Containing School Spending While Maintaining Quality
by Gaye Symington


Early in the session, Senate President Pro-Tem, Peter Shumlin, Governor Douglas and I agreed on a framework for containing property tax increases. Our joint goals are to:

" Support the excellence Vermont schools now achieve;
" Maintain equity in public school financing;
" Examine what Vermonters expect of their schools and how to more effectively deliver those services
" Lower the rate of growth of public school spending;
" Finance schools in a way that makes the basic dynamics affecting school taxes more transparent.

Several committees in the House will be making initial recommendations this week and then pausing to allow for feedback from town meeting week discussions throughout the state. When we return to Montpelier the proposals will be completed for consideration by the full House and then forwarded to the Senate. Two major areas of discussion are around governance changes and spending caps. I'll outline these here and look forward to hearing your thoughts at town meeting.

Governance Changes
Richard Cate, Vermont's Education Commissioner, has proposed consolidating existing supervisory union districts into one district, with one governing board. This would mean that the number of school districts in Vermont would be reduced from 283 to 53. In the Chittenden East area there would be one school district instead of the current seven. Such a change could allow greater efficiencies, flexibility, and eventually opportunities for cost containment through more efficient use of existing buildings and personnel.

It is important to recognize what this proposal is not. This is not a proposal to consolidate schools or to close small schools. The focus is on more effective school governance.

Any change in governance would include local or community councils in place of local school boards. Local councils would be responsible for the operation of the school, including issues of school climate, instructional practices, school rules and regulations.

The Education Committee is likely to recommend a transition time frame of up to four years and we are considering giving the final authority for the change to a special commission or to the Governor or the State Board of Education. Many challenging transition issues - such as representation on union district boards, allocation of capital debt, setting of tax rates and collection of school taxes - would need to be addressed in the transition.

Spending Controls
The Governor has proposed a cap on school spending that grows at above 3.5%. Communities could exceed the cap with a super-majority vote.

Our primary concerns with this proposal are:
" The proposal would most constrain the lowest spending schools.
" Districts that tuition all or most of their students have little control over the tuition they are charged and so cannot affect the spending growth.
" Special education costs can dramatically fluctuate in one year, especially in small schools. We propose to address special education spending separately (see above).

We are considering instead a high spending threshold that would apply to school districts that spend significantly more per pupil than the statewide average. Under current law when a school spends more than 25% above average, the tax consequence of any incremental spending above that threshold is more stringent. Since Chittenden East schools generally spend only slightly above average, this hasn't been an issue in our districts. The high spending threshold in current law appears to work - school boards actively avoid reaching the threshold. We are considering imposing a lower threshold - 15 or 20 percent above average. School districts will be given lead time before the change takes place.

Other proposals relate to special education, a statewide school calendar, contract negotiations at the supervisory union level (which Chittenden East already does), and examining state and federal mandates. The legislature's work on health care and energy costs continues in other policy committees. And, we have contracted for analysis of the cost drivers in education, particularly personnel costs, special education, student-teacher ratios, and classroom size. This information will inform our work in the coming months and second year of the biennium.

Representative Frank and I will attend all three of the town meetings in our district, in Bolton at the potluck prior to the start of Monday night's meeting, in Jericho at 8am prior to the Tuesday meeting, and in Underhill at the meeting itself. Or, you can contact me at gsym@together.net.