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by Guy Page
Can the Vermont House and Senate agree this week on tuition for independent schools?
That was the main issue separating the Vermont Senate House Conference Committee talks on H.454, the education finance and governance bill, when it met this morning for the second time this week.
Independent schools currently provide a tuition option for school districts without schools – mostly high schools. St. Johnsbury Academy and Lyndon Institute in Caledonia County are among the long-standing independent schools fulfilling the role of the local high school.
The House version of H.454 is seen as more restrictive of the role of independent schools in any new governance/funding plan.
The Senate conferees today put this proposal to their House counterparts: an approved independent receiving school that educates students in grades nine through 12 and also functions as an area career and technical center may charge the base tuition amount plus 10% for each student attending the receiving school.
The added 10% would help pay for technical education at the private schools.
Apart from the lack of agreement on independent school roles and tuition, the conferees are still far apart on per-student ‘foundation’ payments and the sizes of both classes and school districts. When asked for a side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate versions, House conferee Chris Taylor (R-Milton) said there’s not enough detail to publish such a document yet.
This morning’s session adjourned after a half hour until 1 PM today, giving the House time to ponder Senate insistence on a firm plan for independent school tuition. The House would defer that decision to a multi-year study committee.
“We are not surprisingly at a challenging point here,” Rep. Pete Conlon (D-Addison) said shortly before the morning adjournment.
Can conference committee find enough agreement today and tomorrow to present a satisfactory bill to the full House and Senate as currently scheduled on Monday, June 16?
That depends on progress being made on independent schools – and class sizes – and supervisory union governance – and, perhaps above all, per-student spending benchmarks.
Stay tuned.
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Categories: Education, Legislation, State Government
The first point to consider is that independent school tuition funding already exists in Vermont’s tuitioning governance. There’s no reason to change it. The tuitioning governance has been working just fine for decades. If anything, the only change required is to let all Vermont students have access to tuitioned school choice, not just the kids who happen to live in the town or school district that currently provide it.
This ‘hang up’ is a deceptive ploy, by the Legislature and the Governor, to avoid the obvious education reform that will satisfy everyone but the special interest groups stalking their prey at the great public education watering hole.
The H.89 School Choice bill, currently tabled in the House Education Committee and unmentioned by the Scott administration, is all that’s required. It doesn’t change existing governance. It simply allows all Vermont kids to have the choice of schools they attend.
But, most importantly, the reason the Governor and the Legislature aren’t discussing H.89 is because for every student choosing an Independent school under current governance, taxpayers save approximately $10,000.
In other words, if every one of Vermont’s K-12th grade students chose an independent school under H.89, Vermont taxpayers would save more than $700 Million.
So, now you know why there’s a ‘hang up’.
Deceptive ploy, just like every other remake. Too funny, I pushed send on my comment and yours showed up the same time.
Montpelier is completed corrupt, completely owned by NGO’s and lobbyists. You speak the truth….and we could save much more money than you say, and we’d have a much better education system to boot.
The student and the taxpayer will lose massively on this new bill, just like every iteration before. They need to craft and script their words carefully to once again pull the wool over our eyes.
All good points. I favor school choice. Just to clarify- is the “hang up” because school choice would potentially affect the local schools?
I don’t think they realize that many families that are able to are home schooling primarily due to the quality of education now, or lack thereof.
Gail: The argument that typically comes from the Legislature and the Governor is that school choice tuition takes funding away from the public schools and, therefore, limits the public school programs. Never mind that public-school programs are failing and still 30% more expensive than the more successful independent school programs.
Clearly, public schools are not ‘for the children’. It’s all about the money. And if it is all about the money, shouldn’t the taxpayers, parents and their kids make these decisions?
smoke and mirrors
school funding is a complete sham, just like the previous remakes.
smoke and mirrors
No, it isn’t a sham, Neil. What we have works well, if only folks could figure that out and make the tutioning governance available to all Vermont students. It’s just that simple.
@H. Jay Eshelman, One would think that the “equity” crowd would be all for allowing Vermont kids to have the choice of schools they attend. Sounds perfectly fair to me.
They have lied on every major rewrite about the numbers, they have abysmal results, it costs a fortune, we have no real choice by design, it is a complete sham. And they know it, if there were any freedom involved the house of cards would collapse inside of 2 years.
Your taxes will go up the next two years and educational results will continue to drop and increase indoctrination.
Respect your knowledge, disagree with your statement.
What we have definitely doesn’t work well for anybody but the lobbyists and those they serve.
You misunderstand my statement. I’m saying that our tuitioning governance works well, Neil. If every student in Vermont attended an independent school under tuitioning, education costs would decline by $700 million and student performance would improve.
Taxes go up and student outcomes deteriorate when kids are forced to attend the public school monopoly. But tuitioning governance works well for decreasing costs and improving outcomes.
It’s the public school monopoly that’s failing us. Not school choice tuitioning.