Vermont’s K-12 system is broken.
by Kolby LaMarche
Vermont’s K-12 system is broken.
This year, both the legislature and statewide school districts are blaming each other for projected, education-related tax increases, without a clear and fair solution in sight.
Voters throughout Vermont will be asked this March, on Town Meeting Day, to increase their property taxes. A 14% increase will appear on the ballot in Burlington, 16.5% in South Burlington, and as high as 20% in some other areas of the state.
Here, in Burlington, despite the enormous requested increase, voters and candidates seem bound to rubberstamp the school budget once again.
Both major-party mayoral candidates, Joan Shannon and Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, along with fourteen out of the fifteen city council candidates running, pledge to “support our schools.”
Unfortunately, they seem to place unwavering trust in a school board and state government that lacks a full understanding of our education system – it’s that complex.
Many of those same candidates say that reforms to education must largely be tackled by the state legislature. But while state-level reforms are crucial, local communities must also assume responsibility for charting a new course in education by talking about the things legislators won’t.
The debate surrounding educational spending and taxes should also prompt reflection on the efficacy of our current system; do we like what we are paying for? I believe Vermont needs to have two critical discussions:
The Quality of a Vermont Education
Vermont’s K-12 education is the second most expensive in the nation per pupil, with our state spending about $25k per student. Despite this, in a match-up against the nation, 28 other states beat us, including Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, and Hawaii to name a few.
Even using our own state’s generous testing standards, Vermont kids – especially after the pan(scam)demic – are in a bad way:
Vermont students are failing at reading, writing, listening, speaking, research, inquiry, problem-solving, data analysis, mathematic procedures, and basic sciences.
Furthermore, Vermont’s graduation rate has failed to meet satisfactory standards and is actively decreasing, along with schools being seemingly unable to prepare students for college and future careers.
It’s both absurd and all too familiar that Vermont persists in lavishing considerable funds on education yet consistently churning out graduates who fall short of being academically competent.
We, in this state, subvert the very notion of educational excellence, which we purport to uphold. Instead, we continue to foster a culture of pervasive mediocrity.
I’m perfectly fine with paying taxes to “support our schools” so long as we are honest that our schools are, well, garbage. And so long as we commit to fixing them and getting a better deal out of our investment.
The (Ex/In)clusion of a Vermont Education
For quite some time, agree or not, Vermont’s educational circles have been fixated on matters of racial equity and race politics – almost exclusively.
This fixation has translated into substantial investments, with districts shelling out significant sums on consultants, permanent equity personnel, training sessions, curriculum revisions, research endeavors, and the like.
However, juxtaposed against this is a glaring truth: nearly 45% of Vermont students grapple with economic adversity. This socioeconomic strain has long been recognized as a huge factor influencing both the hurdles and triumphs experienced in education.
I believe It’s high time we pivot away from a justice framework fixated solely on race and redirect our focus toward justice for all Vermont students.
Consider, for instance, the findings revealed in the Burlington School District’s Equity and Inclusion Data Report. In the academic years 2020-2021, students contending with economic adversity stood out as notably more prone to facing suspensions.
The report also noted that suspension rates and disparities among students identifying as Black or African American during that same time period were deemed “too low to report.”
Then, observe the evident gaps in reading proficiency between affluent areas like the Champlain Valley School District or Stowe and economically challenged communities such as Bennington or Winooski:
Advocating for economic-based justice in our Vermont schools does not, and should not, exclude pursuits of racial justice. The poverty rate for Vermont blacks is nearly three times higher than for non-Hispanic whites and 7 points higher than for blacks in the US overall.
Dividing students and investing huge resources solely on the factor of race, especially in the presence of severe, universally felt economic disparities, undermines the cohesion needed for progress in education.
If Vermont truly aims to confront the challenges impeding our students’ education head-on, we must reject the divisive practice of excluding certain students simply because they don’t fit into the mold of the so-called “global majority” or other identity groups favored by school leaders and consulting firms seeking to rake it in.
This narrow-minded approach not only perpetuates discrimination but also undermines the fundamental principle of equal opportunity in education.
It’s time to prioritize, I think, academic excellence for all students, particularly poor, rural students, over misguided urban identity politics and ensure that every student, regardless of their background, receives the support and resources they need to succeed and are owed.
Burning Sky is dedicated to providing critique and commentary on the issues of the day from an unapologetic perspective, fueling change in the heart of Vermont. Authored by Kolby LaMarche every Saturday.
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Categories: Commentary, Education
We just keep spending more and more to teach dummer and dummer. Feel bad for the students they not getting the moneys worth we are spending on them. Would be better keeping them in home or private schooling. We as parents are not getting what we are paying for.
Math scores in Vermont are even lower than Language Arts (Reading and Writing).
And $25K per student spending is a low-ball assessment. There are approximately 73,000 K-12 students in Vermont public and tuitioned schools. And it remains to be seen just how high the education funding will be. It was north of $2.5 Billion last year.
I hope readers are sitting down. in case you’re a Vermont high school graduate and can’t do the math, that’s over $34,000 per student.
One of the systemic problems rests with the allowed conflicts of interest in our local school boards. For example, four out of the five board members in my Westminster school district are either retired teachers, teachers in adjacent school districts, or currently employed by the same school district they manage.
These board members are allowed to do this by getting a waiver from the Agency of Education, a pass that stipulates that they will recuse themselves from voting on issues that affect them directly. To which I say: Fat Chance of that happening.
In the Cabot school district, for example, the school board chair, Ellen Cairns, is employed by the Agency of Education. Think about that. Ms. Cairns gets a waiver from the employer that allows her to serve on a school board she manages. You can’t make this stuff up.
As long as the circular benefits between teachers unions and Leftist government continues, none of this will change.
Government is, inherently, a ‘circular benefits’ organization. This is why the Founders created a constitution to limit government power. And its why Benjamin Franklin foresaw that it “can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.”
We have arrived at that point in time
“Lavish spending, lackluster results”, reads the headline. The former is correct, the “lackluster results” are not.
Almost every article I read regarding Vermont’s education system will point to its ‘lackluster results’ in reading, math, writing, etc. scores of its students. These articles begin with the premise that these academic – or cognitive – based scores are the “results” that the Vermont education system is primarily trying to achieve. It is not. The premise is wrong.
I wish I could find the exact quote among the many books on my shelf, but I will paraphrase. John Dewey, a very influential progressive educator in the early 20th century, said, ‘the purpose of education is to primarily effect the child’s consciousness’.
Call it Postmodernism, Cultural Marxism, Progressivism, the Democrat Party, etc., this ideology rejects the notion that education exists to primarily train a child’s cognitive capacity for reason. Instead, like Dewey, it believes education should imprint onto the child’s consciousness a given social identity (e.g. race, sex, sexuality, citizenship, etc.) these identities then clash for power and control (oppressors vs. oppressed).
This is why the Vermont education system is NOT producing “lackluster results” but rather are in fact achieving their desired ends, which is to:
Begin anew – at year zero – through what I call the 3D’s: Divide, Deceive, Destroy.
Mr. Licata: Indeed, ‘lackluster results’ imply that an illustrious alternative result is possible, if only the investment in the public-school monopoly can be reallocated (i.e., ‘pillow arranged’ for show) or, better still (for the monopoly, at least) increased.
It’s not that the intent of the public education monopoly isn’t as you, and others, say it is. Indeed, the purpose of the public education monopoly is the cultural shift you describe. And I suspect 99% of VDC readers (and others) get it.
What we’re struggling to figure out is how to cope with the public-school monopoly’s deception. ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’
“We continue to foster a culture of mediocrity.”
No, a culture of 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙪𝙧𝙚, not mediocrity.
“Show me the incentives, I will show you the outcome.” –Munger
What we are seeing is the outcome of incentivizing mediocrity. It really is that simple.
What an indictment ….
There are Christian schools that are 50 to 75% more affordable than government schools, but the Democrat Progressive Socialists won’t allow school choice. Mill River school district is looking at 25,000 per pupil?