By Guy Page
A bill introduced Friday by a newly-elected Republican legislator would provide all Vermont school children with school choice grants.
H.89, sponsored by Rep. Mike Tagliavia (R-Corinth), would “allow all Vermont students to attend the school of the student’s choice, paid for by a School Choice Grant issued by the Agency of Education. The School Choice Grant would be paid from the Education Fund payment otherwise due to the student’s school district of residence. This bill also proposes to require the Joint Fiscal Office to issue a report with recommendations for the integration of the school choice program into Vermont’s current education funding.”
The bill was referred to the House Education Committee.
Term limits bill coming – a bill to include Vermont in the Convention of States to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow term limits will be introduced soon in the Vermont House. Today, three Vermont residents and term limits activists met legislators at the State House.
19 states have passed a COS resolution. The U.S. Constitution requires 2/3s of the states (34) to call a constitutional convention. This year, for the first time ever, every state has some COS legislation in its legislature.
New Hampshire is scheduled to hold a hearing next Friday. Vermont COS organizer Colleen Armstrong of Georgia today told VDC she hopes to at least get a committee hearing on a bill to be introduced soon by Rep. Mark Higley (R-Lowell). Volunteer Mike Adrian of Townshend has higher hopes: “No, we want to pass it,” he said.
Madeline Kerstetter of Ira told a skeptical senator that a Convention of States would not throw open the national charter to widespread changes, but would be limited to specific agenda items, including term limits.
School boards find ‘status quo’ expensive – In a development that illustrates Vermont’s school funding crisis, maintaining the ‘status’ quo will cost one rural Vermont school district an additional $1.45 million.
The Journal-Opinion reports that the 400-student Blue Mountain Union School Board approved a 12,054,049 25-26 budget, up 14% from this year’s $10,594,007. Blue Mountain School serves students K-12 under one roof for the Orange County towns of Groton, Ryegate, and Wells River.
“We’re just trying to keep things the same as the current year,” Board Chair Kelsey Root-Winchester said in a brief telephone interview. The culprit is inflation, she said.