The House has started work on a Senate bill calling for a two-year moratorium on privatizing public schools.
Under the Senate plan, voters still would be allowed to close an elementary or school in order to send students to another town. But under the provisions of S.91, towns would be prohibited from closing a public school in order to open an independent school in its place.
The bill now under consideration by the House Committee on Education seeks to temporarily halt the practice while the Agency of Education learns more about it. A proposed study was broadened in the Senate to ask not just whether privatizing a public school is constitutional, but also whether preventing privatization would be permissible under law.
The Senate-passed version is significantly more moderate than its original, which proposed limiting public funds for independent schools unless they meet the same standards as public schools. Those include provision of free- and reduced-price lunches, transportation to and from school, blind admissions and a full range of special education services.
Vermont’s Constitution says “a competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town unless the general assembly permits other provisions for the convenient instruction of youth.”
It’s the “convenience” factor that likely will be subject to debate, according to Agency of Education general counsel Greg Glennon.
“What really is the convenient instruction of youth?” Glennon asked rhetorically in a meeting of the House Committee on Education on Tuesday morning. “In this context, that just hasn’t been refereed by any court.”
Glennon said legal precedent is clear about requiring adherence to federal provisions for equal access for students with special education needs. But the landmark Brigham v. State decision in 1997 dealt primarily with equity in school financing. Issues of school quality have not addressed by Vermont courts.
There is no statute on the books either enabling or preventing a public-to-private transition, said Sen. David Zuckerman, P-Chittenden, who made the case for S.91 to the House committee Tuesday morning.
“Until we understand more what we’re giving away when we see a school flip from a public institution to private institution,” Zuckerman said, “we should … analyze that with the Secretary of Education, whether that is OK with our Constitution or not.”
The first school to turn from public to private was Winhall in 1998, followed by North Bennington in 2013. The Westford School Board is exploring the option.
