More change is coming to the State Board of Education.
John Carroll, its chair, announced he will step down at the end of June. And legislation now headed to the governor’s desk will require that the 11 board members come from more diverse backgrounds.
“I’ve accomplished most of what I had hoped. There are good folks on the board who can now take over. For me, it’s time to pay better attention to the rest of my life,” said Carroll, 77, a former Republican state senator who was appointed to the board in 2017.
Carroll’s departure means Gov. Phil Scott will get to appoint a replacement — subject to Senate confirmation — to finish out his term, which concludes in 2023. Unless the governor vetoes S.115, just passed by the Legislature, he’ll also have additional considerations to weigh as he considers candidates.
New legislative language was prompted by Scott’s previous two appointments to the board, which the Legislature’s social equity caucus criticized for reflecting racial and geographic parts of the state already well represented on the body.
The Senate did not ultimately object to the appointees themselves — Tom Lovett of Waterford and Lyle Jepson of Rutland. But they added legislative language to a miscellaneous education bill that requires the governor to consider the state’s “geographic, gender, racial and ethnic diversity” when making appointments. (Currently, the governor needs only appoint candidates who are “geographically diverse.”)
Eight regular voting members on the board serve staggered six-year terms. Half are women, but all are white. There are also two student members who serve for staggered two-year terms (the senior one votes, while the junior one does not.) The secretary of education also sits on the board but does not vote.
Scott, now in his third term as governor, has appointed every current member of the board.
Sen. Kesha Ram, D-Chittenden, co-chair of the social equity caucus, said she was satisfied with how lawmakers resolved the matter. She argued the question of adequate representation was particularly urgent in the context of Vermont’s K-12 schools, which, on the whole, are significantly more diverse than the rest of the state.
“The population of BIPOC Vermonters over 65 is 3%, but in school, it’s 10%. When most of our decision-makers are not seeing as much diversity in their lives, our kids are seeing a lot more racial diversity and need members of the Board of Education who understand that,” she said.
Carroll said he supported the new legislative mandate, although he added that potentially ceding his space to someone who’s not “an old white guy” did not play a role in his decision to step down early.
Instead, Carroll said, he considered most of his work done. S.115, for example, also removes the board’s ability to review the agency’s budget or to evaluate the governor’s education proposals. Carroll has been arguing since 2019 that the body needed to give up the remaining administrative oversight functions it held over the executive branch, given that it had already lost the ability, in 2012, to appoint the secretary of education.
But there remains one thorny disagreement between the quasi-judicial body and the administration.
Much of the board’s remaining power rests in its rulemaking authority, which means it is the board that writes the regulations that fill in the details once laws are passed. Board members have suggested that some rules — especially those dealing with more humdrum operational matters in schools — be given over to the Agency of Education. But the agency has argued it should take over rulemaking in a wholesale fashion. S.115 asks both parties to come up with a plan and report back to lawmakers before next year.
“I think it’s really clear to me that the board plays this vital (rulemaking) role in the state. And in that sense there is an almost existential contest between (Secretary of Education) Dan French and the board,” Carroll said.