By Guy Page
Comprehensive public school funding and governance reform is too complex to pass this year, House Democrats said at a Wednesday press conference.
Vermont Education Secretary Zoie Saunders disagrees. “We have to,” she told VDC Wednesday in a State House hallway conversation.
Tax relief is driving the Scott administration. Double-digit property tax increases drove Vermonters to the polls last November, where they re-elected Scott and dis-elected many Democrat supporters of the current tax structure. Although next year’s property taxes will be “bought down’ with other state funds, the State can’t afford to do that forever, Gov. Scott and other administration officials have said.
Regardless, education reform is just too big a lift to finish this spring, House Democrats insist.
The problem is not spendthrift school boards. That’s not happening, Education Chair Peter Conlon (D-Cornwall) said. “I’ve never seen such across-the-board effort to keep spending in line.”
“We will not fix education this year,” House Majority Leader Lori Houghton (D-Essex) said. She said the House might move the ball down the field some – agree on goals and a concrete plan and pass class size minimums this year, for example – but a comprehensive solution isn’t in the cards for the 2025 Session, she and others said.
“We can’t get that done in just one session,” Ways & Means Ranking Member Charlie Kimbell (D-Woodstock) said. Kimbell said the governor’s plan fails to address capital spending and debt. And it includes assumptions like three students sharing one $74 dollar computer. The governor’s proposed buy-downs to keep taxes low are okay in the short-run, but they’re not a good long term solution, he said.
The thorny problem of religious school tuition and transgender students
House Democrats were asked whether independent religious schools would qualify for public funding. While saying neither nay nor yea, Conlon stressed that the issue would be addressed in a way that is “Vermont constitutionally compliant.”
The 2022 U.S. Supreme Court Carson V. Makin decision prohibits funding discrimination against private religious schools. Critics of Carson V. Makin say some religious schools discriminate against LGBTQ staff and students.
At a press conference hosted today by the Friends of Vermont Public Education, a non-profit formed last year in part to address Carson V. Makin, VDC asked, ‘what’s wrong with public funding for religious schools?”
A Friends of Vermont Public Education spokesperson said Vermont has a ‘compelled support’ law, “which basically says the government cannot force its citizens through taxation to support religious organizations that they don’t believe in.”
VDC then noted the Trump administration is threatening to cut off funding to Maine for allowing biological males to play in girls’ sports. If Vermont is likewise threatened, what they should the State do, Geo Honigford of Royalton, FVPE co-founder, was asked.
“Transgender people are protected classes,” Honigford said. “What we should do is continue to protect them.”
Even if Vermont loses a ton of federal money?, he was asked.
“This is about human rights,” Honigford responded. None of the several legislators standing behind him (Sens. Tanya Vahovsky and Martine Gulick, Rep. Rebecca Holcombe) responded either way to his comment.
No Cellphones in School Day – A group of parents, students and educators at the State House Wednesday called for lawmakers to pass legislation prohibiting use of cellphones in schools.
We realize the school funding and districting questions are big, but this is low-hanging fruit and will prove immediate positive results in academic performance and overall mental health of all Vermont students,” says Robin Junker, a mother of three. “Students at Thetford Academy who have been given this opportunity are reporting a more socially rich campus and a ‘happier’ school environment.”
Junker and others support H.54 & S.21. The two virtually identical bills have broad, bi-partisan sponsorship from House and Senate members.
Her Honor Is In The Building – Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak was seen in the State House cafeteria at lunchtime Thursday. The former state representative elected mayor last year says that she was in the State House to meet with Burlington delegation of lawmakers.