[T]he Senate Appropriations Committee late Wednesday approved an education governance reform bill after preserving small school grants.
Both the House and Senate versions of the bill, H.361, had called for phase-outs of state supports, which included small schools grants and a hold-harmless formula that have subsidized small schools and schools losing enrollment. The elimination of those supports was seen as a way to spur merger activity and move districts into larger school systems.
Senate Appropriations voted unanimously Wednesday to strike a section of the Senate version of the bill that would phase out small schools grants, which cost the state about $7.2 million a year. The elimination of the hold harmless provisions was left intact.
Education governance reform has been a major effort for legislators this session as they work to address declining numbers of students in Vermont’s schools and rising education spending and property tax rates.
Since some schools would keep small schools grants if they were geographically isolated, under the plan, the committee determined the savings would be only $3 million to $4 million out of the $1.5 billion education fund.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, also proposed striking a tax break incentive piece of the bill, saying the incentives would only work in about 12 districts, and the rest of the state would pay for those incentives. The bill offers a five-year tax break or grant for districts that move into larger systems in one year.
“Why don’t you just strike the whole bill then?” said Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell, D-Windsor.
Sears’ motion was rejected.
Sears said for small schools, losing the supports that have helped them to stay open flies in the face of the bill’s intent, which states it does not intend to close small schools, or schools at all.
“Those folks are saying, it’s not your attempt to close us, but you’re starving us to death,” Sears said. “How do I respond to that parent from Readsboro?”
The committee also struck a section that sought $50,000 for leadership training to help districts experiencing chronic leadership problems.
An amendment calling for Pre-K programs and special education services to be evaluated by the Agency of Education was approved.
“It’s really trying to say ‘how do we get in a reliable, consistent uniform way the ability to evaluate the performance of our programs and our investments here,’” said Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, who proposed the amendment.
The committee also struck language from a Senate Finance Committee amendment that would have prohibited a school district from paying more than the statewide average tuition rate to independent schools outside Vermont. Senators were concerned that the provision would spur retaliation against Vermont independent schools.
“Early on this was all about lowering property taxes, then when it became apparent it was not going to lower property taxes, suddenly it became all about improving educational quality,” Sen. Dick McCormack, D-Windsor, said.
Sears said when he was out campaigning, “Nobody said, ‘close my school.’ They said, ‘lower my property taxes.’ This bill does not answer the problem people were asking us to solve, it doesn’t even come close, because it raises property taxes.”
Voting in support of the bill were Kitchel, Campbell, Sen. Bobby Starr, D-Essex/Orleans; and Sen. Alice Nitka, D-Windsor.
Voting against the bill were Sears, McCormack, and Sen. Diane Snelling, R-Chittenden.
The bill now heads to the Senate floor.
