Money for small schools might be better spent on year-round learning opportunities, Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe told lawmakers last week.
Speaking to joint House and Senate Education committees, Holcombe said investing in learning outside classroom hours and in summer is a way to address educational equality and close the achievement gap.
“Are we spending our money where it matters? Classes of 2-9 students or summer learning?” a slide in Holcombe’s presentation asked.
With the smallest class sizes and lowest student-to-staff ratios in the nation, the Legislature is taking a hard look at how to address voter concerns over spiraling education budgets and inequitable educational opportunities for Vermont students. Holcombe suggested that summer learning is an investment that should come ahead of preserving such small class sizes.
“During the school year, children in poverty learn as much as their affluent peers,” she said. “Over the summer, the skills of children in poverty do not improve, but the skills of more affluent students do.”
A week earlier, the committees heard from the Legislative Working Group on Expanded Learning Time and heard testimony on the group’s report “Every Hour Counts,” which was made public in early December.
The group spent months holding meetings, taking testimony and collecting research for the report.
It outlines the development of systems, partnerships and funding strategies to ensure that by 2020 students in every Vermont community have access to expanded learning opportunities.
Holly Morehouse, executive director of Vermont Afterschool, Inc., a statewide nonprofit, and Ginny Burley, founding director of Community Connections, presented the group’s findings.
Morehouse, who also chaired The Working Group on Expanded Learning Time, said more than 22,000 students could benefit from an expanded learning program.
“This means that there are more than 22,000 chances for bad choices, dangerous behaviors, or falling behind each and every day,” Morehouse said. “It also means that there are more than 22,000 lost opportunities every day to help these children and youth reach their full potential.”
Such programs across the state rely on competitive grants that provide about $5 million a year, local school funding and contributions by families in fees, she said. State money does not support afterschool programs, she said.
“For every dollar spent on quality expanded learning opportunities, Vermont gets back $2.18 in long-term savings from reduced criminal activity and substance abuse treatment, as well as accruing additional benefits from increased high school completion and work productivity,” the report found.
Afterschool and summer programs also provide meals to children from food-insecure families, the report says. About 40 percent of the students in Vermont’s public schools quality for free and reduced meals.
About 85 percent of the more than 450 afterschool and summer programs offered in Vermont are based at public schools. The group noted that 24 percent of Vermont’s school-aged children and youth are presently enrolled in expanded learning opportunities and family satisfaction ranks the state’s programs fourth-highest in the U.S.
But for the 22,000 families who wish their students could be in a program, access and financial concerns are a barrier, Morehouse said. Even charging families $1 a day, she noted, has caused numbers to drop in programs such as in the town of Washington.
“Research has shown that nationally up to two-thirds of the academic achievement gap between lower and higher income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities,” the report says.
The 21st Century federal funding which sees $5 million flow in grants for the programs across Vermont is in jeopardy, testified Morehouse, who said advocates are working with Vermont’s congressional delegation to urge that the funding be preserved.
Rep. Bernie Juskiewicz, R-Cambridge, vice chairman of the House Education Committee, asked what would happen if the $5 million in 21st Century funding were lost.
Where those grants have been lost in the past, Morehouse said, pointing to a supervisory union in the Northeast Kingdom, the number of programs shrank radically, bringing fewer opportunities in that example to students in a rural area of high need.
Rep. David Sharpe, D-Bristol, chair of the House Education Committee, said if the average cost for afterschool and summer programs per child is $2,300 and those 22,000 now unserved students were to come under the programs, “We’re talking about another $51 million. What evidence do we have that we’re doing good for kids in general, and low-income kids specifically?”
Morehouse pointed to the return on investment piece outlined in the report.
“Are we paying the $1 now, or the $2.18 down the line?” she said.
She pointed to test results and other outcomes, including national studies, which show evidence that expanded learning opportunities have measurable results and positive outcomes for students.
