse (R-Salem) stalled the bill by asking that further review be delayed until next year.[34]

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