by Jack Valley

[Editor’s note: the following letter has been sent by the author to legislators and school officials.]

I am writing to you today not just as a frustrated taxpayer, but as a resident deeply concerned about the survival of Colchester and Vermont’s working middle class.

The current trajectory of our education spending is mathematically unsustainable, and the taxpayers of Colchester are tired of being the financial shock absorbers for Montpelier’s refusal to enact structural reform. We’re not delivering better outcomes for our kids — we’re delivering bigger paychecks, fatter pensions, and more power to administrators and unions.

The numbers don’t lie:

• Vermont has lost 25,000+ students since 2005 (98,000 down to ~73,000), yet we’re staring down another double-digit property tax hike for 2026-2027. Families are leaving the state…..
  • Utilizing the general fund helps but it’s a band-aid approach. 
• True statewide per-pupil spending now exceeds $27,000 per actual kid — with zero improvement in math or reading scores.
• Colchester runs somewhat efficiently with 2,119 real students and a ~$65 million budget — yet Act 127 and the statewide Education Fund force us to subsidize the waste everywhere else.

Subsidizing the State’s “Ghost Towns” Since 2005, Vermont has lost over a quarter of its public school students (dropping from around 98,000 to roughly 73,000). Yet, Colchester’s enrollment has remained incredibly stable. Because we all share a state checkbook through the Education Fund, Colchester taxpayers are absorbing double-digit tax hikes to heat, plow, and staff half-empty buildings in rural counties that have lost 40% of their students but flat-out refuse to consolidate.

The Administrative Bloat (52 for 73k) Vermont currently educates roughly 73,000 students statewide. In states like Utah or South Carolina, a student body of that size is managed by a single county school district with ONE Superintendent, ONE HR department, and ONE central office. In Vermont, we are paying the six-figure salaries and gold-plated benefits of 52 different Superintendents and 52 separate central offices to manage that exact same number of students. We are funding a bloated corporate bureaucracy that other states manage at a fraction of the cost.

The “Phantom Student” on Ballots. Colchester voters see a “per-pupil cost” of ~$14,391. This is not local math — it’s state-mandated. Our actual cost per real child approaches $25-29,000. While most states use weighted pupil formulas internally for fair funding, they transparently show taxpayers the true cost per actual student. Vermont does not. State law inflates Colchester’s pupil count by over 1,500 “phantom” students, hiding the real price tag so sticker shock never hits.

Chittenden County Is Carrying the State Our county represents about 26% of Vermont’s population yet generates a wildly disproportionate share of sales tax and rooms-and-meals tax revenue—all funneled into the $2.2+ billion Education Fund. Through Act 127’s equity penalties and Common Level of Appraisal adjustments, we are now being legally penalized for having stable property values and a strong middle class. We are already subsidizing the rest of the state through commerce—now our home equity is being extracted too.

The Solution: Free-Market Consolidation (Money Follows the Child) If Montpelier refuses to force the consolidation of its 52 redundant Supervisory Unions (which independent analysts estimate could save the state over $300 million annually), then we need to introduce free-market accountability.

Ironically, Vermont invented this solution in 1869: Town Tuitioning. We must return to Universal School Choice. Let the state funding physically follow the child. If a school is failing and half-empty, let the parents take their tax dollars to a better district. This will force natural consolidation. Failing, bloated administrative districts will go bankrupt organically when parents leave, and efficient, well-run districts like Colchester will be rewarded.

My Ask: I am officially requesting that our local and state leaders transparently quote “weighted” accounting fictions. We demand a freeze on all non-classroom administrative hiring statewide, and we demand that Montpelier enact Universal School Choice so our tax dollars actually follow our children, not empty buildings. Until this structural theft ends, I will be urging every neighbor in Colchester to vote NO on any budget that sustains this broken system. The middle class is leaving. Our towns are dying. Fix it now or own the collapse.

The author is a Colchester resident.