This commentary is by Neil Odell, president of the Vermont School Boards Association.
In early May, during a discussion of H.483, a bill that would define Vermont’s response to the Carson v. Makin U.S. Supreme Court decision, Senate Education Chair Brian Campion said, “Given all the issues we have in this state, this is the biggest, most important bill for them? I expected better. I would much rather be talking about other things.”
By “them,” he meant me. Or, more accurately, the organization I belong to — the Vermont School Boards Association. Together with the Vermont Superintendents Association, the Vermont Principals Association and the Vermont National Education Association, we have been actively engaged with the Legislature to develop Vermont’s response to the landmark case Carson V. Makin.
A brief refresher of Carson v. Makin. In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a case from Maine that states do not need to fund private schools, but when they do, they cannot exclude religious schools.
It was an immediate erosion of the commonly held belief in the separation of church and state. The decision has direct implications in Vermont. Months after the ruling, the Vermont Agency of Education sent a memo to school administrators with guidance that school districts could no longer deny payments to religious schools.
All of this was made more confounding when considering Vermont’s constitutional compelled support clause: “no person ought to, or of right can be compelled to … support any place of worship.”
Another complicating factor is that, for decades, some Vermont towns that do not operate schools have been sending public money to private schools to satisfy their requirement to provide their students with a public education. As we reflect on what changes our system of public education needs to comply with both the Supreme Court decision as well as the Vermont Constitution, we’ve been confronted with another reality: Our current tuitioning system is not equitable. Private schools in and out of Vermont are receiving public tax dollars, yet are not being held to the same standards as public schools when it comes to spending those dollars.
Vermont didn’t ask to have our education system upended. We didn’t invite this on ourselves. Yet, here we are. How we respond is what matters.
What will be Vermont’s path forward on this? That’s the question the Vermont School Boards Association and our partner organizations began working on immediately following the Supreme Court decision. We met with education law experts from across the country. We held informational sessions for our members. We spoke with legislators. We learned of national efforts by well-funded advocacy groups in this area.
We learned that Vermont is the tip of the spear on this issue. Advocates hoping to leverage the Supreme Court decision and expand public funding of religious education have their sights set on Vermont. How we approach this issue and what we decide will have repercussions nationwide. Our Brave Little State could help determine the future of public education nationwide.
So, to answer Chair Campion’s rhetorical question, “Is this the most important bill for us?” Yes, it is. And it should be for Senate Education as well.
It appears that Chair Campion is not able or not willing to comprehend the significance of the issues facing Vermont public education in the wake of Carson v. Makin. His statements are a clear indication that he is willing to jeopardize our entire system of public education in Vermont in order to maintain the status quo of our private schools and tuitioning system.
He seems more than willing to sacrifice a system that supports over 75,000 students in Vermont in order to maintain private schools that are not held accountable for the public money they receive, do not publicly report student outcome data, and are not governed by a school board that is accountable to the community.
Instead of adopting an approach and enacting legislation that could have better positioned Vermont in preparation of likely lawsuits, Chair Campion has opened a can of bright red paint and drawn the bull’s-eye on Vermont even larger, effectively rolling out a red carpet for groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Institute for Justice and the Liberty Justice Center to use Vermont as the stepping stone to a national erosion of public education and the separation of church and state.
Further, Chair Campion’s position is in direct alignment with other politicians like Gov. Ron DeSantis, which is curious, given his purported strong support for the separation of church and state. Instead of shoring up Vermont’s public education system, he’s worked this session to make sure that private schools are protected at all cost.
Despite attempts by Sens. Gulick and Hashim to move the discussion and H.483 forward, it appears that the chair has no intention of bringing the bill up for a vote and moving it on to the full Senate during these final days of the legislative session.
The end result is that students and families should prepare for uncertainty in public education in Vermont, taxpayers should prepare to see more of their dollars being spent with little to no oversight, and the state should prepare for lawsuits and associated legal fees. To quote Sen. Campion, “I expected better.”
