The problem is a too-powerful teachers union and their political allies.

by Rob Roper

For the past two years Vermont politicians have been telling Vermont property taxpayers that they heard us after 2024 and are working to reform our education system to provide property tax relief. It’s not happening. The debate today as we close out the 2026 legislative session is whether to pay for 4%-plus increase in spending – bringing the six year increase up to about 45 percent for a total $2.5 billion budget serving less than 80,000 kids – with a 12 percent property tax increase (no general fund buydown), a 7 percent property tax increase (House plan), or a 3.6 percent property tax increase (Senate plan). Whatever happens, it’s just rearranging even more sacks of our money on the deck of the Titanic.

What nobody wants to recognize, or admit, or deal with is the fact that the root problem we face here is that we are pouring unsustainable amounts of cash into a system run by people who are either grossly incompetent or unabashedly corrupt. Possibly both. They need to be removed, or at least politically declawed.

I have pointed out repeatedly in these pages that Vermont students now score worse than those in Mississippi, which spends less than half per pupil than we do, and our national test scores are falling faster than any other state. But this morning I decided to have some fun with spreadsheets to really illustrate the national scope of this fiscal and educational failure.

Looking at 2024 data (the latest I could find that were complete for all subjects) comparing dollars spent to outcomes achieved, here are some tidbits worth noting. First, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, Vermont spent $30,137 per pupil for the 2023-24 school year – more than any other state but one (New York). The national average was $17,644. Our test scores? Well, they suck.

Breaking things down state by state, eighteen states spent less than Vermont per pupil, yet their students outscored ours in every single NAEP metric – across the board wipeout for 4^th grade math, 4^th grade reading, 8^th grade math, and 8^th grade reading. Seven more states, while spending less than Vermont, outscored us in three out of those four categories. (Note: since 2023-4 Vermont’s scores have dropped further down the national ratings, so for today these comparisons are low. Mississippi, as mentioned before, now outscores us whereas in 2023-4 they were still slightly behind.)

And it’s not like these states are spending a little less than we are. The average spending difference between Vermont and the states running the table on us is $12,369 per child. Yup, you read that right. States whose schools are are doing a better job of educating their children in every measured category are doing so for an average of $12,369 LESS than we are spending for the poorer outcomes. Let that sink in.

Idaho, a rural state with a small population like Vermont, spent the least amount per student in the country at $11,167 — $18,970 per pupil LESS THAN Vermont – and still managed to outscore Vermont 216 to 213, 238 to 235, 261 to 257, and 278 to 276 on 4^th grade math, 4^th grade reading 8^th grade math and 8^th grade reading respectively. Utah, for just $132 per student more that Idaho and $18,838 less than Vermont, scored even better!

The only state that spent more that we did, New York at $30,924, has – wait for it – even crappier scores that we do! Not a whole lot worse, but worse. They beat us in 4^th grade reading by two points, tied us in 8^th grade reading, and we took them in math. So, don’t let anyone tell you that lack of money is the problem. Don’t buy the nonsense that we can’t cut spending — and do so substantially — on our public education system because it will harm the children. That the best we can do is “bend the upward curve.” Because the evidence is there that getting much better results for significantly less cost is possible. It’s happening in all these states.

It is not that we are spending too little – that our property taxes aren’t high enough, or we aren’t taxing the right people the right way in order to keep the money hydrant spewing – our problem is that the teachers unions, the principals association, and the superintendents association, and the politicians allied with these special interests, are wasting our money, mismanaging our schools, ripping off taxpayers, and cheating our children out of the high quality education they deserve.

That is what has to change.

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