Some lawmakers and school choice advocates are frustrated that the House was unwilling to tweak Act 46 to better accommodate towns that tuition out students, and they now are taking their case to the Senate Committee on Education.
House Minority Leader Rep. Don Turner, R-Milton, wants the Legislature to loosen merger restrictions that limit options for towns that tuition out students.
Under current law, towns that operate schools cannot merge with town districts that tuition out students in the same grades.
“I strongly feel that Rep. [David] Sharpe and the [House] Education Committee have an obligation to our colleagues and to all of our constituents to approve a fix to Act 46 that will allow the school choice towns to maintain their choice if they choose to merge with other non-school choice towns,” Turner said at a press conference held by the School Choice Caucus on Thursday.
Turner first raised concerns last fall about the way Act 46 was interpreted by the State Board of Education. The board, which approves merger proposals, determined that school districts with tuitioned students cannot merge with school districts that operate schools. The State Board says the decision was based on existing law in Title 16.
At the time, Turner said the State Board’s determination did not match up with the intention of lawmakers in the House when the law was passed last year. “If there is confusion or potential for confusion on behalf of the SBE or other bodies, perhaps a clarifying legislative fix is appropriate and necessary when the Legislature returns in January,” Turner said .
Since then, Republican lawmakers have unsuccessfully attempted to address the merger question by attaching amendments to pertinent education bills.
Fourteen weeks into the legislative season, the School Choice caucus held a press conference followed by a public forum for constituents who are concerned about how Act 46 is affecting choice in their towns.
Sharpe, chair of the House ed panel, said he is willing to listen to and act on behalf of school districts that are coming together to discuss mergers, but he doesn’t want to cut those talks short.
“I am more than willing to listen to statutory changes that might be necessary to accomplish it,” Sharpe said. “But to respond out of fear that something is wrong here and we don’t want to talk about it so therefore we want you to change the rules in the legislature, that’s not something that gets a response from me.”
Sharpe was reacting to the accusation that mergers are forcing school districts to drop choice.
“These communities have voted to change from a choice structure to an operating school structure,” Sharpe said. “It wasn’t forced on them by the agency [of education] or the Legislature. That was the choice of these communities.”
Sharpe there are communities that have expanded choice, such as Guild Hall and Concord.
“Both things are possible under Act 46 because we included an awful lot of local control in the Act 46 process,” Sharpe said.
This past year, voters in four school districts decided to stop tuitioning and merge into a district that operates schools. Most of these votes won by large margins, but in the case of the Elmore-Morristown merger it took two votes to get there. In November, Elmore residents voted 197 to 164 against the merger. In a second vote they supported the ballot measure 251 to 180 and now will become part of the Morristown unified school district.
“A lot of places are making decisions based on simply the tax implications,” Rep. Heidi Scheuermann R-Stowe. The Elmore Morristown community, she said, is “divided.”
“They basically had to choose between taxes and school choice and that is just not appropriate,” Scheuermann said.
Tuition towns are being handed a Sophie’s Choice, she said, one that most lawmakers didn’t realize they supported when they voted for Act 46.
Voters have also chosen to close schools and pay tuition in Guildhall, Concord, East Haven, Morgan, Plymouth, Granby and Granville/Hancock.
About 80 percent of Vermont’s children live in communities that operate schools at every grade level. That means about 20 percent of the state’s children live in communities that tuition all or some grades.
The number of tuitioned students gets smaller when considering how much of the state’s student population they represent — 7 percent. Of that number, 75 percent attend public schools. The remaining 25 percent use public dollars to attend independent schools, according to Rebecca Holcombe, secretary of the Agency of Education.
Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, who did not support Act 46 last year, has tried to get several amendments passed in the House. Now, she is turning her sights to the Senate ed panel hoping they will look at her amendments when they consider the Yield Bill, H.853.
One of the biggest complaints comes from neighboring school districts that are considering a merger but that tuition out different grades such as K-6 and K-8. All school districts have to tuition or operate the same grades in a new unified school district. Browning says she would like to add flexibility to help these districts merge.
Chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, said she is open to listening, although she says she hasn’t had a whole lot of people, including House members banging on her door. “The bill (Act 46) seems to be working better than we thought it would. There are some issues around how you deal with choice and there are some ways to deal with it, I think. We are open to anything if I can find a vehicle cause right now I don’t have a bill that would be found germane.”
Cumming is aware some school districts are having difficulting coordinating grades for tuitioned students, but she said there are merger models available for these districts to consider.
The governance structures for the mergers recommend different student numbers. An accelerated merger recommends a minimum of 900 students in new districts. The recommended student population in a Regional Education District is 1,500. Browning is proposing an amendment that would lower the minimum population levels to 600 and 800, respectively.
“I think that the reduction in required numbers of students for all the structures and the loosening of the rules for side by sides would make it easier for K-6 and K-8 schools to find consolidation partners with the same patterns of choice/operating. I think it is wrong for districts to have to give up some of their choice to satisfy the arbitrary rules of Act 46, and I think that these tweaks would help those districts,” Browning said.
Cummings said that those numbers were goals meant for guidance. “Not all school districts will be able to reach that – it is a goal.”
By 2019 the State Board of Education is expected to help school districts that haven’t merged come up with better governance structures. Browning and others don’t think the State Board should have this authority. They want the board to make recommendations instead.
“Ultimately it would be better to have the consolidation voluntary, so that districts and Supervisory Unions that are doing well as they are under existing governance structures could just continue as they are,” Browning said.
“She won’t get that here,” Cummings said. Under Acts 153 and 156 school districts were encourage to “voluntarily” merge, and there was little movement.
Cummings suggested that school districts that are providing a good education at an affordable price can go to the State Board and make a case. “If you, in fact are saying, no we are a rich community and we don’t feel like joining with them over there and we are happy paying our high numbers” then the answer, she said, will likely be no “because you aren’t paying your high numbers — everybody is.”
Sharpe said Browning’s proposals would dismantle Act 46. “Her amendments were pretty much about tearing apart Act 46 and short circuiting the conversations that are going on right now about how to best educate our children.”
Cummings said giving boards time to develop plans for district mergers is essential. “To rush in and do a legislative fix for something could cause more problems.” She says if school districts truly hit an impasse “then we can look at it.”
She says there is still plenty of time for districts to work at it — they just won’t get the big tax breaks.
“They can give up choice that is one option. They can do that, but if they don’t want to then it is going to take some more time,” Cummings said.
