The rift between those who oppose and support privatizing public schools in Vermont is not getting any narrower.
A legislative study committee charged with investigating the “privatization” of public schools has produced two starkly divergent reports: one from outgoing Education Secretary Armando Vilaseca recommending that the practice be forbidden, and a scathing dissent from five committee members associated with independent schools.
On top of the substantive issues the committee was asked to consider, the secretary and the independent school faction are at odds over the group’s methodology.
Vilaseca, who has not been shy in his opposition to privatizing public schools, struck out on his own in the report — as he had previously indicated to the committee he would do.
“(T)his report is prepared by and represents the view of the Secretary of Education, not the committee as a whole,” he wrote.
Mill Moore, executive director of the Vermont Independent Schools Association, is one of the five dissenters. He said he was surprised the secretary’s report was so one-sided.
“I expected him to represent his views aggressively,” Moore said. “But I thought that he would also report that others had different views, and he didn’t do that.” The dissent says Vilaseca’s report “lacks credibility.”
A letter from the Vermont Independent Schools Association goes further: “The report is an entirely one-sided and antagonistic statement of Armando Vilaseca’s personal views, unleavened by any acknowledgement that many well-informed persons disagreed with him or provided previously unknown or unappreciated information during the committee process.”
All five dissenting committee members — Fran Bisselle, head of Maple Street School; Seth Bongartz, chair of Burr and Burton Academy; Julie Hansen, director of the Thaddeus Stevens School; Dale Urie, teacher at St. Johnsbury Academy; and Moore — are associated with Vermont’s independent schools community.
A sixth independent school representative — Susan Kimmerly, co-chair of the Council of Independent Schools and head of the New School of Montpelier — did not sign onto the dissent.
Kimmerly could not be reached for comment by publication time.
Vilaseca is not surprised that committee members have a different opinion. He says he found some members focused on defending independent schools rather than the narrow charge of investigating a public-to-independent transition.
Vilaseca said he supports the role of independent schools generally in Vermont’s education system, but has serious concerns about public schools becoming independent.
Questions
To date, two public schools have transformed to independence: Winhall in 1998 and North Bennington in 2013. The latter conversion, amid broader statewide concerns about declining student enrollment and rising education costs, prompted the study committee’s formation.
Why would a school want to go from a public school to a private entity, legislators wanted to know? What happens to school financing when a school makes that change, and do student services and educational access change? Is it even constitutional?
Those are the questions the committee was charged with investigating. In the course of three meetings, few answers were found, and no consensus was reached.
Vilaseca believes local residents lose control of schools that become privately held. Independent schools also have different standards for equal access to education, special education services and budgetary transparency.
Most public schools are required to provide free and reduced-price lunches, for example. They must also perform background checks on teachers, comply with federal privacy laws, prepare emergency plans and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Independent schools aren’t covered by those statutes, Vilaseca’s report points out. Therefore, he suggests, it is inappropriate and potentially unconstitutional for a public school district’s resources to be channeled into an independent system in which student services might be reduced.
Moore challenges the Agency of Education to cite any cases in Vermont in which a student has not been fully served. Despite being outside the regulatory authority of the state and federal system, most independent schools comply with government rules, Moore said. The report says free market forces encourage independent schools to voluntarily comply with federal regulations.
Barbara Crippen, staff attorney and civil rights coordinator at the Agency of Education, said there had been complaints, but she was not at liberty to elaborate.
Moore says independent schools should not be subject to federal requirements, regardless.
“Why should they be?” Moore asked. Subjecting independent schools to public school requirements under the law would turn them into public schools, he said, and they would not have support from the agency.
Moore said he was disappointed by what he described as a stilted committee process even before Vilaseca’s report was issued. He says the state needs to have a public debate on the issue.
An attempt to reach Rebecca Holcombe, the incoming Secretary of Education, was unsuccessful.
