Education Across the States — News Update
October 29, 2026 · By Charles Mayfield, Executive Producer
Five days before New Hampshire voters decide the school tax cap question, a new statewide poll finds that most voters do not know what their schools actually spend per student. The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy commissioned the poll, and the Saint Anselm College Survey Center conducted it on October 19 and 20, surveying 1,672 likely voters with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points. According to the state Department of Education figures cited in the poll, districts spend an average of $22,699 per student in operating expenses, and $27,689 per student when all expenses are included.
Asked to place that average within $10,000, nearly three in five voters — 59 percent — underestimated it. Forty-three percent guessed between $10,000 and $20,000, and 16 percent guessed below $10,000. Only 31 percent placed it correctly, between $20,000 and $30,000. A guess below $10,000 is not a close miss: no New Hampshire district spends that little per student. The lowest-spending district in the state spends $14,653 per student, and 35 districts spend more than $30,000 per student.
On the tax cap itself, 57 percent of voters in the poll supported it, 32 percent opposed it, and 13 percent were unsure. Because adoption requires 60 percent of the yes and no votes, with blank ballots excluded under the Attorney General’s October 21 guidance, the yes share among voters who took a side comes to 64 percent, above the threshold. That is poll arithmetic, not a result — the result arrives Tuesday, November 3, district by district. The poll also found 64 percent would prefer local governments to control their spending, while 23 percent preferred that the state raise taxes and distribute the added revenue to cities and towns.
A second deadline is now on the calendar. The State Board of Education will hold a public hearing at noon on Thursday, November 12, on a proposed rewrite of Ed 1400, the rules for Learn Everywhere, the program that lets outside providers offer high school credit. The hearing is in person at the Department of Education Events Center, 25 Hall Street in Concord, under Notice 2026-177, which lists no remote access. Written comments are due Thursday, November 19. The rewrite would grow the board’s review period from 60 days to 90 business days and require a program to offer at least one half credit.
Takeaway: A per-pupil average is a blended figure. It folds in legally required services a small number of students receive under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which can cost several times the average for one child and cannot be reduced because a levy cap passed. Before Tuesday, a district’s honest message has two parts: here is our per-pupil figure, and here is the share fixed by legal entitlement, contract, and transportation before a single discretionary dollar is discussed.
Listen: New Hampshire Education Daily — October 29, 2026: Most Voters Don’t Know What Schools Spend on the show page · State page: New Hampshire — Education Across the States
Sources: Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy / Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll, October 19–20, 2026 (1,672 likely voters), and New Hampshire Department of Education per-pupil figures cited in the poll; State Board of Education rulemaking Notice 2026-177 (Ed 1400) — all as covered in today’s episode, which publishes its sources in its episode description.