Last week, the Vermont House passed and moved a statewide education reform bill to the Senate. Changes are expected in Senate committees and the governor has said he will not support any deviation from the intent of the authorizing bill.
Last year, the Vermont Legislature passed Act 73, sweeping legislation to structurally change Vermont’s education system.
This session, legislators are following up on elements of reform. Late last week, the House Education Committee passed H.955 “An act relating to next steps in transforming Vermont’s education system.” Chair Peter Conlon, an Addison Democrat, explained that one of its provisions sets up seven mandatory cooperative education service areas.
“They could handle much of the highly specialized services for students with special needs. They could coordinate transportation for an area the size of a county and a half. The idea is that these regional services are often very expensive to provide on a district-by-district level, but when you bring districts together under one of these they can provide things on a regional basis and therefore more economic and more efficient.”
Conlon says the bill also mandates that school districts come together to talk about mergers.
“This bill requires merger study committees to take place. It does not require mergers. It requires conversations to take place with a skilled facilitator so that groups of districts in geographically close areas can talk about merging. The mergers are voluntary. They end if a study committee says we don’t want to move further or they continue ultimately to a vote of the electorate of the districts that want to merge.”
As the House Education Committee closed in on a vote to advance the bill, member Joshua Dobrovich, an Orange County Republican, praised the committee’s collaboration, but he also felt the proposal does not address critical reform issues.
“For me, there are misses in this. I feel like we're not actually providing the relief that our taxpayers want in a timely fashion. And they also asked for, you know, more equitable educational opportunities and I don't see this doing that in a timely fashion either. And those are just some of my concerns.”
The move to create merger study committees bypasses the development of new district lines and school mergers.
Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, made education restructuring the sole focus of his January State of the State address. He said creating new districts is an education reform element that must be completed this session.
“Education transformation is not optional. It’s essential. The legislature must prioritize drawing new district lines. Without this governance change, we won’t give kids the better education Act 73 was designed to provide. I want to be clear. I will not sign a budget or an education bill or tax bill that deviates from Act 73 or fails to fix what’s broken.”
During his regular briefing last week, Scott said he believes there is still a path forward to negotiate a palatable bill.
“Where there’s a will there’s a way. You know I’ve seen a lot of things happen over the last week or two weeks of a session. I still think there’s a path forward. I think we all have to work together, which we’ve been doing, and I think that they have to get more realistic about the needs and wants of their constituency.”
The bill passed out of the House Education committee on a 7 to 4 party-line vote and is now being reviewed by the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
