Editor’s note: This commentary is by Rama Schneider, who is a member of the Williamstown School Board.
I’ve been listening to the debate regarding tax dollar funding for Vermont’s private and independent schools (see “Stakeholders reach for compromise over independent school requirements,” VTDigger, Jan. 21, 2014) for well over a year now, and I have finally come to several conclusions:
1) This discussion is not about how an independent school is organized, who it accepts or what and how it teaches.
2) This is a discussion about what the Legislature will allow tax dollars to be used for.
3) The best solution is actually one of governance, and I believe Vermont not long ago passed a statute that could help.
I want to point out at this point that folks with the financial means have always been and will continue to be able to pay for non-public education. That is irrelevant! That reality in no way obviates our social responsibility and need to ascertain that a robust, high quality educational opportunity is provided to the general public.
You will note that nothing in the current version of S.91 (the bill currently driving this discussion) changes anything that defines an independent school of the “approved” or any other category. This proposal talks specifically to what a given school must provide in order to receive funds collected by the state as taxes.
Vermont’s educational system of choice has allowed for and encouraged a vibrant non-public sector that is devoted to serving the public interests.
The really great thing about our current public/private school mix is that the greatest portion of Vermont’s approved independent schools are already providing a wide range of educational services that includes special educational efforts. The reason for this is rather simple: Vermont’s educational system of choice has allowed for and encouraged a vibrant non-public sector that is devoted to serving the public interests. Thus you have The Mountain School at Winhall that has always taken in any comers, and St Johnsbury Academy that drastically reduces its tuition to local students, and the new Village School of North Bennington that is modeling its structure on that of The Mountain School.
From the other side comes a natural concern raised by what is happening outside Vermont. Privatization with the intent of financial profit for investors is being pushed on a national and, in a growing number of states, more local levels. Under these circumstances the needs of profit will win out over the needs of service delivery every time just as they do in any other private, investor profit-driven organization.
The numbers are very simple: It is much less expensive to provide educational opportunities to some groups of students than it is to others.
Allowing for a system that can act as a siphon to draw a select group of high financial return students (those who will perform the best for the least amount of inputs) presents many real dangers, not the least of which is a true social balkanizing within our children’s generations. I remember watching the special needs kids get on a bus to be transported to some far off campus when I was (not) attending high school back in the early ’70s. My daughter, who graduated high school a couple years ago, on the other hand, has grown up living with and accommodating the needs of folks who, simply put, are not like her when it comes to needs — conversely she understands her needs are not always in sync with others.
There are many benefits both to the individual and society in ensuring our kids mix without regard to needs, finances, race, religion or many other categories, and the downsides to this mixing can be reasonably handled with small schools that are answerable to the immediately surrounding community (yeah — that local control thing).
So how do I propose we maintain an independent school system that will continue to operate in the public interest? Simple — there is in law today a still new legal business entity known as the “Vermont benefit corporation.” The mainstay of this corporate structure is that it allows a for-profit business to incorporate a social mission that has as much or more standing than any financial goals. In order to receive any state monies, an independent school should be required to be a benefit corporation with some minimal requirements on the social mission.
Private schooling can continue as is, school choice towns can continue as they do, and we can all rest easy knowing that our public dollars will be going to education first and return on investment second.
