Legislature discuss bypassing recalcitrant school voters, allowing school boards to impose budgets
By Guy Page
The House Ways and Means and Education committees heard a plan this morning, Friday April 26, to allow local school boards to impose a ‘default’ school budget after the first three proposed budgets have been rejected by voters.
“There is something, sort of, you know, that might tend towards anti-democratic about this,” Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, Chair of Ways & Means, admitted as she began committee discussion after the two committees reviewed details of the Legislature’s latest plan to secure school funding amid a property taxpayer revolt.
The draft plan was discussed a day after hundreds of Vermonters rallied at the Vermont State House Thursday to protest increased taxation, and four days before another 11 school districts will vote on revised school budgets turned down at Town Meeting amid taxpayer dissatisfaction about a proposed 20% property tax increase.
A total of 33 school districts voted down budgets at Town Meeting. To date, 13 of the 15 revised budgets also have been rejected. (See table below.) The House passed H.887 this week raise property taxes 15-18%, create two new taxes, and not cut spending, It’s now in the Senate.
The Ways and Means plan does not have a bill number yet, and may be inserted into an existing miscellaneous education bill. But ‘draft 1.1’ was discussed in Ways & Means and is published on the Vermont Legislature’s website.
“If a school district budget for the support of schools for fiscal year 2025 has not been approved after at least three votes by the district’s electorate, a school board may vote to recommend a proposed default budget,” the draft states.
Current law allows school districts to borrow up to 87% of the current year budget, while continuing to present budgets until voters finally pass one.
The draft describes how:
The dollar amount of the imposed budget will be determined, using terms like “long-term weighted membership” and “equivalent yield” that have been proven difficult for lawmakers and professional educators to explain and understand. House Education Committee chair Peter Conlon clarified that the imposed ‘default budget’ would be a dollar figure “below which, if further cuts occurred, it really wouldn’t make any difference to the tax rate.”
The draft states – “The proposed default budget shall be the district’s long-term weighted membership multiplied by the fiscal year 2025 property dollar equivalent yield, plus the amount of other State categorical aid funds the district is entitled to that would not be included in the district’s education spending.”
The budget will be approved by school board, and not voters:
“The vote to recommend a proposed default budget shall occur at an open meeting and the board shall prepare and distribute to the electorate, not 13 less than ten days prior to the vote, a copy of the proposed default budget.
Business managers and superintendents will approve budget accuracy:
“In conducting the Review, the Secretary of Education shall select three business managers and three superintendents to serve in an advisory role in the Review. The Review shall confirm the district’s default budget was calculated accurately. The Secretary shall issue a written confirmation to the school board if the default budget is confirmed or shall issue a notice of corrected default budget, with accompanying calculations, if the Review determines the default budget was not calculated correctly.”
After the committees reviewed the draft, Kornheiser conceded upfront it might not be well-received by school budget voters. And if so, the axe could fall on the school boards.
“There is something, sort of, you know, that might tend towards anti-democratic about this, I can see that, there’s also the fact that voters voted this school board in and can vote this school board out, so there is still sort of that accountability there,” Kornheiser said.
Rep. Julia Andrews (D-Westford) of Ways and Means expressed concern about losing voter trust if imposed budgets come in higher than the budgets rejected by voters – something the legislative counsel at the meeting agreed could happen.
“So I think potentially, we run the risk if we’re imposing a higher budget that was voted down, of further eroding the trust in the communities,” Andrews said. She suggested offering a choice between the newly computed default budget and the last rejected budget, “whichever is lower.”
Ways & Means kicked around the idea of taking budgets away from voters after a certain date, rather than after a certain number of votes. To Rep. Curt Taylor (D-Colchester), the important thing wasn’t how the decision is taken from voters, but that at some point, it needs to happen.
“Whichever method we choose, I think it’s important that there needs to be a real end point where you say at this point the voters are no longer involved….where the voters have had as much chance as they can, and the school board needs to take over. Otherwise it keeps going on forever,” Taylor said.
Kornheiser said she would float the imposed budget idea past “the field,” legislative shorthand for the professional education groups like the Vermont School Board Association, and organizations representing superintendents and teachers. If it’s deemed to have merit, it will be inserted into one of several current ‘miscellaneous education’ bills.
| School District | Town Meeting Vote | Revote |
| Alburgh | No | May 7 |
| Fairfax | No | No |
| Georgia | No | No |
| Holland | No | April 30 |
| Milton | No | No |
| Rutland Town | No | April 30 |
| St. Johnsbury | No | No |
| South Burlington | No | No |
| South Hero | No | May 14 |
| Springfield | No | No |
| Barstow UUSD (Chittenden, Mendon) | No | April 30 |
| Otter Valley UUSD (Brandon, others) | No | April 30 |
| Addison Northwest USD (Vergennes, others) | No | April 30 |
| Champlain Valley USD (Williston, Shelburne, others) | No | Yes |
| Lamoille North MUSD A (Cambridge, Johnson, others) | No | No |
| Harwood UUSD (Waitsfield, Duxbury others) | No | April 30 |
| Mt. Abraham USD (Bristol, others) | No | No |
| Kingdom East USD (Lyndonville, Burke, others) | No | No |
| Paine Mountain (Northfield/Williamstown) SD | No | Yes |
| Montpelier Roxbury School District | No | April 30 |
| Green Mountain USD (Andover, Chester, others) | No | No |
| Ludlow – Mt. Holly UUSD | No | No |
| Champlain Islands UUSD (Most Grand Isle towns) | No | April 30 |
| Slate Valley UUSD (Castleton, Fair Haven, Poultney) | No | No |
| Enosburgh-Richford UUSD | No | April 30 |
| Washington Central USD (Berlin, Middlesex, others) | No | May 7 |
| Missisquoi Valley School Distrist | No | April 30 |
| Elmore-Morristown UUSD | No | No |
| Barre UUSD | No | May 14 |
| Northern Mountain Valley UUSD (Berkshire, others) | No | April 30 |
| Caledonia Cooperative School District (Barnet, Walden, Waterford) | No | May 7 |
| Rivendell Interstate School District (RISD) | No | May 18 |
| Essex-Westford school district | No | May 7 |
Categories: Education, Legislation
And now we get to see how Montpelier has been operating all along.
Don’t get in the way of their plan, they will run you over, just like all good Marxist, some pigs are more equal than others. Any you voters are not as equal.
Marxism purposely uses the word democracy, because they know a democracy is an unstable form of government, to which they take the instability and install their “democratic administrator” to do the bidding of the government.
Who elected the democratic administrators, who carry the full effect of law by anything they write” …..the government officials of course.
Hope you enjoy eating bugs, owning nothing and being a slave to the state. Even the early Roman empire that enslaved 33% of their people didn’t tax as much as Vermont.
Our schools don’t educate about civics, so we think this is “normal”…….it is normal if you call color revolutions standard operating procedure.
they are going to get their money from you one way or another, power and money are their currency.
See what we get when we unleash an administrative state to run our lives for us…with our own confiscated funds. Will the coming revolution will be tax refusal?
This is ludicrous!!!
How about some FREEDOM and UNITY?
You can’t dictate unity and freedom is disappearing too.
What?? That’s a bold step! They better watch out people don’t start not paying their taxes in protest!!! I see that coming!!
“…NOT PAYING THEIR TAXES…” Well there we have it. Grass roots resistance to tyranny. Maybe we organize a tea [tax bill] party on the lake.
That is what needs to happen. Unfortunately, not enough people are willing to stand! Just follow like “good little citizens” while mumbling in the background how unfair and expensive things around us are.
Wake up, stand up, do not shut up!
#ISTAND
Difficult to do. A majority of residential property owners with mortgages have escrow accounts for property tax and other expenses. Banks and lenders are unlikely to withhold those tax monies.
Interesting that rumors of former governor Howard Dean contemplating running for governor again. Unfortunately he may have the power within his party to restore sanity to this band of marxist legislators. A truly disparaging turn of events.
We too have a duty to vote- and rally other agnostic voters into action in November.
Frank, when Howard Dean was governor, I had the opportunity to meet with him to discuss the policies he believed met the needs of Vermont’s businesses. Please believe me when I tell you that Howard Dean doesn’t get it. He has no idea how free markets work. Not an inkling.
I did it already…….join me.
Mr.Eshelman, howard dean may think of himself as savior of Vermont’s reckless spending and the perfect replacement for phil scott- but I assure all that dean’s decades entrenched in DNC leadership politics make him a dangerous choice- should he run. I am certain that Vermont is a beta test for marxist policies and politics, with current legislative leadership enthusiastic accomplices.
dean, if he ran would defeat scott and cement marxist/socialist policy for generations- until the money runs out.
I hope if dean runs, voters remember they were warned.
This is a run-away train of abuses and usurpations with no caboose. Vote them out.
If no righteous candidate is running against a tyrannical incumbent, write in a name. Do not leave your ballot blank so your ballot is not rejected as “incomplete”.
“…write in a name…” to protest their intrusive taxation? WellAlrightAlrightAlright. Lets all do the same name and make a splash.
Think up some names folks…maybe the Green Pimpernel.
This is a new low for our legislators. They are plotting to take away the only way we have of voicing our displeasure over the mess they have made of our state. The only power we had was voting on the school budget and it appears we are about to lose it. We cannot allow this to happen and the time to call your representative is now. We need to get back to local control because obviously those we voted into office don’t give a rat’s butt about the taxpayer. Yup…they are scraping below rock bottom on this one and if we allow it – we deserve what we get. Remember this at re-election time.
And that is precisely why Vermont was founded as a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy.
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!“
Yuppers !! Time for a total TAX REVOLT !!
“Legislature discusses bypassing recalcitrant school voters, allowing school boards to impose budgets” Wouldn’t that not be “taxation against representation”? To me that would be even more egregious than taxation without representation,wouldit not ?
Take Back Vermont !
I want names. Who, specifically, came up with this bright idea – and who is buying into it?
Well now, taxation without representation. This takes us back a few years. However at least they are showing their true colors now. They have absolutely no intention of representing the electorate, but to bully and cajole us into compliance like defiant school children. History didn’t fare well for traitors or dictatoral types 200 years ago nor most likely will it fare well for them now. Remember your places those under the golden dome. Your magnificence is tarnished. Mend your ways and return to your sworn duty to uphold the Constitution and represent “We the People”.
Sounds as if the legislature does not want the “unenlightened” voters making such decisions. They may just want us to pay our taxes and be glad we have legislators and school boards who do the heavy lifting of determining what tax payers can afford.
Perhaps a large number of disenchanted voters and tax payers would move to other states that do not believe I bleeding the tax payers.
That day may be sooner than they think. One way to solve the housing crisis! People move out of state! (Not so) brilliant!
Speaking of taxes, working people are taxed on their income. Businesses are taxed on profit. These two situations of taxation happen after your money has already been taxed. Your property taxes are taken from the money you already paid taxes on. Then everything you buy is taxed and that tax is taken from money that you already paid taxes on. After all this taxation, the state says they need more taxes. They also collect about 30% of their budgets from the federal government from taxes you paid to the IRS. You are paying double and triple taxes on the same money.
After going to the store one day, I looked at the receipt and realized that I had purchased paper towels and toilet paper. It was then that I realized that I couldn’t even wipe my counter tops or my butt without the state getting their cut in a tax. Now imagine all of the state proceeds from all these double and triple tax schemes, but it’s never enough. People are programed to only look at their net amount on their paycheck. Start looking at what they take out before you get to pay all the other taxes, they have devised to make the government bigger. Has big government helped you? Remember it was Ronald Reagan that said the most terrifying words you will ever hear are, “I’m from the government and here to help. Pay your taxes, big brother is working for you. Strange how they can never cut the fat out of a budget or dis continue a worthless program. Oh well, they have you as their money machines. Just keep paying or maybe vote different!
When the king of England imposed this type of democracy there was a lot of tea floating in Boston Harbor
And, of course, there is always the lingering memory of burnt black powder smoke drifting across Lexington Green on an chill April morning…
Several parts of this discussion held by the Ways & Means Committee would be laughable if the entire situation were not so dangerous. “Rep. Julia Andrews (D-Westford) of Ways and Means expressed concern about losing voter trust if imposed budgets come in higher than the budgets rejected by voters – something the legislative counsel at the meeting agreed could happen. Seriously? They are worried that they will lose “VOTER TRUST”…..Oh Ms. Andrews….that ship sailed long ago! But as evidenced by the “yea, that could happen” response…. they don’t even care! And my personal favorite….”Kornheiser said she would float the imposed budget idea past “the field,” legislative shorthand for the professional education groups like the Vermont School Board Association, and organizations representing superintendents and teachers. If it’s deemed to have merit, it will be inserted into one of several current ‘miscellaneous education’ bills.” Because, you know that the professional education groups aren’t going to oppose a plan giving them more power than the voting public. But by having the education groups have the last say…it takes the heat off the W & MC. And don’t you just love the move of hiding the “plan” in a miscellaneous education bill? Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky…..shame on the Vermont legislators supporting this! VERMONT DESERVES BETTER.
Progressives are so predictable. They shout/scream/stamp their feet when the democratic process doesn’t give them the results that they want. “There is something, sort of, you know, that might tend towards anti-democratic about this…” – Rep. Emilie Kornheiser Really? Allowing the Citizens of Vermont to vote on their choices is “anti-democratic”?? Remember all of this the next time you hear these Do-as-I-say-Not-As-I-Do rulers that call out the “Threats to democracy!”
I know quite a few Vermont Democrats who still value the traditional meaning of democracy. I hope they are paying attention to what the people they elected to represent them are doing to their rights.
There is still no reduction in spending proposed. They are simply seeking another way to finance their bloated school system. School budgets should be based on “need” from year to year. Instead they have a guaranteed increase of funding based on the assessed value of my home. How do you square that circle?
Taxpayer disgust is understandable. But ranting and raving does little. Isn’t it finally time to take action?
There is a reasonable recourse to this tyranny. Elect a local slate of sympathetic school board directors, close the existing public school, and tuition the students to whatever alternatives are available. One of those alternatives may be reopening the pre-existing public school as an independent academy.
Consider the North Bennington Village School, a pre-K through grade six independent school “town academy” located in North Bennington, Vermont. It serves 150 students.
“The Village School was founded in 2013 as the successor to the public school operated in North Bennington for generations. The transition from a public school to a publicly funded, private academy was approved three times by votes of the community prior to approval by the Vermont Board of Education.
The North Bennington Graded School had been the pride of the village since the 19th century. Its pupils consistently scored higher by all measures than most other schools in the state, and it was widely recognized as an outstanding public school. Why, then, would the village vote to close it and replace the public school with a private academy?
The answer, ironically, was to preserve the outstanding qualities of the school. Statewide pressures to consolidate school districts led the elected school trustees to explore independence as an alternative.
Residents in North Bennington Graded School District now enjoy school choice for the elementary grades. Resident children can attend the Village School without cost, or public tuition is portable to certain other private schools. Overwhelmingly residents have chosen the Village School. Non-resident children may attend the school by paying tuition.”
Not only do Bennington students enjoy School Choice, the cost per student is half that of the public-school monopoly and student outcomes are exemplary.
“Students benefit from real-world learning experiences and a hands-on approach that increases student engagement, positive student outcomes and community impact, while promoting academic and intellectual rigor and active, responsible citizenship. At the same time, we recognize the needs, ideas and contributions of each individual child.”
Does this sound like what your Marxist legislators have in mind for your local public-school monopoly? I didn’t think so.
What happened to the authority to borrow a percentage of the last voted and approved budget until a new vote approves a new budget. 87% of last year sounds like the beginning of actual budget reductions.
when you decide not to pay your property taxes , you may want to talk to the banker, if you have one, that holds the bank note on your house//// they may have a problem with your idea///
HOW DARE THEY!!! This is so typical of these tyrannical marxists!! They completely disregarded the People on S5, “more communication than on any other piece of legislation”, it was said by many of the *supposed* representatives. Yet they voted YES anyway. Here again, the PEOPLE say NO and they circumvent OUR VOICE, (you know, THE PEOPLE they are supposes to LISTEN TO and **REPRENSENT**) and slap us in the face!!! Infuriating!!!!!
“There is something, sort of, you know, that might tend towards anti-democratic about this,” Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, GEEZ, YA THINK?????????
“Rep. Julia Andrews (D-Westford) of Ways and Means expressed concern about losing voter trust” OH NO Honey, that ship sailed LONG AGO! We know what kind of moral busybodies you all are. And we are disgusted. YOU DO ZERO GOOD under the golden dome. In fact, you have harmed Vermont and the People beyond measure.
You are just feeding your own egos.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. ” CS Lewis
I wonder what is in the tea leaves when the numbers role in for Homestead Property Tax Credit filings? If household incomes are stagnant or disappeared (as many have since the scamdemic) with rising tax rates, is Vermont poised to further pillage the rich towns to pay the ever increasing poor towns? Is this how they are implementing the wealth tax? It seems to me more individuals would qualify for higher credits more than before? According to the 2022 US Census – the average VT individual income reportedly 34K and households at $68K. Other figures vary some, but doesn’t reflect average VT households are making a good money. The cut off credit amount is household income of $128K? Something seems way out of whack in the numbers game under the Golden Thunder Dome.
These school budgets should be looked at line by line by someone who will report to the taxpayers. In South Burlington some are lamenting that the High School may have to drop languages, Japanese and German. How many students will actually benefit from learning these languages? Seems a waste of funds to me.
Fandagny, what would you like to know?
There are 20 pages of financial information in my school district’s Pk thru 8th grade $5.2 million school budget serving fewer than 200 students. There are 700 spending line items. And we typically have 10 days to review the budget submitted to us for approval. We have approximately 60 staff – teachers, student interventionists, counsellors, para-educators, a principal with administrative staff, and so forth.
One of the larger (most expensive) line items is the allocation of funds to our supervisory union office. It has more than 50 staff, from superintendent, business manager, administrative staff, to bus drivers.
Keep in mind that the last time I rose to speak at our annual meeting (called to approve the school budget) to ask questions and request more time to discuss the line-item allocations, I was prevented from speaking by the attending electorate which consisted primarily of teachers, social workers, school administrators, and their families. That was several years ago, and I stopped going to town-meeting. What was the point.
And, as a former school board director, I can assure you that it doesn’t matter what the electorate prefers for curricula spending. Once a budget is approved, the school board (typically at the direction of the principal and superintendent), can spend the budget monies any way they choose to do so. In fact, some budget line items are vaguely described for the purpose of padding the budget to have extra monies available for use not previously considered.
This is the nature of a monopoly. And the only way to resolve the issues we continue to confront, now being foisted on us in spades, is to end the monopoly. It’s not the teachers, or the teacher’s union, or the Superintendent’s association, or the Principal’s association, or the Vermont School Board Association, or the Agency of Education, that are problematic. It’s THE SYSTEM, and the absence of free market alternatives.
In short, the Vermont public education system is nothing less than a criminal racketeering scheme, breaching every anti-trust statute on the books. The conflict of interest in our school boards, and in the legislature, is rampant. And they are all being compensated for their participation in the racket, or they are being threatened by it.
Again, the ONLY way to correct this injustice and improve education is to eliminate the monopoly.
I was required to take French or Spanish. I never had a reason to use it and lost it. The problem is school curriculums today are basically as useless as decades ago. They only teach what keeps the populace ignorant, obedient, and compliant. As you research the industry behind education and who controls it – the same entities that control every thing else in our daily lives. College text books that are required – see how they change an edition by rearranging chapters, add some miniscule updated text, then raise the price $20.00 for the next term. It is a for-profit industry and it is an industry the corporation installed a long time ago by design. Carry on!
This is the epitome of tyranny. In other words, the Vermont legislature has effectively proclaimed: “You don’t get it peons, your elections and your votes are now MEANINGLESS & FUTILE. WE will enact whatever changes we wish as an authoritative government posing as a legislative body comprised of, by, & for the people.”
This is entirely unconstitutional and requires immediate and massive and collective condemnation and rebellion. Shhhhh……Do I hear the VT GOP and their legions of GOP candidates confronting this lawlessness? No. Never mind.
My wife’s response to this was ‘this is like in Ossieland’ – the former East Germany, where over half her aunts, uncles and cousins were subjected to the tyranny of Erich Honecker and his Stasi goons.
I certainly can’t disagree.
you should have been involved in that take back vermont movement/// i believe there are still signs stored some where/// that movement was much bigger than queer marriage/// now you can see the results of a criminal government////
I remember Take Back Vermont myself. I actually thought back then that people were too wired about nothing. Boy, was I wrong! I didn’t see the Commies coming back then, and here they are.
Take Back Vermont
Kneel and bow your head to your rulers. Praise them, love them, thank them for ruling you. Obedience without question is your future now. That is unless you actually listen to your founding fathers and use your liberty to protect your liberty and feee yourselves of these slave owners.
the problem with take back vermont now is many of the people back then are now dead/////
i made a phone call and there are take back vermont signs in a warehouse in vermont///////////