By Jim Lengel
Editor’s note: Jim Lengel, of Duxbury and Lake Elmore, started teaching in Vermont in 1972, worked for the state board of education for 15 years, and retired back in Vermont after helping schools all over the world improve the quality of teaching and learning.
Our executive and legislative branches have failed during this biennium to come up with a workable education reform. It’s too late now to hash out a useful solution, but that’s no reason to give up.
We need to move forward toward a public school system that provides equal and better educational quality, with community control and lower costs.
Here are a few alternative steps, along with a workable timeframe to achieve true education reform.
1. Design sustainable K-12 districts (2025-2026)
Our current hodgepodge of 251 towns, 119 school districts, 53 supervisory unions and untold numbers of merged, unified, contract and union districts is irrational, expensive, unsustainable and not in the best interests of students. Instead, a revived state board of education should design new districts around where our students live, where our schools are located and the existing organic patterns of sending and receiving schools.
Each district should include at least one high school along with its sending elementary and middle schools. Most of our public education works this way already, accounting for 90% of our students. For those few places where the K-12 pattern is confused, the board will help the communities develop a solid solution.
2. Work with communities to improve K-12 quality and equity (2025-ongoing)
The state board should define, in broad outlines, and with deep community involvement, the elements of a quality education: the experiences and opportunities each Vermont student should enjoy at elementary, middle and high school. Most of the new K-12 districts will already meet these standards; some of the lower-spending ones may not.
With help from the state board, these districts will develop a plan for improvement. At the same time, a few high-spending districts may need to examine how they might lower costs with the least effect on quality. The State Board will assist them in this process.
3. Design a funding system to support these districts (2026-2027)
Once new districts are defined, we can calculate the value of property and income in each, as a first step in developing a funding system that provides enough support for each district to maintain the elements of a quality education.
We expect to find a narrower range of taxable value per student among the larger K-12 districts, thus reducing the need for statewide equalization.
As part of the funding plan, the two main drivers of increased school costs — health insurance and special education — need to be dealt with on a statewide basis.
The new governance, quality and funding system should ensure that each Vermont student, regardless of zipcode, enjoys a quality education, under community control, with an equal share of public resources.
