H.777 would gut Vermont’s ski schools — and highlights the hypocrisy of the Left.
Skiing is a big a part of the Vermont brand as maple syrup and fall foliage. Our little state produces an inordinate amount of Olympic caliber athletes, which is both a major source of local pride as well as international free media attention promoting tourism – kind of important for our economy. And a big part of this success is Vermont’s Ski Academies, such as Burke Mountain Academy, Stratton Mountain School, Killington Mountain School, and Okemo Mountain School.
A major factor in making the these independent schools such a success at turning out successful competitors is Vermont’s 150-year-old town tuitioning system, a form of school choice in which student residents of towns that do not operate a public school (between 90 and 100 of Vermont’s 252 towns) are allowed to choose whichever public or approved independent school they want to attend, and their portion of Education Fund money (just under $20,000 per year as opposed to the average $29,000 per pupil for public schools) follows them to that school. Currently, according to testimony taken in the House Education Committee, just over 100 Vermont students are choosing to attend one of these ski academies.
Having access to $20,000 a year in through the Vermont tuitioning system allows student athletes whose parents otherwise couldn’t afford to send them to an elite private school to pursue their dreams while still getting a high-quality education. For a great in depth look at this, check out Ross Powers’ recent piece about how tuitioning allowed the Vermont native to attend Stratton Mountain School, which launched his career as an Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding.
Naturally, of course, Democrats hate this and any policy that allows students to successfully escape our government-run, public school quagmire that is currently underperforming Mississippi despite bankrupting property taxpayers to cover the second most expensive per-pupil spending in the nation. Adult donors trump “the children.”
Enter H.777, a bill sponsored by House Democrats that would ban the ski academies from receiving tuitioning dollars and, another just-in-case kick to the groin, would further prohibit school boards from paying tuition to the ski academies if a family applied for a waiver. In place of tuitioning, the bill would create a “Skier Development Scholarship Fund” of $25,000 for up to twenty students. Reminder from above, currently over 100 students attend the ski academies, so this would cut the number of Vermont kids able to attend a ski school by over 80 percent.
Financially, the tuitioning system currently sends $1.9 million to ski academies ($19,000 tuition x 100 students). The Scholarship Fund of $500,000 per year would slash that by nearly 75 percent.
Rep. Emily Long (D-Newfane) commented on all this, “Does this seem like it’s opening up an opportunity for Vermont students who don’t have the financial resources to attend outside. That’s what it feels like to me!” Seriously, how big of an idiot or BS artist do you have to be to say with a straight face that cutting funding for tuitioning to these schools by 75 percent and capping the number of kids who can participate at 20 percent of current levels is “opening up opportunities” for Vermont students?
The advocates for H.777 argue, this time articulated by lead sponsor Erin Brady (D-Williston), that this would save the Education Fund $1,400,000 each year, but again they are either dishonest or stupid because the bill would fund the scholarship program with an appropriation from the sales tax which currently goes 100 percent to the Education Fund. So, no. No real savings there, just dishonest political semantics and shell games.
Moreover, as Rep. Josh Dobrovich (R-Williamstown) astutely pointed out, all of these students by definition live in tuitioning towns, and, if barred from attending Burke or Stratton, would more than likely just switch to another independent school such as Burr & Burton or St. Johnsbury Academy, where the money would follow them – to a school less suited to their abilities and ambitions. So, yeah… great use of taxpayer money!
Another “problem” Brady identified that H.777 is supposedly being introduced to solve is people moving to Vermont or within Vermont into non-operating tuitioning towns to take advantage of school choice. They are. But a few of points here:
1) Don’t we WANT young families to move to Vermont? Isn’t that what all the politicians keep telling us? We have a demographic crisis, an aging labor force, and a declining student population. If access to school choice is a policy that we know – and have evidence that Brady cites – is attracting new, young families to Vermont, shouldn’t we EXPAND IT, not kill it? The obvious answer to anyone not in the pocket of the VTNEA is YES, of course! (I will also note the Democrats didn’t have a problem with homeless people moving into Vermont to immediately take advantage of the hotel/motel program which was costing us over $50 million a year, and none of whom, as far as I am aware, every brought back a gold medal.)
2) If it is causing a financial burden to some tuitioning towns that people are moving in to access school choice, the way to solve that problem is, again, to EXPAND school choice statewide so that no Vermonter has to move in order to be able to send their child to the school the best fits their needs, be it a ski academy or to pursue any other passion, extracurricular or academic.
3) If it’s not fair that only students who live in tuitioning towns have the opportunity to use their fair share of the Education Fund to attend a ski academy (or some other independent school that is a better fit for them) – and I agree it’s not fair – then the best way to solve that is to EXPAND school choice to every town and every kid in Vermont.
Not only would Vermont kids have better opportunities to pursue their dreams, whatever they are, taxpayers could save significant money ($19,000 per pupil instead of $29,000), and – as the testimony demonstrated – we would have a proven policy that can attract young families to Vermont and keep the ones already here here. School choice for all!
Bonus video on how H.777 wouldn’t just kill the ski academies, but would end tutioning to Burr & Burton, St. Johnsbury Academy, Lyndon Institute, and probably every other independent school that currently educates tuitioning students.
Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 25 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years’ service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.