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By Michael Bielawski
A bill proposes new restrictions on how much tuition can be charged by public elementary schools. It would “limit the tuition rate charged by a receiving public school to the average announced tuition of union elementary schools or union high schools, as applicable.”
H. 199’s primary sponsor is Rep. Elizabeth Burrows, D/P-West Windsor, and additional (and bipartisan) sponsors are Reps. John Bartholomew, D-Hartland, Voranus Coffin IV, R-Cavendish, Mari Cordes, D-Lincoln, and Jubilee McGill, D-Bridport.
It would also prohibit the receiving school from charging “additional fees for special education, availability reservation, or other fees that cannot be accounted for.”
And it, “proposes to eliminate tuition paid by a nonoperating school district from the district’s education spending for the purposes of calculating excess spending pursuant to 32 V.S.A. § 5401(12).”
Costly/underperforming
School tuition has been a hot-button issue for the Green Mountain State. The average public elementary school tuition in Vermont is $19,400 according to WorldPopulationReview.com.This is above the national average of $17,187, according to Public School Review.
Jill Briggs Campbell, interim deputy secretary of education, said on Friday of last week to the House Education Committee, “In education spending, we’ve seen significant growth, and we’ve also had sort of the technical term, the double whammy, the end of our pandemic era funding. So the five $500 plus million dollars of ESSER funds, GEER funds, child nutrition, and a whole host of other programs, largely came to an end on September 30, 2024. We are also in an inflationary context with increased costs, including health care.”
Political analyst Rob Roper wrote in January, “Since 2014, spending on our public school system has increased 42 percent, nearly $607 million dollars per year, to — inexplicitly — educate fewer and fewer students as our K-12 population declines. You know what else is dropping despite all this spending? Student outcomes. Vermont has fallen from a top performing school system to the middle of the pack, with this trend still pointing downward.”
Special education
It’s unclear how much revenue schools could lose for special education were this bill implemented. According to the Pew Research Center, the nation’s public K-12 school system educates “about 7.3 million students with disabilities – a number that has grown over the last few decades.”
The report indicates that “7.3 million disabled students in the U.S. made up 15% of national public school enrollment during the 2021-22 school year.”
The same report noted that finding special education teachers is a challenge. It states, “During the 2020-21 school year, 40% of public schools that had a special education teaching vacancy reported that they either found it very difficult to fill the position or were not able to do so.”
The report does not offer an analysis of the financial implications of special education.
From a school board chair
Burrows, the bill’s primary sponsor, also chairs the Mount Ascutney School District’s board. She’s been a vocal critic of the Agency of Education, telling Seven Days in 2023 that “Almost every department in the Agency of Education is falling short of what their charge is,” Burrows said. She met with Secretary of Education Zoie Saunders while she was still the interim secretary.
Big changes to education formula
The Agency of Education is proposing some big plans for Vermont’s education programs, including a block-grant funding model that gives schools a set amount of money to budget with, though individual communities can still vote for more spending.
Saunders recently wrote to Vermonters, “I do not expect the work ahead of me to be easy: nothing worth doing is. Like many other states, Vermont faces challenges – some of which were exacerbated by the pandemic and others that are compounded by national and regional economic challenges.”
Contact your legislators
See all bills assigned to this committee here. Constituents may contact committee members (click link on name for bio, party affiliation, etc.) with comments, questions and information at the following email addresses:
House Education
Peter Conlon, Cornwall, Chair, pconlon@leg.state.vt.us
Chris Taylor, Madison, Vice Chair, cataylor@leg.state.vt.us
Erin Brady, Chittenden District 2, Ranking Member, ebrady@leg.state.vt.us
Jana Brown, Richmond, Clerk, jbrown@leg.state.vt.us
Joshua Dobrovich, Orange-3, jdobrovich@leg.state.vt.us
Leanne Harple, Orleans 4, lharple@leg.state.vt.us
Robert Hunter, Bennington-4, rhunter@leg.state.vt.us
Emily Long, Burlington, elong@leg.state.vt.us
Kate McCann, Washington-4, kmccann@leg.state.vt.us
Beth Quimby, Caledonia-3, bquimby@leg.state.vt.us
Casey Toof, St. Albans City, ctoof@leg.state.vt.us
All committee transcripts are available at SmartTranscripts of Meetings Under The Vermont Golden Dome. The Committee meeting video is available at the committee’s YouTube channel. The committee meets in the morning in Room 8.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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Categories: Education, Legislation, State Government
This bill, H.199, includes at least one admirable precept – “to limit the tuition rate charged by a receiving public school to the average announced tuition of union elementary schools or union high schools, as applicable.”
As the law currently stands, for example, when a 7th or 8th grade student in my district chooses an independent school, the tuition voucher provided by the Agency of Education is the 2024-2025 Average Announced Tuition of Union 7th-12th Grade Schools or $19,774.
But when a parent chooses the local public school, “The district shall pay the full tuition charged its students attending a public high school”, even if it is greater than the Average Announced Tuition. If a student chooses the public high school in my district, the district will charge $22,000 per student, even though the Average Announced Tuition is only $19,774.
Ostensibly, this bill levels that playing field between public and independent school tuition payments.
However, H.199 is overly vague and undefined when it comes to Special Education (SPED) costs. SPED is a federally mandated education program. Depending on the disability, labeled students can receive more than $100,000 annually, depending on the program determined by the students Individual Education Plan. And because a significant portion of those costs are reimbursed to the sending school districts, those districts tend to allow ever higher expenses.
With regard to eliminating tuition spending pursuant to 32 V.S.A. § 5401, who knows? There are no definitions describing a ‘nonoperating school district’ in Vermont Statutes. We don’t know what it is or what it can or can’t do.
Sound typical?
We need a constitutional amendment to remove language from Chapter 2, Section 68 of the Vermont Constitution, as follows:
Ch2, § 68. [Laws to encourage virtue and prevent vice; schools; religious activities]
Laws for the encouragement of virtue and prevention of vice and immorality ought to be constantly kept in force, and duly executed; [STRIKE: and a competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town unless the general assembly permits other provisions for the convenient instruction of youth.] All religious societies, or bodies of people that may be united or incorporated for the advancement of religion and learning, or for other pious and charitable purposes, shall be encouraged and protected in the enjoyment of the privileges, immunities, and estates, which they in justice ought to enjoy, [STRIKE: under such regulations as the general assembly of this state shall direct.]
Don’t mess with Vermont…bureaurcracy…..watch this video, they used a marxist decoder ring and now it makes perfect sense!
https://choiceclips.whatfinger.com/2025/02/19/we-fixed-it-now-these-news-reports-are-100-accurate-are-they-not-bam-ai-is-used-to-change-the-word-democracy-to-bureaucracy-and-suddenly-these-leftist-sound-bites-sound-a-lot-more-hones/
We can’t make any substantial cuts in Montpelier, our bureaucracy is at stake!. lol
Truth is coming to Vermont, brace for impact…lol
Funny how come nobody is asking, why does Vermont have so many special education needs?
From firsthand experience of a friend, his son was put in special education. When he moved out west and was tested, they said, no he’s fine.
If we need special ed on a major scale, that is a major issue needing to be addressed.
If we are lining our pockets with unwarranted special ed payments, that is a major issue needing to be addressed.
Seems nobody wants to even discuss the matter, because we need to protect the bureaucracy at all costs.
To suggest fraud, misuse of taxpayer money, nepotism, cronyism and general feathering of one’s own nest with taxpayer money in Vermont is ludicrous.
We can do a much better job for half the money, private schools do it on a regular basis, everybody knows that, hence why Jay gets the cold shoulder when he talks about school choice.
The incentive to label more students as special needs in order to receive extra $$ did come up in a joint committee meeting with an expert alleging that it doesn’t happen. If I recall correctly, this information was presented to Senate and House Ed Committees. I cannot find the meeting that I listened to.
I found the meeting in which it is alleged that special needs student status does not increase when special needs students are weighted greater than “other” students, thus incentivizing the labeling of more students as special needs to receive extra education funding dollars: Senate Finance and Education, Feb 26, 2025, 1:30 PM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PGVtAemKAE
Rebecca Sibilia, Executive Director of EdFund (and educated by the Bill Gates Foundation) presents.
Renee, even back when I served on our school board, the AOE audited our Special Education (SPED) department and found that 40% of the SPED students had been ‘inappropriately labeled’, simply because they weren’t meeting grade level reading requirements.
Today, the SPED classifications have been expanded. Most of our district’s SPED students have ‘behavioral disabilities’. Imagine what kinds of behavior can qualify.
You are correct, however. Districts are reimbursed for their SPED spending. So, if a student can be labeled with an IEP, then at least some (if not most) of the cost of educating that student is reimbursed to the school district. And the cost to educate a regular education student is not reimbursed. The incentive to label kids is obvious.
I agree with you, H Jay Eshelman, that schook districts are abusing SPED classificationto get more money. I was pointing out the lie that legislators are being fed, the lie that schools are not taking advantage of SPED classification. They willingly believe the lie because it serves their agenda to expand state control over education. McCann’s statement that private schools are siphoning public funds is repulsive.
I know of an individual case of SPED classifications that are not needed and perhaps a detriment to the child’s best interests.
Renee, where in the hour long hearing is the reference to incentivizing the labeling of more students as special needs to receive extra education funding dollars: can you narrow it down for myself and others?
$19.4 k ….
What an absolute embarrassment.
Parents must have school choice – regardless if it’s a charter, private or religious school. Senior citizens shouldn’t be required to fund education.
Unfunded liabilities in the teachers and state workers pension program tells you about all you need to know of how dysfunctional the state bureaucracy is.