Report says Vermont is spending at least $400M more than needed on education, but it’s not that simple
By Ethan Weinstein/VTDigger
A new report issued Tuesday, Oct. 15, by third-party consultants says that as of last year, Vermont was spending $400 million to $460 million more on its schools than what it calls “adequate expenditure.”
But the report, written by Picus Odden & Associates and commissioned by the Vermont Legislature, is based not on the educational landscape the state already has, but one that “differs substantially” from the current reality.
The findings rely on research into the staffing and resources needed to produce “high-performance schools.” Factoring in Vermont’s labor costs and statewide student body, the researchers determine their model’s “estimated adequate costs.”
“Addressing the cost of education is not going to come easily or quickly,” Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, who chairs the Vermont House’s tax-writing Ways and Means committee, said in a Tuesday interview.
The report uses financials from last year, when education spending totaled more than $1.7 billion— it does not factor in the additional $180 million in costs added in the current school year. Among all states, Vermont is one of the top spenders, spending the fifth most per student in fiscal year 2022.
The ballooning cost of education — and with it, rising property taxes, the source of a large portion of the funding — defined this year’s legislative session. Republican lawmakers and Gov. Phil Scott pushed for measures to immediately reduce both education spending and tax hikes, while Democrats favored a longer-term approach, fearing short-term relief could cause fiscal consequences down the road.
The Democrats won out, though they did include some short-term tax relief, and lawmakers ultimately created a Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont that is tasked with charting a more financially sustainable future for the state’s schools.
This latest report, however, was commissioned separately as an update to a report issued in January 2016.
If the report’s model, grounded in academic literature on education best practices, is followed, its authors said “student achievement in Vermont would substantially improve and the cost of education could be reduced.”
Don Tinney, president of the teachers union Vermont-NEA, pushed back against the report’s relevancy due in part to its lack of Vermont specifics, calling it a “distraction” from the changes lawmakers should implement.
“Picus’s model does not fit the landscape of Vermont,” he said, “I’m not sure how he can reach conclusions about Vermont’s systems when he knows the model doesn’t fit.”
Gov. Phil Scott declined to comment, saying the administration had not yet had time to review the 133-page report.
In addition to school size differences, the report also uses different student weights, and does not factor in costs related to transportation, food service, debt service, capital construction and some special education expenditures.
