Dear Editor,
If you’re wondering what Gov. Phil Scott and Sec. Zoie Saunder’s education plan will be like in practice, I can tell you— our family lived through it in Florida.
My family relocated to Vermont from Florida just a couple of months after Saunders and her family. Unlike Saunders, we moved to Vermont to escape Florida’s school system. Saunders, apparently, came to make Vermont Florida.
People often tout the quality of Florida schools based on their high test scores, as if that’s the only measure of a good school. We also thought that living in a top district within Florida would guarantee a great educational experience. Unfortunately, our experience was that all Florida’s high test scores reflect are the state’s obsession with standardized testing and the ridiculous hoops educators have to jump through for them.
My son has multiple disabilities and when it was time for him to enter kindergarten we discovered he wasn’t welcome to attend the local public elementary school, but instead would have to attend the district school for kids with disabilities. It was a two-hour bus ride each way — with a 5:45 a.m. pickup time. He would have zero interaction with his peers in our community.
We were told if we didn’t like that option, we could apply for a state voucher to send him to a private school, which is what the district recommended.
The problem with the private school was, despite the voucher, it was really only available for rich families with a stay-at-home parent. Not many private schools accepted disabled kids, and we would be responsible for transportation.
The closest one to us wasn’t even in our school district and would have been 2 1/2 hours per day of driving, plus tolls. There was also no curriculum accountability — they were not required to follow his IEP — and additional services he needed like physical therapy and occupational therapy were contingent on our private insurance.
We ended up sending him to the public school with my husband and I taking turns dropping him off in the morning, so he only had to ride the bus one-way. This restrictive school, only serving students with intensive needs, was advertised as specializing in supporting kids with disabilities. In reality, the school was not equipped to meet his needs. There are many stories I could tell, but the bottom line is, our son wasn’t thriving there — once I got a call to pick him up early because he had spent the entire day crying by the classroom door.
Even our friends with typical kids experienced a lot of frustration with the public schools — and our district was one of the top districts in the state. One of our friends reached out to the school when it became clear her kid was behind in reading and was showing signs of dyslexia. There was not a single reading specialist at the school, and the only solution they offered my friend was for her to “hire a private tutor.”
When my son entered the school system only kids with special circumstances were eligible for vouchers, but by the time we moved they had expanded it so that anyone could apply.
Entering the school system in Vermont has been a night-and-day experience. The staff are excellent, our son is so much happier and we feel much more supported as a family. Our kids love being able to attend the same school and are always excited when we run into classmates and staff around town. Our son now spends his Vermont school vacations asking how many days are left until he can return.
Florida proudly advertises their test scores and promotes school choice as something that would give more autonomy to families, but our actual experience showed that convincing rhetoric and data spreadsheets didn’t match families’ realities in the system. Being in a larger district meant another layer of bureaucracy that prevented us from engaging effectively with his teachers and administrators. The larger distance he had to travel left us disconnected from his education, his classmates and our local community.
I feel very concerned when I hear rhetoric from Scott and Saunders that echoes what I heard in Florida.
I hope our Legislators will refuse to allow them to dismantle the very aspects of Vermont’s education system that have allowed my kids to thrive. Vermont’s system isn’t perfect, but as someone who has experienced other places, I can tell you — you have something special here.
Katie Livermore, Winooski
Editor’s note: Livermore has lived in six different states as a military spouse before settling in Vermont with her husband and two children.
