Vt. public schools face crisis in state funding

Author: Lea Calderon-Guthe

In his fourth inaugural speech, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas condemned the Equal Education Opportunity Act, calling the proposed school budget increases it allows "unsustainable in any season, and especially when our economy is facing such severe retrenchment." State legislature passed the act, otherwise known as Educational Act 60, in 1997, and it celebrated its 12th birthday last week. If Douglas has his way, this will have been the last birthday for Act 60 and its modifying acts, Act 68 of 2003 and Act 82 of 2008.

Act 60 equalizes education funding among school districts, regardless of the wealth of the district, by exacting an income-based state property tax that is evenly distributed among the state, as opposed to each district raising funds through taxes on its own. Former State Representative and founder of Act 60 John Freidin said that the first of the original goals of the act was to give all disctricts equal ability to raise money for education.

"We didn't want [Act 60] to be, as all previous school funding plans had been, vulnerable to being underfunded," said Freidin. "It has not been underfunded because we put it together in a way that meant that if the state provided lower funds for public education, the tax rates in all towns would go up."

By giving low-income districts extra money, Freidin wanted to even out the resources available to students, ideally improving their performance on standardized tests.

"Though it was not really one of our written goals, the reason behind all of this was to encourage the very, very low-spending towns to spend more money, because to some degree money improves education," said Freidin. "Kids at what used to be the lower spending districts now have better resources, and that has been reflected in improved test scores."

Tom Beyer, professor of Russian at the College and Chairman of the Addison Central Supervisory Union (ACSU) School Board, believes the educational benefit to students pushed forth by Freidin has been forgotten in an effort to reduce spending through Acts 68 and 82, which were passed after Freidin left state legislature.

Act 68 places a tax penalty on school districts that spend more than 125 percent of the state average. For every tax dollar raised over this mark, the district must raise another tax dollar for the state's education fund. Act 82 also tries to limit spending by requiring two votes on school budgets that increase more than one percent over inflation. Community members vote once on the base budget up to one percent over inflation, and then any additional spending is put to a vote as "extraordinary expenses" in an attempt to deter its approval.

"They are both called education acts, but in fact their purpose is to slow and/or decrease the funding for education," Beyer said.

Because of Acts 68 and 82, ACSU has had to cut minor funding for supplies and special education, as well as one teaching position, to stay below the 125 percent spending mark. Districts like Middlebury end up having to limit their budgets to appease taxpayers.

"It's a very lofty goal to try and equalize spending," Principal of Middlebury Union High School Bill Lawson said. "I think that's a very laudatory goal, but it does cause some complexities and probably what they have is as good as it's going to get."

Freidin does not see Acts 68 and 82 continuing the vision he had for equal education funding if they are limiting those funds.

"I don't think you can reduce spending without damaging resources available to students," Freidin said. "I think school boards are very conscientious and serious about keeping spending under control. They work very hard to do that, and frankly, between their work and the vote of the people in the town whose taxes are affected, I think you've got a great system."

Even if there is an efficent system in place, Act 60 allows poorer districts to spend more and has not changed spending in wealthier districts, leading the cost of education in Vermont to increase rapidly over the last 12 years. Douglas' solution is to reduce spending. Beyer proposes changes that preserve quality of education but are also more cost-efficient.

"This is an opportunity to rethink what education at the high school and middle school level ought to look like in the 21st century," Beyer said. "But are we going to be bold and do we have the minds who are willing to accept that challenge?

"It won't be easy," he continued. "Most of the decisions that we have made on education have been made for the convenience of adults in the system. Our decisions really ought to be driven by the real needs of the children who have been entrusted to our care."