Dover and Wilmington release education study

For immediate release
Jan. 23, 2012

Contact
Laura Sibilia
Phone: 802.384.0233
lhsibilia@gmail.com

A study released today raises serious questions about the local impacts of Vermont’s education finance system on smaller towns and schools. The southern Vermont towns of Dover and Wilmington have contracted with Northern Economic Consulting (NEC) to ask why some schools continue to fall behind in programming equity despite successful efforts to achieve educational financing equity.

The NEC report looked at several economic and equity measures. The most significant findings are:

1. The same school tax rate does not buy an equal educational opportunity for all Vermont students.
2. Since 1997/98, national per pupil spending has risen 30 percent. During that same period of time, Vermont per pupil spending has risen 60 percent.
3. Student performance has not improved against national standards when comparing similar demographics.

Leaders of the towns want the Vermont General Assembly to discuss how to refocus on providing and funding equal educational opportunities statewide.

“We are hoping to spur a discussion in the legislature about a programmatic definition of equal education opportunity,” said Laura Sibilia, vice chair of the Dover school board and spokesperson for the towns. “We want to agree on what must be provided to all schools so that they may offer that educational opportunity. We want a system that provides Vermont taxpayers with an accounting of how their dollars are being spent.”

Sibilia said the towns are hoping that the legislature can study how best to define equal educational opportunity by assuring that all school districts are able to provide similar educational services. Rep. Ann Manwaring, D-Wilmington, plans to introduce legislation this week asking the legislature to consider the issue.

Based on town and committee deliberations, legislation sponsored by Rep. Manwaring and Rep. John Moran, D- Wardsboro, will propose the legislature conduct a study to do the following:

1. Define what is a necessary education for all Vermont students and what services and extracurricular activities are necessary to provide that education.
2. Establish a uniform code of account for all school budgets that establishes how total state education dollars are spent and creates a system of accountability for outcomes.
3. Establish a funding mechanism that assures all districts are financially able to fund the same equal educational opportunity for students.

“We must create a system that can measure equal educational and extracurricular opportunity by program and across districts,” Sibilia said.

Sibilia said the study and the efforts by the two towns are NOT an attack on the central tenets of Act 60/68, Vermont’s education finance law. “We’ve equalized the tax rate and per pupil spending,” Sibilia said, “now we need to look at what the spending is buying and see if it is equitable for all students.”

“The current education funding system has affected school districts differently,” she said. “To be sure, it has benefited a number of small, property-poor districts and we are glad to see this. But we believe these smaller districts are still at a disadvantage in comparison to larger districts. We are hoping to have a discussion around a more thoughtful system that measures educational equality and assures that the core of the Supreme Court’s Brigham v. State decision is being upheld – that each child has access to equal educational opportunities.”

The study can be viewed at: www.wilmingtonvermont.us or www.doververmont.com