by Rob Roper
The Democrat/Progressive supermajorities that voted to override Governor Scott’s vetoes of laws that resulted in the massive property tax bills most Vermonters are receiving this month are now spinning the line that they did the responsible – nay courageous — thing by kicking the can down the road and appointing yet another panel of (mostly) unelected so-called experts to do yet another study to come up with a “real” solution this time. Really. Eventually. Maybe. Or not.
This new high-falutinly named “Commission on the Future of Public Education” is made of thirteen supposed saviors of our homesteads from tax foreclosure. But who are these people really? For the overwhelming part, they are a collection of the very special interests who have thwarted meaningful education finance reform at every turn for years, and who have every incentive to keep the money spigot open as wide as it can go for as long as possible. This veritable who’s who of what my friend John McClaughry termed “The Blob” for its propensity to devour every revenue source in its path is:
- Jeff Fannon, Executive Director of the Vermont National Education Association (the Teachers’ Union). Yeah. No help there.
- Jeff Francis, who until a month ago was Executive Director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, but on this committee is representing the Vermont Principals’ Association. Lifetime hired gun for The Blob.
- Michael Leichliter, a superintendent himself is on to officially do the bidding of the Vermont Superintendents Association.
- Elizabeth Jennings, President of Vermont Association of School Business Officials (VASBO), aka the public-school administrative bureaucracy.
- Nicole Mace, former Executive Director and General Counsel for Vermont School Boards Association (VSBA) is back to protect the interests of that special interest.
- John Castle, another former superintendent now serving as Executive Director of the Vermont Rural Education Collaborative, which on its website lists its mission as “collective advocacy for sound educational public policy and funding,” so don’t look for and recommendations of frugality coming from that corner!
- Megan Roy, yet another former superintendent now with the Census Based Funding Advisory Group, which was the lead policy advisory organization behind the disastrous pupil weighting law that in great part was responsible for the rapid increase in spending that led to this lates round of stratospheric property tax increases. No more advice from you, please!
That’s seven. Out of thirteen. So, a majority of the Commission is made up of solid lobbyists for the tax and spend status quo. None of these people has any interest in curtailing spending on pre-k 12. Quite the opposite.
Putting two more thumbs on the scale, the two legislator members of the Commission are Representative Peter Conlon (D-Cornwall) and Senator Ann Cummings (D-Washington), both of whom vote in lockstep with the above listed special interests. Conlon, who chairs the House Education Committee that oversees the policies that led us to where we are now, said at one point during this debate, “Vermonters want an education that is somewhat costly.” Yeah, sure. Thank you, sir, may I have another!
So that’s nine out of thirteen.
Rounding out the team are the new Interim Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders, Tax Commissioner Craig Bolio, Oliver Olsen from the Vermont Independent Schools Association and a former Independent Representative from Jamacia, and the Chair of the State Board of Education, Jennifer Deck-Samuelson.
Of these four, Deck-Samuelson is a wildcard and the remaining three – out of thirteen – could potentially bring some commonsense recommendations to the proceedings. Where they will be summarily ignored by the supermajority of special interests just as quickly as the legislative supermajorities ignored the Governor’s vetoes of the bills that got us where we are in the first place.
So, in conclusion, this Commission is a farce, and let’s not pretend for the next year and a half that it’s going to do or recommend anything that will lower Vermonters’ education tax burden or reform our schools to do a better overall job of educating our kids for a price tag that’s more in line with what the rest of the country pays for quality student outcomes. Its real mission is to make sure none of that happens.
Rob Roper is a freelance writer who has been involved with Vermont politics and policy for over 20 years. This article reprinted with permission from Behind the Lines: Rob Roper on Vermont Politics, robertroper.substack.com