Editor’s note: This commentary is by Tavis Morse of Cabot.
[T]o the members of the Vermont House Education Committee:
Hello my name is Tavis Morse and I am a resident of the town of Cabot. As you may or may not know, Cabot recently rejected its school budget on Town Meeting Day.
I was one of the people who voted against the school budget and I would like to explain why.
One of the reasons we moved to Cabot was the small and innovative school in a close-knit supportive community. I have always supported the school and know the school board has done its very best over the years to keeps costs down. In recent years the board has made some very deep cuts and difficult decisions to forge a responsible budget.
I have voted for budget increases in the past with confidence that the board (our neighbors) were doing their best to balance the needs of the school with respect for the voters’ pocketbooks.
This year is different, it seems like a perfect storm of circumstances has conspired to push the Cabot school budget past the breaking point and this is the reason I am writing to you.
I did not vote the budget down because I think spending is too high, in fact I would have supported a modest increase if I thought it was going to help our school. I voted against the school budget because I believe we are caught in a web of unfair state regulations.
I watch our local volunteer school board being forced to make tough decisions that impact our community and I know there are a host of state employees using resources that could be better spent directly on teachers and students, not paperwork.
From what I can ascertain there was a large increase in new special needs students moving to town, which significantly increased costs. Due in large part to these unanticipated but state-mandated costs, the Cabot school budget is over a certain limit which triggers a penalty and adds even more costs.
From my standpoint it seems wildly unfair that an unfunded mandate by the state such as special needs spending incurs the additional harm of a penalty.
This is a trap caused by the unintended consequences of over-regulation.
For better or worse there is a wider context in which these events are happening.
Here are other issues which may not directly impact this one school budget, but they factor into my decision to reject it:
Firstly, I am aware of the current unfair policy of allowing private schools to take public money for some students while not being forced to comply with the special education requirements of public schools. This is a flagrant flaw in the system as it stands and it adds a degree of pain to Cabot’s situation in particular since it is exactly those requirements which we are dealing with now.
Second, I do not believe the state has taken steps to get its own house in order. I know that every new regulation means additional bureaucracy of highly paid administration. There is perceived bloat in state government. I watch our local volunteer school board being forced to make tough decisions that impact our community and I know there are a host of state employees using resources that could be better spent directly on teachers and students, not paperwork.
Third, that Cabot school has been working in very good faith to comply with the new consolidation rules of Act 46, which are likely to result in the closing or repurposing of Cabot High School. The state should take this work by the school board into consideration as time spent meeting other state regulations. Why should the voters pay a premium penalty this year only to see part of the local school be closed in the following years?
In conclusion I would like to request that the budget penalty for Cabot school be waived since the school is not in violation of the spirit of that law. The school itself has kept costs to the bare minimum and the budget is only substantially increasing due to compliance with other state mandates. It is a double-jeopardy situation.
Since the budget has been voted down, the Cabot School Board must now consider cuts which I believe would effectively cripple the school.
The ultimate goal for public schools is to serve our children and that goal is not being upheld by penalizing small schools such as Cabot with unfair budget regulations.
