By Rep. Peter Conlon
Editor’s note: Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, is chair of the House Education Committee.
The passage of the education bill, H. 454, in the General Assembly, and presumably gaining the governor’s signature into law, marks the start of efforts to transform Vermont’s education system into one that recognizes the incredible demographic changes over the past four decades, and to correct the gradual but significant drift to a system where students in next-door towns have very unequal learning experiences and opportunities.
It also addresses Vermonters’ call — as evidenced by the 2024 budget votes and subsequent legislative elections — to create a fairer funding and tax system with more state-level control of spending, while also providing school districts with stable and predictable funding that is fair to all students and taxpayers.
One thing it is not, however, is a done deal. H. 454 is a framework filled with future work by many entities and big decisions in the coming couple of years, work and decisions on which much of H. 454 rests. For example, the Legislature must decide on fewer and larger districts for the math to work — a decision that will be filled with politics and hard, hard choices. Additionally, the Legislature must decide how to fund career and technical education centers within our current spending boundaries when we have a hodgepodge of governance structures and wildly varied tuitions charged by each.
And it’s not just the Legislature. To implement key parts of H.454, the Agency of Education, under a relatively new and controversial secretary, must accomplish much, from complex studies of special education delivery to hiring a team of experts to help the field with the transitions in H.454. Also, the tax department must create a new second-home category for a statewide education tax, and implement a new homestead exemption that, with all the other pieces of H.454, will leave most Vermonters better off tax-wise on the other side.
H. 454’s journey was challenging, as is every piece of education legislation that looks to change the status quo. There were differing concerns from every part of the state, from areas not wanting to limit which private schools receive taxpayer-funded tuition, to rural areas that worry H.454 puts small schools in jeopardy, to large districts with large schools and class sizes that may receive less in overall funding as a more equitable system is put in place, even though they represent the ideal in scale.
Putting those in balance was hard enough, but there were also the demands of Gov. Scott, whose own transformation plan proposed just five school districts for the state, a student-to-staff ratio of 25:1 and a funding formula that would have pulled $185 million out of the system, among other facets.
The governor threatened to veto H.454 at numerous stages, but was ultimately convinced by the work of the House to accept a foundation formula that recognizes Vermont today, not the future state of his plan.
It was not lost on the Legislature that Gov. Scott is very popular, including with Democrats, and that the politics of elections are ignored at one’s peril, especially the call for working with the governor and for compromise. To his credit, he remained open to changes from his vision — within limits — and ultimately supported a bill that is much different.
H.454 is a good start for Vermont. It sets up a map to needed future change, but puts in significant contingencies that must be met along the way. Meeting them will take as much work, decision making and political consideration as passing the bill to begin with.
It should also be noted the bill also allows for the time and space to delay, change and make other needed adjustments depending on those dark clouds on the horizon that form in Washington, D.C.
