The draft includes language that would continue small school grants in areas deemed geographically isolated; would phase out of the “phantom student” program that offsets declining enrollment; and would place a moratorium on legislative mandates that add costs to school districts or supervisory unions.
The governor is pleased to see both the House and Senate Education Committees placing a focus education reform, Alyson Richards, deputy chief of staff, said Wednesday.
“People are really acknowledging we must come together,” Richards said of the proposals from the governor, the Agency of Education and many others coalescing into early bill language. She describes the spirit of cooperation between parties as “a very healthy environment.”
Richards said the moratorium on new legislation that would lead to unfunded mandates is aimed at giving school districts a chance to focus on the issues they already are grappling with.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from the field that people just need a respite,” Richards said.
The committee received a quick rundown of how their first draft and the House Education Committee bill compare.
“We have equity, quality and costs increasing, from the school folks,” said Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, chair of the Senate Education Committee. “This is as close as we can get to the governor’s plan.”
Donna Russo-Savage of the Legislative Council said the plan on the Senate Education Committee’s table would decrease the benefits of the hold-harmless (or phantom student) formula over a three-year period, repealing the aid completely by Fiscal Year 2019.
Russo-Savage said school districts that want to become part of a redistricting effort, but cannot find a partner, could go to the State Board of Education and request a district merger.
Cummings described that option as “a shotgun wedding.”
The Senate language would permit the state board “to add a petitioning district to an existing union school or Pre-K-grade 12 district upon request of petitioning district after a process involving all districts and voters.”
There are similarities between the two early bills both include expanded authority for hiring and firing principals at the school level and a moratorium on mandates.
The House bill also calls for the Secretary of Education to develop an alternative funding model for special education. The draft Senate bill requires the Agency of Education Secretary to review school outcomes each year and publish results at the school district and school levels.
The language also includes a plan that would require the Agency of Education to perform quality evaluations at schools, including site visits, every three years.
Some senators were not thrilled with the moratorium on new legislation.
“It would basically take all of the power out of the committee system, and then what it says is it ‘shall be withdrawn from consideration,’” Sen. Philip Baruth, D-Chittenden said. “It’s kind of like just getting rid of the legislative branch.”
“This is just to give us something to start talking about,” said Cummings, who shared concerns about the complete ban on new legislation to schools. “I can see where we would not want to tie our hands. You never know what we might want to mandate in an emergency.”
Baruth said, “We wouldn’t be allowed to work on anything.”
Cummings said the bill lacked specifics.
“I was expecting that we would see something that would say these are our goals, we want equity and opportunity, we want to reduce costs, we don’t want classes of less than ‘x’ students, we want an opportunity to meet students … whatever we decide to put in there, and school boards, districts, shall find a way to do this,” she said.
Other senators wanted to see language that would limit the steady rise in school spending.
“I don’t see any cost-containment, I don’t see any stemming of that tide,” said Sen. Dustin Degree, R-Franklin, noting there were no caps on per-pupil spending or staff to student ratio. “I expected a little more red meat.”
Cummings said, “Red meat involves blood, but I think we can say a student-teacher ratio of ‘x,’ a classroom size of ‘x,’” she said.
Substantive reductions in spending will be hard to attain, she said.
“I haven’t seen any silver bullet that if we do it this year it’s going to drop the tax rate 5 cents, and you’ve got to drop it something like that for folks to notice,” Cummings said.
