Editor’s note: This oped is by Armando Vilaseca, the Vermont Commissioner of Education.
Recently, our legislators passed and our governor signed Act 68, also known as Challenges for Change, which required a reduction in state spending, paired with improved outcomes. In the legislation, I was required to make recommendations on how these savings and outcomes could be achieved.
My recommendation to meet this reduction was to require school district consolidation using existing supervisory union boundaries and to increase our adult-to-student ratio. I believe these recommendations met the requirements of the legislation, both fiscal and educational. For years I and previous commissioners have advocated reducing the number of school districts, in order to improve both the administrative functions of our schools and the personnel efficiencies that are the major cost drivers of our school budgets. I am disappointed to see that some are still insisting that the status quo is acceptable, given the economic climate and the increased demands on our schools.
However, I do not believe that a mandatory school merger is the only way to proceed. I have gone on record supporting voluntary school district mergers that include incentives for school districts to merge and disincentives for those who choose not to merge. The best chance we have of accomplishing this is a bill that is currently being reviewed by our legislators, H. 782.
This bill would provide districts several years to merge, and has incentives built in to encourage voluntary school district mergers. With some adjustments, I believe this bill would provide voters the time they need to evaluate their options and decide as a community what direction their district should take.
As a 30-year educator in Vermont who has worked in both large and small districts in rural and suburban areas, I have seen firsthand how well our schools educate our students. I have also seen how inefficient we are in the organization of our school districts. This inefficiency is magnified by the fact that our student population continues to decline. While the student population was decreasing over the last decade, the number of school staff was increasing. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main culprits is our current school governance system of 280 school districts. This cumbersome system causes duplication of services and programs, which in turn raises the cost of education. We cannot continue this trend and still provide our students with the quality education we have come to expect.
Our students perform very well in all national and international comparisons. In fact, recently Vermont was first in the nation in eighth grade math and second in the nation in fourth grade math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is the only test allows comparison of students to those of other states and countries. This success is a direct result of the quality of our teachers and staff. Unfortunately, our teachers are working in a system that does not always allow for them to be as efficient and productive as they would like to be. This is what my plan and H. 782 hope to accomplish.
There are many issues that need to be worked out before we can successfully merge our schools. School choice is an issue for 90 communities in our state. How would they be affected? We have a rich array of private schools that are part of the school choice issue. How would they be impacted? How do we provide secondary school choice while still being able to have predictable cost drivers? How would individual tax rates be addressed under a merger plan? How would we deal with transportation? Would we need to close small schools when appropriate? These are just a few of the many issues that need to be addressed before we can successfully implement a school district merger. H. 782 allows for the time required to address these issues.
I am very concerned that if something does not occur soon, schools will be forced to make harmful cuts for the sake of reducing costs, and our students will suffer the consequences. According to the Challenges for Change legislation, in FY2011 school districts will be required to reduce spending by over $20 million, in a way that is not strategic or organized in order to meet our anticipated budgetary shortfall. H. 782 provides a strategy to accomplish this in a way that is thoughtful and well-planned. The savings will not come overnight, but in the long run it can save millions of dollars every year for years to come. To do nothing is irresponsible, and will cause our schools to continue to reduce the offerings and opportunities for our children.
