Dear Editor,
The Vermont Legislature has passed a 13.8% increase in Vermonters’ property tax to fund our public education system. Now that we are paying more, what educational outcomes are we getting for our money?
According to Forbes Magazine, Feb. 7, 2024: “Which states have the highest standardized test scores,” Vermont ranks 10th in the nation in terms of standardized test score achievement. This is a praiseworthy result. However, if you look at this result in combination with other data and compare it to the other states in the Top 10, the glow of the top result begins to dim.
World Population Review provides 2024 data on per-pupil spending by state. Here are some things to note (all data relative to K-12 spending and all median comparisons are inclusive of Vermont data):
Vermont’s per-pupil public spending for K-12 students is $21,219. This is the fourth highest in the nation and $6,121, or 41%, higher than the median amount of $15,098 spent by the states in the Top 10.
Vermont’s per-pupil cost of living index is 114.9 (an index score of 100 represents the national average). The median index for the top 10 states is 109.3. We spend 41% more per student than the Top 10 median, yet our cost of living is only 5% higher than the rest of the Top 10 cohort. More than the cost of living alone is needed to explain the difference.
Vermont’s per-pupil spending as a percentage of taxpayer income is 5.33%, the highest in the nation.
Vermont spends 45.9% of total staff salaries on teachers, which is -3.1% below the median for the Top 10 states.
Vermont public schools are yielding good results for our children. However, we are spending more per student to get those results than other states with even better results. This year, we will be spending 13.8% more, and I suspect that increase does not buy us better schools but rather the same, or somewhat worse schools, given the present budget environment.
Max Tyler, Westford
