'Keno-garten' Could Soon Be Thing Of Past In NH

CONCORD - The connection between Keno and kindergarten in New Hampshire could be coming to an end.

The Senate voted 24-0 in favor of SB 266-FN, which would finance full-day kindergarten grants entirely from the Education Trust Fund and divert Keno revenues to school building aid.

“Today’s unanimous vote was a bipartisan rebuke to the state’s current system of kindergarten funding,” Senate Majority Leader Dan Feltes said in a statement.

SB 266-FN would replace SB 191-FN – the so-called “Keno-garten” bill, since it is funded the expanded program through the Keno 603 game – which was signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu in 2017.

Keno 603 was unveiled in December 2017. Sales totaled nearly $11.7 million through the end of August 2017, according to the New Hampshire Department of Education, with $2.1 million being sent to the Education Trust Fund. But with Keno sales falling behind expectations after several cities and towns voted to not allow the game, or because no suitable business was able to operate the game, pressure grew to remove the link between gambling and full-day kindergarten.

“School districts, property tax payers, and New Hampshire students are counting on lawmakers to begin to fix our broken education funding system,” Sen. David Watters, a prime sponsor of the bill, said in a statement Thursday. “Today’s vote is a step in the right direction. SB 266 will create stability by treating kindergarten funding like every other grade level.”