N.H. legislators review cap on charter school enrollment

Jennifer Feals of the Portsmouth Herald looks at how charter school students would be effected by the state budget on the floor on the Senate today:

The heads of area charter schools said an enrollment cap would affect future expansion and programming. If a charter school enrollment cap is approved by the Legislature, schools would be forced to conduct a reverse lottery, basically kicking out students, they said.

To remain at its current enrollment of 106 under the proposed enrollment cap, Bill Wilmot, head of the Seacoast Charter School, said the school would have to eliminate its plans to add seventh grade and a second fifth- and sixth-grade class. The school would be forced to graduate its current sixth-graders and hold a reverse lottery to remove half of its current fourth-graders.

Wilmot said a reverse lottery would be devastating to students, their families and the schools.