The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Maine program that excluded some religious schools from receiving public money. That decision is expected to have consequences in Vermont.
The Vermont Agency of Education will allow The Sharon Academy, a school in Windsor County, to receive more publicly funded tuition. Not everyone is happy about it.
Almost certainly a district with declining enrollment caused by universal choice will do the same as districts with declining enrollment caused by a shrinking student population: defer maintenance and cut programs. It is important to recognize the threat that presents to public education.
Vermont should reassert its belief in education as a public good and protect our education system from private interests that seek to access our education dollars.
The chamber preliminarily approved S.219, a bill that would place guardrails around public money in religious schools, on second reading.
As lawmakers advanced a bill to tighten restrictions on how religious schools use public tuition money, a new lawsuit seeks to loosen them.
State officials told public schools this week to begin the transition to a new Covid-19 testing system. But officials said independent schools should continue to do what they are doing.
Members of the public, and at least one member of the state Board of Education, are concerned that new rules being drafted could open the door for independent schools to discriminate when enrolling students.
A spate of national and state-level court rulings have been clear: States, including Vermont, cannot discriminate against religious entities when doling out public subsidies, including taxpayer-funded school vouchers.
When students have the opportunity to cross school district boundaries, economic stratification is diminished, not increased.
Regardless of their income, residents of small Vermont towns can use state vouchers to send their children to boarding schools and ski academies. Some school-choice advocates want to replicate the program nationwide.
The bill would require private schools that take public money to educate all students, though public schools say they would still carry too much of the burden.
Vermont’s school choice system, which began in 1869, was one of the first in the country.
The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation said they should provide the most recent audit of their financials and quarterly unaudited financials that include balance sheets, cash flow statements, income statements and reserves.
