At The Sharon Academy, an independent school in Windsor County, most students’ tuition is subsidized by a generous backer: the state of Vermont.
Like many of Vermont’s independent schools — elsewhere called private schools — The Sharon Academy receives taxpayer money to educate students from towns with no middle or high school.
Normally, Vermont law places limits on how much public money can go to independent schools. But earlier this year, the school got a green light from state officials to hike that tuition by nearly $1,700 per student from the current year — a decision that has caused concern for local public school officials and raised fears of a statewide precedent.
“I’m very concerned that this could result in significantly impacting our elementary school programming in a negative way,” Jamie Kinnarney, the superintendent of the White River Valley Supervisory Union, told state officials last fall in an email obtained through a public records request.
The supervisory union’s school districts serve students in roughly a dozen towns in Windsor County and two in Addison County. The move, he said, could cost them “in excess of over a quarter of a million dollars.”
The connection between private school tuition and public school services is a complex one and highlights Vermont’s unique education funding system.
Students who live in districts that don’t operate public schools at all grade levels, known as sending districts, get taxpayer money for tuition at public or private schools elsewhere — sometimes even outside the state or country.
Per state law, public tuition payments to independent schools are capped at a figure called the Average Announced Tuition, the average of all the tuition amounts charged by the state’s public schools for out-of-district students.
For the current school year, that amount is $15,513 for elementary school students and $16,842 for 7th through 12th grade students.
A handful of Vermont’s independent schools are exempt from those requirements. St. Johnsbury Academy and Lyndon Institute are not bound by those public tuition caps because they operate regional tech centers.
State law also exempts private schools that meet a set of state educational criteria, the Education Quality Standards, from that cap.
So far, the only independent school that meets those standards is Thetford Academy. But last summer, the Sharon Academy began campaigning to become the state’s second independent school to meet those standards — and to be allowed to receive more in public tuition payments.
The Valley News first reported The Sharon Academy’s plan to raise tuition.
Independent school administrators say that the current tuition limits are not high enough for their schools to operate.
“The statewide average number does not reflect the reality of the cost of providing education in Vermont,” said Mill Moore, the executive director of the Vermont Independent Schools Association, noting that many public schools charge more tuition for out-of-district students than independent schools do.
For the past few years, the limits on public tuition to independent schools have made it “increasingly difficult to cover the costs of educating our students,” Mary Newman, The Sharon Academy’s Head of School, said in an email.
At the academy, which operates a middle school and high school in Sharon, 85% of students receive public tuition money, according to the school’s website. Over the past few years, the school has needed to fundraise nearly $300,000 a year on top of tuition, Newman said.
By meeting state standards for public schools, she said, The Sharon Academy will “be able to set our tuition at an amount that more accurately reflects the cost of our education.”
But not everyone saw that as a good thing.
Last fall, Kinnarney, the White River Valley Supervisory Union Superintendent, told state officials that if The Sharon Academy hiked its tuition, it would hurt the finances of the public schools he oversees.
Five school districts in the supervisory union collectively pay tuition for nearly 120 students to go to The Sharon Academy, according to Kinnarney. A tuition hike would force the districts to spend thousands more in taxpayer money, he said.
“The financial implications on the member districts of WRVSU are real, significant, and would result in our cost per pupil to increase to a point of exceeding what has historically been the penalty threshold,” Kinnarney wrote, referring to a state-imposed limit on school spending.
Kinnarney did not respond to requests for an interview.
Kathy Galluzzo, the chair of the White River Valley Supervisory Union school board, said she was less worried about school programming than the impact on taxpayers.
“For me and for the school board, the concern is if tuition rises, then our taxpayers pay more money,” she said. “A good percentage of our kids go to The Sharon Academy.”
But in February, the Vermont Agency of Education signed off on The Sharon Academy’s request.
State officials “were impressed that the school’s leadership is intent on complying with the requirements and offering its students the educational opportunities described in the (standards),” Emily Simmons, the Agency of Education’s general counsel, wrote to Academy administrators.
The school plans to raise its tuition to $18,500 for the 2022-23 year.
“With the exception of one school, The Sharon Academy’s tuition will continue to be the lowest high school tuition in our area,” said Newman, the academy’s Head of School.
She noted that “there are a number of guardrails in place that ensure an independent school is meeting (the standards), including financial guardrails.”
But the decision has raised concerns about a potential precedent. If independent schools are able to receive more tuition money from the state, some worry that could put public school finances in a bind.
Rebecca Holcombe, a former Vermont Secretary of Education and longtime critic of the state’s tuitioning system, said the decision could incentivize more independent schools to follow in The Sharon Academy’s footsteps.
“Who wouldn’t apply for that?” Holcombe asked in a text message. “This moves more public dollars from public oversight to private management.”
Patrick Halladay, the director of the Vermont Agency of Education’s Educational Quality Division, said that state education officials have “certainly” discussed the financial implications of the decision.
“If you were to take it to the extreme, and all 100 or so approved independent schools were to charge $100,000 per student — well, that would pretty much wipe out the Education Fund really quickly,” Halladay said.
He emphasized that scenario is pure speculation.
“One would assume if that were to take place, that the legislature would get involved pretty quickly,” he said.
Moore, of the independent schools organization, said that many independent schools are likely uninterested in adhering to public school standards. And even if they are allowed to raise tuition, he said, they would have to be mindful of what local districts can afford.
“It’s not like you’ve been given carte blanche to set an unreasonable number,” he said. “Because the schools have to live in their communities, just as a public school does.”
Corrections: An earlier version of this story omitted two of the towns whose students are served by the White River Valley Supervisory Union and misstated which schools were exempt from tuition limits.
