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HB 709 Lets parents enroll kids in any district where they pay property taxes.

Education Dead

Lets parents enroll kids in any district where they pay property taxes.

Impact Score — How Does This Bill Affect You?

5

Overall Impact Score

Concerning

Scale: 1 (harmful) to 10 (beneficial)

4
💰

Your Wallet

Could shift enrollment costs to districts that didn't plan for additional students

4
🏘️

Your Community

Benefits families owning property in multiple towns; limited benefit for average families

6
⚖️

Your Freedom

Expands school choice for families who pay property taxes in multiple districts

Status

Dead. ITL vote 5-0 on March 3, 2026.

Sponsor

Unknown

The Short Version

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.

Who's Behind This Bill?

Who Benefits

  • ▲ Wealthy families with property in multiple towns

Who Pays the Price

  • ▼ Smaller districts (potential enrollment/budget strain)

Roll Call Detail (1 vote)

Every recorded floor vote on this bill, with each legislator's individual vote. Click a name to see that rep's full record.

Who actually supports this bill?

Across the 1 recorded vote on this bill — counting each legislator's net direction and treating kill motions as opposing the bill — Republicans supported it ( 181 for , 3 against ) , and Democrats opposed it ( 1 for , 156 against ) .

"Supporting" means voting for passage OR voting against a kill motion. "Opposing" is the inverse. Concurs and amendment-only votes don't count.

Ought to Pass with Amendment 2026-01-07
Passed

YES = Pass the bill with the attached amendment. NO = Reject the bill (as amended).

181R + 1D
Voted to Pass (182)
3R + 156D
Voted Against (159)
39
Absent
15
Not voting
Show all 395 individual votes

Voted Yea (182)

Republicans (181)
Democrats (1)

Voted Nay (159)

Republicans (3)
Democrats (156)
Absent (39)

Adam Presa (R) , Allison Knab (D) , Bill Boyd (R) , Cassandra Levesque (D) , Charles Foote (R) , Charlie St. Clair (D) , David Lundgren (R) , David Luneau (D) , David Nagel (R) , Deborah Aylward (R) , Denise DeDe-Poulin (R) , Douglas Trottier (R) , Efstathia Booras (D) , Fred Davis (D) , Gaby Grossman (D) , Gary Daniels (R) , Heath Howard (D) , Jeffrey Tenczar (R) , Jim Creighton (R) , Jodi Nelson (R) , Karel Crawford (R) , Larry Gagne (R) , Laurence Miner (R) , Louise Andrus (R) , Mary Ford (R) , Mary Murphy (R) , Merryl Gibbs (D) , Michael Cahill (D) , Michael Harrington (R) , Michael Murphy (R) , Mike Bordes (R) , Myles England (D) , Peter Varney (R) , Sandra Panek (R) , Sayra Devito (R) , Shane Sirois (R) , Tim Mannion (R) , Tom Dolan (R) , Travis Toner (R)

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.

Read the Actual Bill → See All Bills

Bill statuses as of May 2026. Check LegiScan or NH General Court for the latest.