By Guy Page
On Hot Off The Press Wednesday, November 26, we took up a story that goes right to the heart of Vermont’s education system and the property-tax crisis hitting homeowners and renters alike. We had some expert direction and information from Ben Kinsley of the Campaign for Vermont.
Act 73 requires Vermont’s School District Redistricting Task Force to produce proposed maps of new, large “super-school districts”. But, after months of work, the Task Force voted on November 10 not to produce those maps. The seven-member majority at that meeting said forcing massive mergers simply didn’t solve the problem.
Instead, the majority proposed something different: a regional, shared-service model called the Cooperative Education Service Area, or CESA. It’s a structure that supposedly allows districts to share things like special education, transportation, staffing, purchasing, and technology.
One thing became clear during the discussion: the big cost drivers in education—health care, special education, transportation, aging buildings—don’t get cheaper when you create bigger districts.
In other words, the task force said consolidation doesn’t fix the big problem—that our schools cost too much, especially for the poor educational outcomes they deliver.
That brought us to our guest: Ben Kinsley, Campaign for Vermont executive director. His organization reached the same conclusion. Creating super-districts doesn’t touch the spending pressures that are sending property taxes through the roof. Both the Task Force and the Campaign for Vermont said the answer may lie in regional collaboration, voluntary mergers, and shared services—not in creating a handful of giant bureaucracies.
So we asked Ben—and our listeners:
If consolidation doesn’t save money, what will? How do we get out from under the crushing tax burden of the rising costs of health care, special education, transportation, aging buildings?
Ben’s conclusion, based on his review of the experiences of school districts nationwide: sharing administrative costs in the new CESAs would save $300 million.
The tougher nut to crack, he said, is how to cut the in-school staff to student ratio, already the lowest in the nation. He agreed with many other State House observers (myself included) that the current Legislature lacks the will to reduce school spending through staff reductions. And since salaries and benefits, including fast-rising health care, are among the main drivers of Vermont’s school spending, it’s the stomping elephant in the room that they’re just pretending to ignore.
We also reviewed who sits on the Task Force, appointed under Act 73:
- Senator Scott Beck – GOP senate caucus leader. He is affiliated with St. Johnsbury Academy, a private, tuition-receiving school and supporter of the model discarded on November 10.
- Senator Martine Gulick, Chittenden County Democrat, retired high school teacher.
- Senator Wendy Harrison, Windham County Democrat.
- Dr. Jennifer Botzojorns, retired superintendent of the Kingdom East School District.
- Dr. Jay Badams, former superintendent of SAU 70.
- Kim Gleason, former school board member, Representative (REP.)
- Reps. Edye Graning (D-Jericho), Rebecca Holcombe (D), and Beth Quimby (R-Concord).
- Chris Locarno, retired director of finance and facilities for the Central Vermont Supervisory Union.
- David Wolk, former Rutland superintendent, Vermont Commissioner of Education and state senator.
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