[B]ennington County Sens. Dick Sears and Brian Campion say they plan to respond to controversial proposed rule changes for some private schools by seeking to strip the State Board of Education of its rulemaking authority.
They say they will offer legislation to shift the Agency of Education into the rulemaking role and give the governor more leeway in choosing an education secretary.
“People can call the governor for a lack of health care or over issues of transportation. They should also have a direct line on education issues,” Campion said. He said the state board has “misstepped” regarding its proposed rules on private schools and public funding.
The senators, both Democrats, represent a part of the state where some towns pay tuition for students to attend private schools. In a news release, Sears and Campion said their proposal was provoked by the state board’s planned changes in requirements for private schools that want to receive public dollars.
“What concerns me the most about the proposed rules is that many of these issues have been discussed and debated by our elected officials in the past, and we as legislators have declined to act in this manner,” Sears said. “To me that says the Legislature has not given the board the authority to adopt these rules, which would make dramatic changes to a system of education that our communities have enjoyed for well over 100 years.”
Private schools seeking to receive public tuition money would be required to share more financial data with the state, accept any student and provide special education to any student needing it.
But Stephan Morse, chair of the state board, has pointed out major misunderstandings about what the proposed rules would demand. He addressed that in a letter Nov. 29 and at meetings Tuesday in St. Johnsbury.
Some in the private school community read the rules to say they would have to employ only licensed teachers and meet the same requirements as public schools. In particular, many were alarmed by a rule titled “Meeting all Federal and State Laws and Rules Applicable to Public Schools.” The state board says that was meant only to have schools comply with health and safety laws, fire codes, fingerprint background checks and mandatory reporting of abuse.
Board member William Mathis, who attended meetings Tuesday with private school officials, said many of the disagreements about the new rules had been worked out, at least conceptually. “The question of teacher licensing has been resolved, the requirements for safety have been agreed to, as well as a number of other points,” he said.
Campion said that’s not exactly what he heard. Officials with Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester agreed they had a productive conversation with the state board Tuesday, Campion said, but told him they were “not yet near an agreement” on the proposed rules.
Sears said Burr and Burton administrators had told him and Campion last week that the school would be forced to get rid of its board and act in all ways like a public school under the proposed rules.
“We put (the news release) out there because we believed at the time from a meeting last week that we had with Burr and Burton … and this is what we were told at that meeting,” Sears said.
The 10 members of the state board are appointed by the governor and approved by the Senate. They serve six-year terms.
Campion and Sears say an appointed body should not be able to impose such rules.
Their proposal would ensure accountability to Vermonters, according to Campion. “Rulemaking should be with the Agency of Education. That is where it belongs,” he said.
But Morse said the draft rules were written by the agency. “The agency was very much involved in drafting these proposed rules,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for both of these senators, but I don’t understand where they are coming from, and I didn’t hear from them in advance of the news release.”
According to Morse’s Nov. 29 letter, the Legislature in 1981 gave the state board authority and responsibility to adopt rules to approve and govern private schools.
Campion said accountability to Vermonters also requires that the governor have more freedom to choose the education secretary.
In 2013, the secretary became a Cabinet position appointed by and accountable to the governor. Before that, a commissioner of education was hired by and worked for the state board.
Current law requires the board to provide up to three names to the governor to be considered for the secretary post. If the governor doesn’t like any of the names on the list, he or she can go back to the board as often as necessary and request more, according to Campion.
He said this legislation would streamline the process by giving the governor direct control over the process. “All we are really saying is you can skip a few steps and you can appoint who you like,” Campion said.
Rep. David Sharpe, D-Bristol, chair of the House Education Committee, worries this move would further politicize education. “I think we should try to move education out of the political realm as much as possible,” he said. “The education of our children should be a nonpartisan effort, and I am very concerned about the education system being politicized any more than it already is.”
Gov.-elect Phil Scott’s spokesperson, Ethan Latour, said Scott would be open to hearing what other lawmakers think about the idea.
“Frankly, it would be interesting to see the conversation play out and see what other stakeholders have to say about it,” Latour said.
