Setting the record straight on independent schools

Submitted

By Reps. Seth Bongartz (D-Manchester), Scott Beck (R–St. Johnsbury,  Michelle Bos-Lun (D–Westminster), Bobby Felice-Rubio (D–Barnet), Robin Chestnut-Tangerman (D–Middletown Springs) and Mike Rice (D–Dorset)

A recent commentary by Reps. Rebecca Holcombe of Norwich, Erin Brady of Williston and Monique Priestley of Bradford, while making a few fair points about the rising cost of education, unfortunately ended with inflammatory rhetoric about independent schools and the Vermont style of school choice that has provided amazing opportunities for generations of students in rural Vermont. The thrust of this argument is that students from rural parts of Vermont are driving up taxes because they attend independent schools. These three representatives then assert that our students are served by an “uncontrolled, poorly regulated” voucher system. We are compelled to set the record straight.

First, Vermont does not have an education voucher system.  A voucher system, like we see in some other states, is one where a school district operates a public school, while also providing an option for families to withdraw their children and take a “voucher” to another school. This voucher has the effect of draining resources from the local public school. But, under Vermont law, families have no entitlement to tuition payments from their school district if the district operates a public school.  In rural parts of Vermont, a number of school districts do not operate public schools for some or all grades.  In these rural areas without public schools, school districts can pay tuition for students to attend independent schools, such as Burr & Burton Academy, Killington Mountain School and others.  Often, public schools located in operating towns are only peripherally available — if at all — to these rural areas. They are not a viable alternative. Independent schools fill the gaps.

Second, this is not an “uncontrolled, poorly regulated” system that is driving up taxes for the rest of Vermont.  As a benchmark, Hanover High School, the out-of-state public school serving students from Norwich, has the highest tuition rate of any high school paid by Vermont taxpayers — $23,598. By comparison, the Taconic & Green School District, which serves parts of Bennington, Windham and Windsor Counties and is served by independent high schools, pays a tuition rate of $19,987 to Vermont independent schools — a savings of $3,600 per student that benefits all Vermont taxpayers.  

Independent schools survive only when they deliver high quality education, for the simple fact that families can exercise a choice of where to send their children.  Of course, the construction of several new public schools across rural parts of Vermont, for which the authors appear to advocate, would not be without considerable expense to Vermont taxpayers. 

While the authors advocate for a ubiquitous, one size fits all system, we suspect most people recognize that just because something is different doesn’t make it something we need to kill. Over the course of the last 200 years, rural parts of Vermont have developed a rich mosaic of options for their children, often public in some grades and independent in others. That mosaic provides extraordinary opportunities for our children at the same time we have saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of construction dollars. The system deserves to be celebrated, not demonized.