Editor’s note: This op-ed by Rama Schneider was originally posted in ConnectedVermont, a blog for discussion of education, with an emphasis on school board-related issues hosted by the author. Schneider is a member of the Williamstown School Board.
Apparently we school board members really do represent a constituency, and apparently that really, really bothers some in Vermont’s Senate. Witness for the prosecution: Senate Resolution 7 as sponsored by Sens. Campbell, Sears, Ashe, Kitchel, White, Ayer, Baruth, Benning, Collins, Cummings, Doyle, Flory, French, Galbraith, Hartwell, Mazza, Mullin, Pollina, Rodgers, Starr and Westman, and passed in a last-minute hurried vote in the waning days of the session.
It looks like Sears is taking point on this one, and he seems to have school boards and the communities we serve and any sort of representational democracy directly in his crosshairs, instead of making changes in how he does business as a senator.
And if Sen. Sears is indeed representing a broad view of the Senate, then all I can say is, “This whole education thing isn’t about you, and we’re not out to get you.”
According to VTDigger (“Lawmakers to examine lobbyists for publicly funded groups, 05/16/2013), “Sears says he is tired of hitting the ‘brick wall’ that the Vermont School Boards Association, the Vermont Principals Association and Vermont Superintendents Association put up ‘every time’ the Legislature tries to change education policy.” According to the article, Sears claims the Vermont School Boards Association (VSBA), the Vermont Principals Association (VPA) and the Vermont Superintendents Association (VSA) are the most powerful lobbying groups in the Statehouse that collectively present a “brick wall” whenever changes to educational policy are presented.
Sears’ real complaint appears to be with the many objections that were raised regarding the major change from the old semi-autonomous Department of Education to the governor’s subsidiary Agency of Education; and his real complaint appears to be with the fact that every year tens of thousands of Vermonters spread across the state decide Vermont’s education spending as opposed to 180 Montpelier-based legislators and one governor.
Let’s start with the simple reality that Sears is absolutely wrong and work from there. The Vermont School Boards Association & Vermont Superintendents Association Agenda for a World-Class Education System presented a wide range of policy initiatives where the state and local governments along with our professional educators and local communities can work together to move forward in a positive manner. Included are Statehouse darlings such as universal pre-Kindergarten, statewide teacher contracts, transforming education from desk-based teaching to student-centered learning (personal learning plans), extending the concept of high school to include college prep and actual college courses, access to free lunches for all the kids in need, bringing our in-school technology up to modern-day standards, better training for school boards and professionals, working closely with the new secretary of education and most importantly of all providing the means for our students to better themselves through a high quality educational experience.
But Sen. Sears really isn’t talking about educational policy; he is discussing governance. His real complaint appears to be with the many objections that were raised regarding the major change from the old semi-autonomous Department of Education to the governor’s subsidiary Agency of Education; and his real complaint appears to be with the fact that every year tens of thousands of Vermonters spread across the state decide Vermont’s education spending as opposed to 180 Montpelier-based legislators and one governor. In other words, his real complaint appears to be with all those things that deserve careful consideration by a large number of folks — the things he wants to limit conversation on to a few lawmakers.
Sears doesn’t like the fact that the VSBA, VPA and VSA do what the state Legislature, including those like the good senator, ask of these organizations every day: Get input from their membership and provide direct testimony regarding any number of important education-related topics. Oh, and heavens forbid we should make use of modern-day technology and send emails to the elected representatives of the state when really poor policy is being considered!
That is not a brick wall — that is providing input. If you don’t like that, Mr. Sears, you are always free to stay home in 2014. And if we do form the most powerful lobbying groups in Montpelier (a claim I find laughable) then it is only because your fellow representatives and senators recognize that we provide some real insight into the communities we serve.
So here is a suggestion: Stop holding so much of the state’s business cloistered in the hallowed undersized rooms of the Statehouse where so few Vermonters have access. Today’s communications have broken the link between geographical location and group decisionmaking. Perhaps if legislators such as Sears would spend time talking to school boards, educational professionals and community members directly there wouldn’t be the need for so much discussion with our various organizations.
Such direct conversations would be very illuminating.
One would begin to understand why rash last minute of the legislative session decisions may not make the best policy. And one might begin to understand that school board members are sensitive to the increasing costs — but we’re not passing mandatory agency fee laws which will drive up bargaining costs. It is possible one will be surprised by the number of ways that districts and supervisory unions are looking at consolidation of schools, Supervisory unions and/or services; and just how many districts and supervisory unions are actively doing just that. One would come to know how much of a cost driver the ever increasing federal and state demands regarding special educational services are.
One would understand how we’re spending educational resources on bunkerizing our schools because the federal and state legislators refuse to do anything regarding the threat of gun violence in our schools. One would see with clarity the balancing act that school boards and local communities struggle with to provide a quality education at an affordable price. One would see how contracts based upon the needs of the 1950s and ’60s is hampering the type of changes for today’s education we all seem to agree upon. One might even begin to understand our struggle to find to the money to upgrade our IT systems so that we can meet the state-mandated data reporting and new common core testing regime, and more importantly so we can expand the educational horizons of our students.
One would find that school boards, superintendents and principals are about the students and communities of Vermont.
Instead we seem to have state senators wrapping themselves in a cloak of narcissistic paranoia.
