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By Michael Bielawski
A new Scott administration education financing overhaul, announced yesterday, would provide school districts a base amount of state revenue from which they would craft their budget. The idea is to reconnect voters with the impacts of their votes and reign in runaway property taxes, Secretary of Education Zoie Saunders told a joint meeting of legislators Wednesday afternoon.
The ambitious overhaul would involve reshaping school governance, doing away with dozens of existing supervisory unions in favor of five major districts. The districts would be the Champlain Valley region, Winooski Valley region, Northeast region, Southwest region, and Southeast region.
“It allows us to reinvest in teachers’ salaries by reducing administration overhead, improve service delivery by operating at scale, and it increases educational opportunities for all students,” Saunders said.
The plan would entail a simplified statewide property tax and income-eligible homeowners would be able to get some credit back based on their home value. Local communities – if they vote to do so – can add to their school budgets over the base amount.
The administration has also indicated that they desire no rise in property taxes for the next year, they may use one-time funds to achieve necessary spending with no tax increase. Currently, the state predicts a 5.9% rise in property taxes. No decision has been made about the source of the one-time funds.
Easier to understand
Vermont’s Tax Commissioner Craig Bolio highlighted some of the key problems with the status quo for funding education.
“So we have a system that relies on local control as cost containment, is too complicated for people to understand, has little to no guardrails for the state to set reasonable limits, and gives districts few tools to find ways to save,” Bolio said.
He suggested the new plan would be easier to understand and make adjustments to the ever-shifting economy.
“If we move to the foundation formula and this plan, the system will be easier to understand and explain, both for homeowners and school boards, and allows the credit to be more responsive to property value and rate changes in a given year,” he said.
Some schools to close?
The logistics and economics of small schools continue to be a controversy. Some schools may close, Saunders suggested.
“Part of this plan will be to understand which schools are small by necessity and which schools are small by choice,” Saunders said. “Some schools will need to operate on a smaller scale and serve fewer students because they operate in very rural areas. And part of this plan is being very tactical and intentional about defining that criteria.”
Bipartisan support?
House Speaker Jill Krowinski and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth issued a joint statement indicating that the majority party, the Democrats, are willing to work with the administration on a new system.
“We thank the Governor for bringing forward a proposal to transform Vermont’s public education system and we look forward to working together throughout the session,” it states. “The Legislature and the Governor are aligned in the belief that we must take on the serious task of transforming our education system so all Vermont kids have the opportunity to thrive.”
Changes to early education, afterschool programs, and more
On Tuesday morning, Saunders was before the committees to discuss education policies. Some highlights include that Vermont has some of the highest enrollment in early childcare in the country.
“But the state has, you know, the second highest enrollment nationally for three-year-olds and with 71% of age-eligible children last year participating,” she said.
They would also like to expand the offerings of afterschool programs.
“There are certain communities that really need after school [programs], but those schools or community, organizations may need a little bit more support in order to start up, the program,” she said.
And tech centers continue to be a priority for the administration. They also want the tech centers to do their part in keeping students proficient in math and English.
“Currently, only 44% of our CTE [tech centers] concentrators are proficient in English and 53% are proficient in math,” she noted.
How to reach your legislators
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
Senate Education
Seth Bongartz, Manchester, Chair, sbongartz@leg.state.vt.us
David Weeks, Proctor, Vice Chair, dweeks@leg.state.vt.us
Kesha Ram Hinsdale, Montpelier, kraminsdale@leg.state.vt.us
Nader Hashim, Windham, nhashim@leg.state.vt.us
Terry Williams, Rutland, Clerk, tkwilliams@leg.state.vt.us
Steven Heffernan, Addison, sheffernan@leg.state.vt.us
All committee transcripts are available at www.goldendomevt.com. The committee meeting video is available on 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, State Government, Taxes
At last someone with a plan to move Vermont’s defunct education system off its butt.
Maybe it will work, maybe it will not , maybe it’s a start. Let’s consider it is a start to shape the dialog forward.
If anyone is thinking that the current status quo will provide a future for Vermont’s young people they are misguided. The current system has been shaped by a heavy reliance on NEA doctrine and associated teach speak.
Stop thinking we are special. Start thinking we need to have a set of common performance expectations for our students, teachers, educators AND parents.
Stop indoctrination of the spectrum of most fashionable political doctrines. Start with the fundamentals: Reading, writing, arithmetic. Teach success in these at an early age success will follow. Challenge all to be successful, capable people. Explain that they have the right to succeed , but, also the right to fail. In no way am I speaking bout cutting adrift people with special needs. Care for them. Keep in mind not all our students have special needs as appears to be the case now.
Shape the plan with success in mind . Measure it, benchmark it, draw line in the sand about performance. Do not be swayed by the negative voices or those who will chip away for their special interest. We have a generation of people relying on us.
Re: “At last someone with a plan to move Vermont’s defunct education system off its butt.”
Yes, there are 70 supervisory unions currently in Vermont. And reducing that number to five is a step in the right direction. At least we will have 65 fewer superintendents. But there are 20,000 people working in our school system (not counting subcontracted services) and cutting 65 positions, while a step in the right direction, is tantamount to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The ship is still sinking – and taxpayers along with it.
YES!! Finally, someone is willing to address some of the issues, esp. Supervisory Union Districts. Thank you Secretary Saunders.
Putting away more money for next years property tax increase. Excuse me, I have to put more wood in my wood stove brought to me by fossil fuels. This dog and pony show will never end.
What fossil did your wood come from? lol I wouldn’t be bad mouthing the schools if I were you
Respectfully replying to Chris: People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. If you diagram Richard’s sentence, you would see he’s saying his wood stove was brought to him by fossil fuels. He’s correct, wood stoves are generally made in foundries using fossil fuels to heat and cast the carbon steel or iron, and electricity to run the operations.
Education Secretary Saunders also briefly discussed School Choice as a consideration. According to VT Digger, “School choice was among the topics not addressed Wednesday. Saunders said the administration would address certain policy areas, including school choice, “more fully” in the coming weeks.”
I’ll believe that when I see it. And I hope everyone recognizes that the Vermont education establishment is more interested in protecting their livelihoods than anything else.
Certainly, when asking them why they do what they do, they’ll all repeat the common refrain – ‘we do it for the children’. And while that motivation may be the case, the data clearly shows, at the very least, that these educators are dramatically failing at their task. By every measure, parents are being deprived of family control, graduates don’t meet minimum academic standards, and taxpayers are being bankrupted by the highest per student costs in the U.S..
And, just as clearly, the cognitive dissonance displayed by these committed educators is causing them to re-interpret the evidence in an attempt to double-down on their delusion, to convince themselves that they have been right all along.
There is only one education reform that can create a well-functioning education system. That is School Choice… the establishment of a free market in education that allows parents to choose the education services they believe best meet the needs of their children.
And what is the tell-tale sign that our educators are scamming us?
When their only argument against School Choice is that it takes funding away from the public schools. It’s not the children they’re worried about. It’s the money. It’s always about the money.
Jay, you are over the target no doubt!
*notice they are not talking about any savings to the Vermont tax payer?
*Notice no goals other than 5 districts?
*Which I totally suspect will take away all local input.
* Notice they talk about ceilings of giving to towns, so no matter what you can’t have a great school.
They are publicly announcing they are moving further away from what you propose, we’ll have no choice or input whatsoever, more centralized power, less program input, zero choice and zero savings.
At the same time, we spend way too much money, get poor results and the blob gets bigger and our kids dumber and indoctrinated, we’ll leave critical thinking in the playground.
These press releases and public statements are made to sound good, like they are going to bring change to Vermont. This will be the fourth time of major reform, every time Vermonters got less control, worse education and a bigger tax bill, this is will be NOTHING DIFFERENT>>>>.VERMONTERS BEWARE…….THIS IS NO GOOD.
Perhaps we need to reframe the entire debate, to call them out.
Perhaps we should be saying the children of Winooski need to have school choice, we can’t deny people of color or nationality the “right” to go to a quality school.
Vermont is becoming a beautiful ghetto, where the schools like those in inner cities take all the money, where waste, fraud, mismanagement bring about little or no change for the children or parent.
The Brigham decision is denying Vermonter’s access to better education that costs less, in state or out, which was the whole premise of the ruling. Well, how it was sold anyway, truth be told it was never about that as demonstrated by the obvious failing of our educational system.
Time to flip the script, expose their lies and double talk.
A brief conversation with Lt. Gov. John Rodgers says they are also concerned about DEI. What was presented only touched the framework that will leave 5 very powerful superintendents with 5 school board members who are partially paid. Our educational system is so aligned with DEI and the rest of the alphabet soup it will take some heavy lye and scrubbing to remove their indoctrination influences. How about requiring all educators to be trained in Americanism and Constitutionalism and know what the CCP agenda that they’ve been promoting leads to. Bring in those who know like Lily Tang Williams, US Senate Candidate in NH and National Freedom Speaker who lived through the Mao Revolution and Pioneer School. Find any Vermonter who grew up under Communism – ask them if they’d like to return to it.
It is not just our school structure that needs to change. It is the influences into our school environment that needs to be scoured. The halls and classrooms have been filling the brains with poisonous thoughts. Scrub with disinfectants all school employees – the PTO, NEA, School Boards, State School Boards, even within the Department of Education where there are strong influences encouraging the Battelle for Kids – promoting CRT, SEL, one world governance, abandoning history, removing the pledge of allegiance, destruction of white supremacist institutions, watering down academic standards, and even using AI to test and peek into the brains of the children (it’s happening – yes, even in Vermont.)
Oh so NOW the Democrats want to play ball! Guess it helps losing their veto proof majority knowing that they do either play ball or get a veto they can’t override.
Some people do not under stand trucking and the fuel called diesel that brings the wood to my yard. Somebody needs to go back to school.
I urge all to write to all the legislators on the above list of emails. We need to voice our thoughts to support the Governor and especiall the Interim Secretary who will hopefully make it through to full power Secretary. She is the best person for the job, the only positive work the Governor did in years.
No wonder Senators Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden County, and Dick McCormack, D-Windsor County are suing the state to get rid of Zoe Saunders. She has good ideas for the students and taxpayers of Vermont and NOT for the NEA vermin
who infest the education system now.