by Bob Frenier

Almost 40 years after the VT Supreme Court rendered its Brigham decision, supposedly ensuring equal educational opportunities for all Vermont kids, the opportunities to be academically proficient in Vermont schools remain decidedly UNequal. Milton’s elementary and middle schools collectively tested 35+/- points below proficient on the 2025 state achievement test while right next door in Westford the average was 24 points above proficient. That 60-point differential was typical: Middlesex averaged 80 points above next-door Berlin; East Montpelier scored an average of 96 points above neighboring Barre City and 59 points above Barre Town; Montgomery scored 100+ points above the nearby towns of Richford, Bakersfield and Troy. These scores are taken directly from the Agency of Education’s data, and the list of unconscionable disparities goes on and on. Scores for low-income kids are even worse, and those kids are 35%+/- of the total student population.

The recent legislative brouhaha about education funding and redistricting made absolutely no difference to this disparity in the quality of classroom instruction. The kids got lip service, but nobody did nuthin’ to improve their opportunity to achieve academic proficiency. What makes the situation even more egregious is that the recent VT Supreme Court Vitale decision made it clear that Vermont kids have a “fundamental right” to an equal educational opportunity that is supposed to be guaranteed by the state’s “fundamental obligation” to provide it. Does anybody in state government have the moxie to claim these disparate scores indicate our children’s right to equal educational opportunity is being adequately protected?

I suggest that it’s time for parents to pay attention to the school choice lawsuit that will be filed in the early Fall by the public service law firm Liberty Justice Center. A key part of the argument will be that the state has failed its “fundamental obligation” to provide a “substantially equal educational opportunity” to all Vermont children, and the huge disparity in test scores between too many neighboring towns will be a central part of the argument. Any parent who is unhappy with the quality of their child’s education can be a plaintiff in this suit and there is no cost to them. Learn more by emailing advocacy@EdWatchVT.org  

Nobody should worry about what will happen when the lawsuit succeeds and Vermont kids can attend the school that work best for them. The VT education system is a overbearing monopoly, just like the old Bell Telephone Company that many of us remember for its clunky rotary-dial telephones that were wired to the wall. When the courts broke up the “Ma Bell” monopoly, we customers could not begin to imagine the astonishing cell phone revolution that would replace it. When the VT Supreme Court breaks up the AOE/NEA monopoly, look for multiple, innovative education entrepreneurs to bring similarly imaginative solutions to the education problems we face today. No government is smart enough to figure it out.