Editor’s note: This commentary is by Tom Lovett, of St. Johnsbury, headmaster of St. Johnsbury Academy, where he has worked for 32 years, 15 as headmaster. He is the immediate past president of the Independent Schools Association of Northern New England and a past commissioner on the Commission on Independent Schools at the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
[I]n a recent commentary in VTDigger, State Board of Education member Bill Mathis expresses what he thinks is the board’s “reasonable” position regarding the approval of independent schools. Unfortunately, this position is based on an inaccurate understanding of independent education in Vermont and is destructive to Vermont’s educational landscape. Independent schools have had a “compact” with their towns for well more than a century. St. Johnsbury Academy has been serving its communities since 1842. Burr and Burton Academy has been doing the same since 1829. We are not a “parallel educational system” that is “expensive and wasteful” as Mr. Mathis contends; rather, we are integral to the educational system in our state. We are highly successful; we provide high quality educational opportunities and excellent educational outcomes. We invite anyone to visit our schools and decide for themselves. One key to our success is our dedication to living out our missions, and the board’s proposed rules will fundamentally undermine our ability to do so. Most importantly, these proposed rules are not in the best interest of our students. Consequently, I feel compelled to respond to his statements.
First, Mr. Mathis claims that independent schools must be “held accountable” if they are to “chow-down at the public trough” or “live off the public treasury.” His insinuation of “fraud and abuse” among our independent schools is offensive. Reporting data to a governmental entity isn’t accountability. Independent schools are held accountable in the most effective way: by our parents, students and donors. If parents are unhappy with the quality of the education, they pull their children from the school because they have that choice. Moreover, if donors are unhappy with the quality of the education, they don’t donate; they can choose to send their dollars elsewhere. Most independent schools undergo a third-party accreditation process, which assesses the quality of the school according to several standards (e.g. resources, program, student experience and teacher quality). This accreditation process is much more intensive and rigorous than the oversight given to public schools. As for data, all independent schools need to submit a Form 990 to the IRS, which is a public document, and if one looks at all of the student outcomes at independent schools in the state, performance at independent schools looks very good, if not stellar, compared to public schools.
In short, independent schools would have to become public schools! St. Johnsbury Academy will not comply with such a requirement; to do so would fundamentally alter who we are as a school and undermine our ability to serve students well.
Mr. Mathis’ second “paramount principle” is that of access. Here we agree: we have the responsibility as a society to “educate all the children.” However, he misspeaks when he says that “public schools serve every child” and alleges that independent schools discriminate. In fact, some independent schools only exist to serve children that public schools cannot serve. If one were to think about this differently, one could see a different method to “educate all the children”: educate each child in the school — public or independent — best fitted to his/her learning needs, social-emotional needs, and/or physical needs. The ones to make the decision of “best fit” would be those who know the child best and know the schools best — parents/guardians and school leaders. This model exists in Vermont in a more robust and effective way than in any other state, and this is the exact system the State Board wants to dismantle. Instead, we as a state should be looking to preserve and expand parents’ voices and choices. Vermont should promote its model of independent education, designed on the notion that each child is unique and one size does not fit all. We are headed in the opposite direction.
Mr. Mathis also dismisses the cost of offering all categories of special education. He may recall from his days as superintendent that the reporting and coordination requirements to provide special education services — even if the school does not hire the actual special educators — demand significant additional infrastructure. St. Johnsbury Academy and Burr and Burton Academy serve students with special needs in all categories. We are large schools, we can do so, and we do it very well. However, Mr. Mathis may not know that the smaller, more individualized model of education in many independent schools often makes labeling students as “needing special education” unnecessary. In fact, many independent schools serve students previously receiving special education in public schools without identifying them under any of the official categories. These schools serve the needs of many families very successfully, and for less cost. But that is not accounted for and it should be.
The most unreasonable of the proposed State Board rules would require independent schools, if they want to accept and educate publicly funded students, to abide by all federal and state regulations and policies that apply to public schools. In short, independent schools would have to become public schools! St. Johnsbury Academy will not comply with such a requirement; to do so would fundamentally alter who we are as a school and undermine our ability to serve students well. We will not become a public school. Under the proposed rules, that means that parents in choice towns could no longer send their children to our school, unless they could afford to pay for it. I can’t understand why Mr. Mathis and the State Board would want to deny students from low-income families from dozens of Vermont towns the opportunity to attend our school.
If the proposed rules are put into effect, some of the communities that have enjoyed choice and the benefits of independent schools in their regions (some of them the most disadvantaged regions of the state) would no longer have access to those educational opportunities. In the end, independent education would be available only to the wealthy. That cannot be the result we as a state seek to achieve.
