1.  Legislative – Education Cost Containment
  2.  Legislative – Prekindergarten
  3.  Do you have revote on your school budget?
  4.  Going Independent
  5.  Guest Editorial
  6.  Website update complete

Legislative – Education Cost Containment

On Saturday May 12, 2007, the Legislature adjourned until January 8, 2008 at ten o'clock. Should the Governor choose to veto a bill and the Legislature needs to consider a veto override, a date of July 11, 2007 at ten o'clock has been set for this purpose. This marks the end of business for the legislative year.

Education cost containment didn't amount to much in the House. The cost containment bill, H.526, was reported to save about 9 million dollars out of a 1.4 billion dollar state education budget. The Senate, out of frustration, added the Governor's spending caps to the cost containment bill. Many of the Senators who voted to add these caps did not support them, yet something had to be done to contain costs.

On April 26, 2007, the House Education Committee held a Public Hearing on H.526, focusing on the addition of Governor's caps by the Senate. These caps were strongly opposed by the VT-NEA.

After many hours spent in conference committee, Sen. Vince Illuzzi suggested a compromise; Vermonters would be voting on a split school budget. The first vote would  be on the inflation adjusted budget. Any spending that is above that amount would be voted on separately. The Legislature accepted this compromise and according to WCAX, on May 16 2007, the VT-NEA did not like the logical compromise any better than the Governor's caps.

The fundamental structure of a costly education system remains. Whether these measures will contain costs in a meaningful way remains to be seen.  In the future, you might at least be able to have clear discussions in town meetings about school spending.

Although this plan won't take effect until March 2009 (fiscal year 2010), it will require school administrators to, for the first time, realize that there are real benchmarks that voters will expect them to reach, and if not, to have a good explanation why not.

School administrators and the VT-NEA say the package will only save $12 million.  Maybe so, but this is a first step. Since this plan is based in part on student population, this compromise will put downward pressure on school budgets as student enrollment declines.

According to the FY 2007 Teacher/Staff Report prepared by the Department of Education, Vermont's average student/teacher ratio is now 11.29 to 1. Since FY 2006, Vermont has had an increase of 0.51% in teachers and staff. While at the same time Vermont's student enrollment has declined by 1.2%.

Student/teacher ratio, health benefits, mandates, and special ed all figure into the cost of education. The student/teacher ratio is by far the biggest cost driver. Discussions about education and how to pay for it have been around a long time. The discussion will not end any time soon. The Legislature will be back in January of 2008 for another go 'round of cost containment. What will they talk about next?

Thank you ~ Retta
VBE@comcast.net

Legislative - Prekindergarten

H.534, the PreK bill, passed both House and Senate. The difference in the two versions were worked out in conference committee. First, the bill codifies the preK activity that has been going on in the state and allows for growth of preK programs. The caps on growth remained in the bill so that Governor Douglas would sign it. Second, the bill's intent is to bring more 'quality' into the child care system so that children are ready to start school. Third, the bill should create more transparency for the taxpayer.

With oversight of the legislature, many details of how to implement this law and allow some expansion will need to be worked out during the rule making process. Just exactly how much this will cost Vermonters also remains to be seen. There are aspects of the law intended to track where the money is coming from to pay for any existing and new programs. Where you live could make a big difference. Some towns do not yet offer preK while others do.

The protections put into the bill for private providers must be maintained. Private placement and portability gives the parents the ability to choose the best situation for their child. VBE will keep a keen eye on the rule making process.

Do you have revote on your school budget?

Does your town have a revote of the school Budget? Let VBE know!

Going Independent

WOODBURY – As lawmakers in Montpelier wrangle over a bill aimed at stemming school costs in Vermont, at least one town is considering opting out of the public education system altogether.

Read the rest of this story here

Guest Editorial 

Cost Containment Begins With Transparency
By Curtis Hier

Cost containment in public education requires an effort to make education expenditures more transparent. And so the group I am involved with, First Class Education for Vermont, is shifting gears in our pursuit to get at least 65 percent of education expenditures devoted to the classroom. We are advancing some measures to make it so that citizens can see what percentages get spent on the classroom, so that some sort of benchmark, if not 65 percent, can be set.

Here are some ideas that we have:

1) Pass a law mandating that each school district publish in its budget report what percentage of current expenditures go to direct instruction. This was offered by Senator Mullin as an amendment to the education cost containment bill (H. 526). Senator Mullin withdrew the amendment in exchange for a promise from Education Committee Chairman Don Collins to give the idea a full vetting in his committee.  The way most budgets are presented currently, it is impossible for voters to figure out direct instruction percentages.  Budget reports tend to combine current and non-current expenditures.

2) Have the commissioner require it. I recently met with Commissioner Cate and Department of Education CFO Bill Talbott to remind them of their statutory authority to do so. According to 16 V.S.A. 563, "The school board of a school district, in addition to other duties and authority specifically assigned by law…11. Shall prepare and distribute annually a proposed budget for the next school year according to such major categories as may from time to time be prescribed by the commissioner."

3) Pass Senator Nitka’s bill (S. 175) requiring that supervisory union central office budgets be voted on.  Currently, over $120 million of spending does not get voted on.  Superintendents can make their schools’ percentages of classroom spending look better by simply assuming some of the bureaucratic overhead expenses in their central office budgets.  Chairman Collins has also assured us that this bill will get a full vetting.

4) Have school districts post online their check registers.  Houston Independent School District recently became the latest of several Texas school systems to make available online the dates, amounts, and payee names of all checks written by the school district.  This makes it so that various expenditures cannot be buried in non-descriptive line items.

Measures like these, which empower voters, are difficult to argue against.  Outside of the education lobby, these ideas have no negatives.  Cost containment starts with transparency.
 

Curtis Hier is a veteran teacher at Fair Haven Union High School in Fair Haven, Vermont where he teaches social studies. He is also the chair of First Class Education for Vermont.
 

Website Update Complete

We have finished the process of updating our website. You can now access all of our current and archived materials including past VBE newsletters and David Kirkpatrick's "School Reports" via either of our two web site addresses: SchoolReport.com and VermontersforBetterEducation.com
 

Who Covers Education in Vermont?

We do!  Please consider a gift to Vermonters for Better Education, the publisher of the weekly Vermont Education Report, Vermont's ONLY continual source of education news. Send donations to: VBE, PO Box 72, Woodbury, VT 05681. VBE is a nonprofit organization and contributions are tax-deductible.

The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education PO Box 72 Woodbury, VT 05681 - 802-472-5491. The Vermont Education Report may be reprinted with the editor's permission. For more information contact: VBE@comcast.net or visit us on the web.

VERMONTERS FOR BETTER EDUCATION is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to enlist parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational opportunities for all the children of Vermont by monitoring the state of education in Vermont; promoting the value of educational freedoms for all parents; and giving parents the evaluative tools with which to identify excellence.

Retta Dunlap, executive director
VBE@comcast.net