Act 46 will be the main attraction next year for the State Board of Education, members say. The district consolidation law heads up a number of controversial issues the board expects to deal with, according to the priorities for the 2016-2017 school year that members adopted at their recent annual retreat in Burlington.
Board member William Mathis described the scope of the work before them: “Act 46, complying with federal law under (the Every Student Succeeds Act) and revising the rules for approving independent schools. Those are three very hot topics that are going to take a lot of attention.”
The Every Student Succeeds Act replaced No Child Left Behind.
The 2015 state law that calls for school districts to merge into larger units overshadowed every other item the board had been interested in following up on. It crowded out earlier plans to create a committee to look deeply into the rollout of universal pre-kindergarten under Act 166 with the idea of suggesting possible changes to the law to increase equity and quality, according to Mathis.
Instead the board decided to monitor Act 166’s implementation with reports in December and next June from the Agency of Education that focus on capacity, demographics, limitations, strengths, program quality and equity of access. The board will review the rules for prequalification — the approval needed to offer pre-K to students with state-issued vouchers — in March.
“We have set forth our path on Act 166 and our role in implementing that legislation,” said board Chairman Stephan Morse.
Because Act 46 requires the board to approve proposed mergers and eventually puzzle out a new map for school governance in the next few years, it dominated the board’s future agenda.
Act 46 “explicitly gives you a tremendous role,” Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe told the board. “It is a huge priority because you have a tremendous amount of work you have to do in the statutory area.”
Board members wrote in a one-sheet document outlining their priorities that they understand their responsibility in helping to implement Act 46 and intend to uphold the goals of the law by looking for ways to improve equity and quality for children. To that end, the board determined, it will “devote substantial time to policy, analysis, and rulemaking related to Act 46, as well as to careful review of locally developed proposals as they related to local goals and the condition of the state.”
The first phase of Act 46 mergers ends as July begins. Mathis said the next phases promise to become more evocative. “Act 46 is going to get difficult in places as degrees of freedom continue to get smaller,” he said. “It is going to be more controversial, and we’ll have to face a lot of unhappy campers.”
At the same time, the board has to figure out how Vermont will comply with new demands in the Every Student Succeeds Act, which, like its predecessor, relies heavily on test results. “That whole regime is getting repeated, and I think it will be an issue,” Mathis said.
Last year, the board asked the Agency of Education to review the rules for approving independent schools. That process is well underway, and the board expects to see recommendations for changes in the coming months.
Mathis said that with more independent schools in Vermont than a few years ago at the same time that there are fewer students, he expects advocates for private schools and school choice to be closely watching and commenting on this part of the board’s work.
Other issues the board plans to keep an eye on include Act 77, or flexible pathways; education quality standards; the new proficiency-based graduation requirements that incoming ninth-graders will face; and rules for post-secondary institution approval.
Within the context of the board’s priorities, members made it clear that equity and sustainability would drive their decision-making. “The State Board will advocate for equity and sustainability in our pursuit of quality,” they stated.
