MONTPELIER — For the first time, Gov. Phil Scott and his team released their education reform proposal in bill form, all 176 pages of it, for lawmakers’ consideration on Tuesday.
Among the key takeaways: significant restrictions on private schools eligible for public money, class size minimums and a mandated 3% spending cap for school districts next year.
The plan, dubbed by Scott as the “education transformation proposal,” charts a colossal restructuring of Vermont’s education governance and finance systems. Scott and Education Secretary Zoie Saunders have already announced some of the package’s boldest ideas, like consolidating Vermont’s 52 supervisory unions into only five regional school districts, paying for education using a foundation formula and stripping the State Board of Education of many of its powers.
“We can’t just make small tweaks,” Saunders told lawmakers in the House and Senate education committees on Tuesday, “We must redesign our system.”
The proposal arrives following last year’s tumultuous school budget season, as voters faced double-digit education property tax increases and rejected about a third of all school spending plans. The cost of education defined 2024’s legislative elections, fueling a Republican wave in Vermont’s House and Senate.
As pitched, the governor’s proposal seeks to save money by consolidating school districts and reducing the number of staff, all while increasing educational opportunities, according to its proponents. Scott has proposed using more than $70 million in state revenue to buy down property tax rates as the state begins transitioning to his new system. Currently, state analysts expect that without a buy down, education taxes will rise just under 6% next year given preliminary school budget information.
Now written as legislative language, the proposal’s more complete form may ease lawmakers growing impatience. As Saunders and Scott released details bit by bit in January and February, some lawmakers had become frustrated with the slow pace.
Still, two months into the legislative session, time is critical, with key deadlines fast approaching.
Some previously shared details, like the creation of an optional school choice lottery system in every district, have drawn ire, particularly from Democrats and the state’s teachers union. But Tuesday’s revelations appear to offer some conciliation to those concerned about an expansion of school choice.
In the imagined future system, every student would be assigned to a public school. High school students would have the option to enter a lottery to attend a “school choice school,” and every district would need at least one of these special public or private options.
Tuesday’s bill proposes more limits on independent schools than previously revealed. To become one of the proposed “school choice schools,” more than half of the school’s student body would need to already be publicly funded as of this summer. In practice, that means the vast majority of existing private schools would be excluded from public funding in Scott’s system. Instead, only independent schools serving a large number of local students, such as Burr and Burton Academy, would be eligible to still receive public funds.
The legislation also restricts private school choice to only grades 9-12.
Those are huge changes from Vermont’s existing system, which allows students of all grades whose districts don’t operate public schools to attend a variety of private options both near and far. Many of those schools accept only a handful of public students.
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As written, Scott’s plan would move the state to a foundation formula by fiscal year 2028, two budget cycles from now. Used in most states across the country, a foundation formula gives school districts money based on the number of students they educate. Additional money is provided for students who are more expensive to teach, like English learners and those from lower income households, a process known as “weighting.”
Next budget cycle, school spending increases would be capped at 3%, according to the bill.
Class size minimums, according to Saunders, would take effect in the 2026-2027 school year. Grades 4-12 would need average class size minimums of 25, and grades K-3 would have a required 15 student average minimum.
Despite the magnitude of the 176-page proposal, gaps remain. What, if any, exceptions would be given to new mandates? And how will the imagined future system handle career and technical education and pre-kindergarten students?
“There’s a lot here,” Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, chair of the House Education Committee, said at Tuesday’s hearing. But he called the timeline “ambitious,” especially considering “the amount of work that still remains.”
Saunders acknowledged that the proposal is a “starting point” destined to change once lawmakers weigh in. Committees will continue walking through the bill this week, with edits to follow.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Gov. Phil Scott’s ‘education transformation’ bill hits the Legislature, all 176 pages of it.