by Dr. Frank Provato
I am concerned that the proposed increases in statewide school budgets consistently exceed the Consumer Price Index, currently running at 2.7%. I plan to vote “NO” on the 5.44% proposed school budget increase in my district. I know that if enough taxpayers follow suit and repeatedly reject their school budgets, under law, on July 1st the school districts will be limited to borrowing only up to 87% of their current operating expenses until they get an approved budget. That will get their attention, once and for all.
School administrators and legislators seem to be consistently locked in a REACTIVE mode, responding to ”today’s” needs, dilemmas, and consumer sentiment, while operating under the flawed belief that some inflationary factors are “out of their control.” They should be reacting to the cries of the taxpayers, who pay their salaries, and who demand a more sustainable, long term solution to the problem.
A PROACTIVE approach would have had the Vermont Association of School Boards and Superintendents, the teachers union, the Governor, and representatives from the legislature, health insurance companies, and taxpayers gathering under at the same table years ago in a COALITION. They would have considered all the potential solutions neatly set forth in the comprehensive 2023 Legislative Joint Fiscal Office “Report on Vermont Education Financing,” and they would have hammered out a consensus solution long before now. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
As a retired primary care physician, I dedicated much of my career to helping my patients with their escalating health care costs. I see parallels between the financial dilemma in healthcare and the school budget issue. I learned that healthcare providers will never voluntarily reduce their prices or decrease utilization of services while employer-sponsored health plans and the average person buying private health insurance continue to pay the high premiums. If healthcare providers sustain losses, they know they can count on government subsidies to bail them out. Essentially, that’s how school administrators and legislators seem to approach the business of education – keep the money flowing and just nip at the edges of the problem.
More importantly, I learned that education, training, and increasing awareness alone do not change this behavior. We need strong incentives or disincentives to change the status quo. We need to make the school systems feel a little more financial pressure from the taxpayers.
If taxpayers fight back, I envision a very busy summer for school administrators, the teachers union, legislators, and the Governor, as they rush to come together in a PROACTIVE COALITION to put us on a more sustainable path before school starts in September. Who among you will bravely step up to kick this off?