By Michael Bielawski
Lawmakers from the House and Senate education committees and the Senate Finance Committee met at the Statehouse on Wednesday to discuss the proposal by the administration to generally overhaul the current financing system.
For Vermont’s prior school year, public education costs rose 18% but taxpayers only saw 13% because temporary funds bought it down, next year those sources will not be available.
When the newly appointed Education Secretary Zoe Saunders got into the complexities of Vermont’s current education funding systems – which she emphasized is very different from other states – she suggested that an overhaul may be in order.
“So as the governor signaled in his inaugural address, he’s proposing a shift to a new funding formula,” she told lawmakers. “And the rationale for that is to really address and build upon what Vermonters value most about our education system and expand on that concept of equitable funding.”
She addressed the shortcomings of the current and convoluted system.
“We have been partnering with, education funding experts, who have experience with many different states with them, and they will attest to the fact that Vermont is very unique,” she said. “… And, the reason that it’s unique is it’s designed to promote taxpayer capacity in response to the Brigham decision.”
Cart before the horse?
Saunders said while other states clarify the amount of funds they have to work with before they discuss spending, Vermont’s system works the other way around. This means schools determine what they want, and then taxpayers via property taxes and other sources must make up the difference.
“The very simple answer is they receive what they request subject to voter approval,” Saunders explained. “That’s very different than how other states fund their education system. Most states would determine upfront, here’s the amount of funding that we have available, for education based on an understanding of how to deliver quality, and then districts would operate within those budget parameters.”
Vermont’s system puts spending first and collecting funds second.
“Within our system, a school school district will create their budget. They will look at the data. They will engage their stakeholders to identify how to build a budget to meet their needs. They will then take that to the voters. When the voters approve that amount, the state guarantees that funding.”
An unintended consequence of this system she said is when poor communities vote for less expenditures and expect their taxes to go down, they often find they still went up. Also, communities can vote for more and see taxes fall, which critics say creates a disconnect between the voter and the consequence.
“And so you’ll see that different districts will make different decisions around their budgets and, also that will translate into different per people spending, across districts,” she said.
She added, “So what we’re seeing is that our lower-income communities are relying a lot on the federal dollars to be able to supplement and provide additional resources and support.”
She noted it is not just students who see differences in education services, but staff as well. There is a “tremendous teacher pay disparity across the state” and she noted neighboring states may attract good teachers out of Vermont due in part to this situation.
She added, “Overall, there’s a lack of budgeting control for the state. So as we described, your property taxes can go up in a district that has made significant cuts or has relatively low spending just because of how they spend the dollars are cooled on chip on the entire system.
“… And I think we’ve heard that, traveling or listening or in short, it’s really hard, for, voters to understand how their vote will impact property taxes.”
This is while Vermont is seeing fewer students enroll in public schools.
“And so we have spoken about the decline in enrollment statewide,” she said. “Over the past twenty years, we’ve seen an increase of twenty percent decline in K-12 enrollment.”
The full meeting which is about one hour and 20 minutes can be seen here. The video and transcript can be found together at GoldenDomeVt.
Constituents may contact committee members (click link on name for bio, party affiliation, etc.) with comments, questions and information at the following email addresses:
House Education
Peter Conlon, Cornwall, Chair, pconlon@leg.state.vt.us
Chris Taylor, Madison, Vice Chair, cataylor@leg.state.vt.us
Erin Brady, Chittenden District 2, Chittenden District 2, Ranking Member, ebrady@leg.state.vt.us
Jana Brown, Richmond, Clerk, jbrown@leg.state.vt.us
Joshua Dobrovich, Orange-3, jdobrovich@leg.state.vt.us
Leanne Harple, Orleans 4, lharple@leg.state.vt.us
Robert Hunter, Bennington-4, rhunter@leg.state.vt.us
Emily Long, Burlington, elong@leg.state.vt.us
Kate McCann, Washington-4, kmccann@leg.state.vt.us
Beth Quimby, Caledonia-3, bquimby@leg.state.vt.us
Casey Toof, St. Albans City, ctoof@leg.state.vt.us
Senate Education
Seth Bongartz, Manchester, Chair, sbongartz@leg.state.vt.us
David Weeks, Proctor, Vice Chair, dweeks@leg.state.vt.us
Kesha Ram Hinsdale, Montpelier, kraminsdale@leg.state.vt.us
Nader Hashim, Windham, nhashim@leg.state.vt.us
Terry Williams, Clerk, tkwilliams@leg.state.vt.us
Steven Heffernan, Addison, sheffernan@leg.state.vt.us
All committee transcripts are available at www.goldendomevt.com. Committee meeting video available at the committee’s YouTube channel. The committee meets in the morning in Room 8.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle