[A]ll eyes were on the House Education Committee at the start of the 2015 legislative session as it took on the daunting task of trying to reconcile the shrinking number of students in Vermont’s schools with increases in school spending and property tax rates.
In 2014, taxpayers voted down three dozen school budgets on Town Meeting Day. The issue permeated the 2014 campaign season, prodding lawmakers to take action.
In the wake of electoral pressure, lawmakers created H.361, which incentivizes the state’s 277 school districts to form larger “education districts” of 900 pupils or more, pre-K through grade 12. School districts are expected to merge voluntarily by 2019. National data suggests an optimal district size is between 2,000 and 3,000 students. State senators have referred to Vermont’s many small school districts as micro districts.
Districts that do not join larger school systems or do not meet the state’s quality review evaluations will be reassigned by the State Board of Education.
The bill expressly states that the Legislature’s intent is not to close small schools, but opponents of the reforms say that will be the net effect.
Financial incentives, including tax breaks and grants, are meant to spur school district mergers. Under the bill, the state will phase out subsidies that have allowed schools to maintain the status quo.
The tax breaks for residential property owners in school districts that merge by July 1, 2017, are significant and ongoing. Taxpayers would see a reduction of 10 cents per $100 of assessed property value in the first year. The tax break then graduates down over a four year period from 8 cents to 2 cents. School districts that merge between 2017 and 2019 would also receive tax breaks, starting with an 8 cent reduction.
Meanwhile, small school grants will be distributed as “merger support grants” to districts that move ahead with consolidation efforts.
The final legislation can be seen here.
The bill was a priority for Gov. Peter Shumlin, whose January budget address focused on education governance reform.
Lawmakers agreed on a spending control mechanism for school budgets just days before adjournment. The cost containment measure is a temporary fix until school districts merge into larger education districts that are better positioned to share resources and save money.
The mechanism is a variable education spending growth limit, which allows statewide education spending to increase 2 percent a year in fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2018. After that, the cap sunsets.
The growth restriction will take the place of the existing excess-spending penalty in current law.
School districts with the highest spending-per-equalized pupil will be allowed the least increases in their per-pupil spending growth – in some cases zero – and districts which spend the least will be allowed the most growth – up to 5.5 percent.
School districts in Vermont have a significant range along that spending line, from the highest, $19,299 per pupil in Weybridge, to the lowest $7,002 per pupil in Andover.
The town-by-town growth percentages can be seen here.
Teacher strike bill defeated
A provision that would have banned the ability of teachers to strike and for school boards to impose contracts was one of Shumlin’s budget address priorities, but the governor did little to support the legislation as it made its way to the House floor in early April.
The bill, H.76, was debated for nearly five hours on the House floor, and was defeated 73-71 in the closest House vote of the session. The legislation split the Democratic caucus, and ultimately a study was scrapped as well.
The Vermont National Education Association opposed the bill.
Community High School of Vermont funding preserved
Shumlin’s proposal to cut in half the funding for a high-school completion program for inmates was shot down.
The Department of Corrections needed to find savings as part of a government-wide belt-tightening exercise. Andy Pallito, the commissioner of the department, said he was faced with cutting the Community High School of Vermont, which has seen a decline in student enrollment, or a sex offender program.
Shumlin’s budget proposal included a $1.9 million whack to the Community High School of Vermont (CHSVT), a program that provides educational and vocational training to Vermont’s prisons. The cut would have shuttered the school’s community-based locations and trimmed the services in prisons.
CHSVT employees and alums rallied to support the program, and shortly before the Big Bill was slated to hit the House floor, lawmakers in the House struck up a plan to return the bulk of the school’s funding.
Lawmakers in the Senate changed language in the budget bill that would have drastically expanded the scope of the population served by CHSVT. As it passed the Senate, the budget bill would have required that anyone involved in the correctional system who had not received a high school degree participate in classes — lifting the current age limit that requires only those under age 23 to take courses.
But, amid concerns from the House and the administration about the scope of the expansion, lawmakers struck up a deal when the budget bill was in conference committee.
Now, anybody of any age in the correctional system, whether in jail or an alternative justice system, will have access to the school with the commissioner’s permission.
The program is fully funded in the fiscal year 2016 budget.
VTDigger’s Elizabeth Hewitt contributed to this report.