When it comes to
discussions about Vermont’s education system, the biggest focus has been the
effect on property taxes. How to finance
education has been a primary concern these past weeks and the legislature took
steps to reduce the increase in the statewide property tax that was projected
back in March. The other big issue is
the way the education system is designed, referred to as governance in legislative
parlance, and how governance affects performance and costs. House bill H.883 has been reported out of the
Education Committee to deal with this aspect, and it has become just as
controversial as the financing issue.
What’s the problem?
The present system of
organizing school districts was designed back in 1892. Vermont has 282 school districts, 80
supervisory unions, and 1500 school board members for about 80,000
students. There is one school board
member for every 53 students. Because of
increasing costs, we have the highest per-pupil spending in the country. We have the lowest teacher to student ratio,
yet our student achievement, as good as it is in comparison with the rest of
the country, has not increased at the same rate as our spending. Furthermore, the governance structure is not
conducive to stable educational leadership, resulting in a 30% turnover rate of
principals and superintendents.
What is being proposed?
H.883 is a school
district consolidation bill. It proposes
to eliminate supervisory unions by the year 2020. Existing school districts would be realigned
into expanded districts responsible for the education of pre-Kindergarten to
grade 12 students. Each expanded
district would serve a minimum of 1250 students or four pre-existing districts,
although waivers could be requested under certain circumstances. PreK-12 districts would be formed recognizing
historic relationships between communities, existing school districts and
potential geographic obstacles. Existing
school districts would have until 2017 to self-determine their alignment in a
new or currently existing preK-12 district.
What does it hope to accomplish?
The goals of this
legislation include (1) creating more cohesion in curriculum, professional
development and accountability, (2) the ability to share resources and create
more options for students, (3) opportunities for all students to prepare for
the 21st century marketplace, (4) leadership stability throughout
the system, and (5) potential savings in education delivery.
What effect will it have on CSSU?
CSSU has already consolidated many functions
at the supervisory union level. This has
allowed sharing of resources across the five PreK-8 schools it serves. It currently operates with 5 PreK-8 school
boards, a CVU school board and a supervisory union school board. Under H.883, all of these boards would be
reorganized into a single board with representation from each community unless
one or more member districts chose to realign with other districts. Since some schools have an increasing student
enrollment and others a decreasing enrollment, possibilities would exist to
share classroom and staff resources as well.
Some
are critical of this plan because they perceive a potential loss of local
control over curriculum and budget.
Others doubt that the plan would actually achieve savings. Everyone, however, seems to agree that the
current system is unsustainable. While
some supervisory unions already operate fairly efficiently, there are other
parts of the state that are constrained by size, geography, and lack of
resources. There will continue to be
debate over this bill in the House during the coming weeks. Whether it gets to the full House for a vote
remains to be seen. I have received
several comments both pro and con about this bill, and I have actively sought
the views of current and past school board members I had not heard from. If the bill is not passed this year, it will
probably be reintroduced next year. In
the meantime, we can continue to learn more about the concept.
