Commentary

Eshelman: Traditional public school vs. tuitioned school choice

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by Jay Eshelman

Yes, VDC readers, it’s that time of year. Your school boards are working feverishly to prepare the 2024-25 school budgets for your approval. The State enrollment metric has changed once again – virtually (and subjectively) doubling the actual number of students in each school… thereby understating the cost per student calculation by almost half. What used to be reported as a $22,000 cost per student is now reported as a $12,000+- cost per student. And accurately deciphering the line items in your school budget nearly requires that you be a CPA. Caveat emptor.

In my Westminster school district, we demonstrate the difference between traditional public-school education and ‘tuitioned’ School Choice. Westminster provides a PK thru 8 education program. Our 9th grade through 12th grade students attend the Bellows Falls Union High School. We have 35 3, 4 and 5-year-olds in our PK program. We have 134 students in grades K through 6. And 66 students in grades 7 & 8.

Westminster’s PK program is primarily a ‘tuition’ expense. PK is almost an incidental cost, i.e., glorified daycare. Our K-6 traditional public-school program is housed in our Center School. Our tuitioned 7th and 8th graders attend a half a dozen or so public and independent schools. And then the students attend the BF union High school.

If you’ve already done the per class enrollment comparison, you see that Westminster’s tuitioned 7th &  8th   grade is, apparently, the most popular education program in the district. Class enrollments in 7th and 8th grade are 75% higher than the enrollments in our K-6, and they decline again in the 9-12 traditional union high school. Clearly, parents appreciate the opportunity to choose the school they believe best meets the needs of their children, be it in a traditional or independent school setting.

So, what are the cost ramifications? How does each program compare with the other?

Westminster’s: 

PK costs $2,330 per student. (Tuitioned School Choice)

K-6 costs $31,645 per student. (Traditional Public School)

7th & 8th costs $15,818 per student. (Tuitioned School Choice)

9-12 costs $23,373 per student. (Traditional Public School)

This is the Westminster overview. Every Vermont school district is different. Costs vary. Special Education, Transportation, Extra-Curricular programs, and Sports programs vary. Some districts, like Westminster, have a plethora of public and independent schools from which parents can choose. Other districts may not have those choices. At least not yet. Build it and they will come.

And curricula differ too. Sometimes integrated curricula revolve around a liberal arts format. Other schools may be more vocationally oriented. And others may emphasize athletic programs. While others, still, provide a hybrid curriculum, sometimes affiliating themselves with other neighboring schools. The possibilities are virtually endless.

The point is, with School Choice Tuitioning there is a choice. In a monopolized traditional public-school format, parents get what they get. And while there are many cost considerations, in Westminster at least, our tuitioned programs are, obviously, the most cost effective. 

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Categories: Commentary, Education

15 replies »

  1. It’s long established that vouchers most often save tax money. I’ve said that here for years.

    • Most people, though, still don’t get it. If they did, we’d see more of a tendency to consider the tuitioning aspect of school governance.

    • You are wrong we “get it “and we are not interested. Please stop. So now I am being NICE, see. So just stop.

  2. Excellent summary. Getting this data should be of paramount importance to all the residents in your district. Would the Reformer publish this? Just curious.
    Best,
    Pam Baker

    • Rarely, if ever, is this type of synopsis published by the media. Mostly because reporters don’t have the expertise to do the financial ratio analysis. Even our school board members don’t look at the budget in this way. Hopefully, this will incentivize them to comment.

  3. Cost savings and choice. Tuitioning should be the norm, not the exception. (Our son was able to take advantage of high school choice in Hartland. Most students went to Hartford (and its excellent vocational center), and most of the few others went to other public schools in the area. The few who went to independent schools cost the town the least – not only because the state limited that amount, but also because the main school chosen kept their tuition in line with that limited amount.)

  4. I will say this in simple terms.
    This is not the “cure” to this issue. We need to FIX the broken schools (what is even taught) and the way we finance ( without a tax) them. You people who talk of school choice forget the most obvious thing. All schools in Vermont are governed by the government (same curriculum, same deviant lessons) . Not you or me. The only thing that makes any choice or “you pay for it “school is that you can stop paying them and move your kid. You CANNOT DO THAT IN PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.

    I dare you, for lack of education alone, to stop paying your school tax. I dare you. Did you know the state can sell off your property for as little as 1% of its value and leave you out in the cold with possibly a criminal record ( If you don’t pay that tax). For a tax for a school that keeps kids dumb, sexually deviant and most of all defiant to your (the parents) authority.

    All your hand wringing and bitching will get you NOTHING. They decide, not you, that’s it.
    You do not go to the meetings and give your voice. You are more interested in screwing off with your friends, buying a new toy and on and on.
    No, your kids, your liberty apparently, means little to nothing because to you, you see no issues. You decide to ignore the things being done.

    It took less than how many to start a revolution, not a civil war, a revolution. But you see, they saw what was coming, they saw what was happening and with their life in their hands and were willing to lose their treasure and life for one thing, LIBERTY.

    I have said , if you all show up in mass , what are they going to do.?
    Well if they have their way with the illegals, they will be the police force that will show you who is in charge. (you know, people who will not integrate, but will follow orders, you know, the military age men who have been coming across the border and handed $5000. ) Mark my words.

  5. Re: “We need to FIX the broken schools (what is even taught)”

    What ‘should’ be taught? Who decides?

    Re: “You CANNOT DO THAT IN PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.”

    Under school choice then, choose an independent school.

    Re: “All schools in Vermont are governed by the government (same curriculum, same deviant lessons).”

    This is simply not true.

    Re: “I dare you, for lack of education alone, to stop paying your school tax. ”

    I’m not going to stop paying my taxes. And I don’t recommend anyone do so. There are other ways to decrease your tax contributions within the system.

    Re: “All your hand wringing and bitching will get you NOTHING. They decide, not you, that’s it.”

    So, perhaps the thing to do is change who ‘they’ are.

    Re: “You do not go to the meetings and give your voice.”

    Speak for yourself, thank you very much.

    Re: “I have said, if you all show up in mass, what are they going to do?”

    After you. They’ll do just what they did on J6.

    There is a reasonable fix. Elect district school boards who will follow the statutory authority provided them so the district will ‘both maintain its public schools and furnish education by paying tuition’ to parents who request their children attend the alternative schools, public or independent, they believe best meet the needs of their children.

    And if they break the law, sue them, as is being done now as we speak.

    Otherwise, there’s no point in your ‘hand wringing and bitching’ here on VDC either. We get it already.

    • I will send you to my comments on this subject because as I can see SOME people refuse to stop beating a dead horse.

      https://vermontdailychronicle.com/eshelman-fpf-legislative-cartel-spin-18-school-tax-increase/#comments

      You were/are wrong then and as I stated before, 40 years of failure do not make a good idea or make you right now.

      Dissecting what I say does not make it untrue to others, just uncomfortable to SOME people who think they have the answers that do not work under the system we have today.
      The boards are made of mostly selected not elected. THEY think they are our rulers they are not. Much like the legislators do. Too many instances of what happens when all you do is ask permission for them to not teach and or abuse your kids.

      The last I checked the “standards ” come from the state and Federal system based on, more than not, DEI and before that common core and that is a way to make them ignorant not smarter or more prepared for life.

      The tax thing is exactly my point. You can refuse to pay a selected school for bad performance but you MUST pay for that boondoggle that is public education. You speak as if a majority has a choice they do not. In the private sector you can refuse to pay with no detrimental consequences, not so for public school tax.

      As far as suing them. I doubt there are more than a dozen people in any area that can afford to sue the state (school/board and so on) or have the time. No one going to public school has, that is why they go to public schools. The state has unlimited money to tell you no again and again.

      No, going to court as we have seen with the election fraud (and the covid shots and mask restrictions and on and on) is all but impossible because they own and run the courts THEIR WAY.
      Look at what Biden is doing to Texas and the only solution to it was/is the National Guard, something the Governor has control of, NOT Biden and no courts
      Another example of the how they say, we do and no court is on our side.

      Remember the TX Gov. went to court to stop him…. and Biden just kept going to court to overturn the will of the people. Much like the prosecutors here in VT not doing their job. Hence all the crime.

      No access to better education ( no, not schools) is the problem of the poor not those who have disposable income to send a child to an exclusive school. No choice will make it better with the lack of said education. .

      Please show us all some of the examples of where a parent sued a school to change its behavior and it happened that way…..Because you seem to have all the answers.
      How about how the curriculum is SO different in a different school they pump out the best of the best of the best. No, until the education changes, what school is a moot point. You tell me I am wrong ,but except for quoted parts of my comments I see no proof of what you say, just mouth.

      “Otherwise, there’s no point in your ‘hand wringing and bitching’ here on VDC either. We get it already.”

      But sir that is exactly what you have been doing all this time. I have answers so do others and I will evaluate new ideas when I see them. Some, keep beating a dead horse or better yet that same “some” try to fill a bucket with holes in it, not knowing why it will not fill up. Going faster will not fix it.
      What I see is “I am an expert believe me. ”
      Fauci said the same thing.
      See how that went.
      How many dead from his “Expert” opinion?

    • Sorry, 1 comment that was …. well not so much as I have seen you do and is quite ineffectual at its argument. We all KNOW we are living in tyranny and you are not telling us anything we do not know or how to fix it. I say we take it all back.

    • I’ll address a couple of your points and leave it at that.

      Re: “You speak as if a majority has a choice they do not. In the private sector you can refuse to pay with no detrimental consequences, not so for public school tax.”

      Everyone always has a choice. They can conform, revise and resubmit, or resist. We can choose to break the law and we, at least most of us, are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty through due process.

      Our constitutional republic simply requires everyone to be personally responsible for whatever it is they choose to do. That some, perhaps many, people do everything they can to avoid that responsibility, doesn’t remove it. The same holds true no matter what ‘sector’ you consider.

      It’s great that you have answers. So, live by them. But please don’t misrepresent the information I submit for consideration. I don’t have all the answers, and never said I did. But neither do you, in my humble opinion.

      P.S.
      Re: “Please show us all some of the examples of where a parent sued a school to change its behavior and it happened that way…”

      School board closes elementary school after parents’ lawsuit over poor education
      https://vermontdailychronicle.com/school-board-closes-elementary-school-after-parents-lawsuit-over-poor-education/

    • Not finished yet, “And if they break the law, sue them, as is being done now as we speak.”
      and it is being fought by the state and it’s unlimited budget. Good luck.
      and
      “Plaintiffs have sufficiently plead both a violation of the Education Clause and the Common Benefits Clause of the Vermont Constitution, and have requested relief which this Court has the power and authority to grant. Thus the State’s motion to dismiss must be denied.”
      I remember the covid lockdowns ,do you.
      How many laws did the state violate with impunity, how many rights?… oh no , they just made a new mandate/law to make it OK.
      You show people the actual contempt you have for people like me, you know people who challenge your “expertise” and “authority” .
      Too many times I hear you speak and I just hear Eric Cartman saying “Respect my authoritay!”. No arguments just lowball insults and platitudes and no real authority.