From Homes to Classrooms: How Housing Really Affects School Enrollment

In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with Sarah Wrightsman and Ryan Pope from New Hampshire Housing Finance about the relationship between housing development and school enrollment. They discuss common misconceptions about housing's impact on school enrollment and property taxes. The guests explain that new housing developments typically produce far fewer students than people assume - approximately one student per six units in multifamily housing and 0.44 students per single-family home.

They highlight three key misunderstandings: people overestimate how many children live in new housing, don't understand the difference between average and marginal costs for educating students, and forget that new housing generates tax revenue. Sarah notes that school districts across New Hampshire generally have capacity for more students, and that enrollment has been declining statewide. Dover's enrollment has remained relatively flat compared to more significant declines elsewhere.

The conversation references a study conducted by New Hampshire Housing called "From Homes to Classrooms," which provides data disproving the myth that new housing significantly increases school enrollment and property taxes. The guests emphasize that different housing types generate different numbers of students, with manufactured housing producing almost no school-aged children. They express hope that communities will shift from using potential school enrollment increases as a reason to oppose housing development to recognizing the need for more children and younger families in New Hampshire.

In This Week in Dover History, we learn about Judson Dunaway, a philanthropist who died in March 1976. Dunaway established the Expello Corporation (later the Judson Dunaway Corporation) in Dover in 1928, which produced household products including mothballs and Vanish Toilet Bowl Cleaner. After retiring in 1958, Dunaway created the Judson Dunaway Foundation, donating over $2 million to Dover for hospital expansions, recreational facilities, and the Dover High School athletic fields.