Editor’s note: This commentary is by Rama Schneider, who has been a member of the Williamstown School Board since 2009.
[S]en. Brian Campion apparently until now has been content to quietly hum “Swan song for the Vermont State Board of Education” to himself and those directly around him. But now he, along with Sen. Dick Sears, is taking center stage to belt out his rendition, and all it took was some local repulsion to an idea, centralization, Campion has actually advocated on behalf of.
On Jan. 15, 2013, I attended the morning portion of the VSBE meeting in Montpelier and then headed over to the Statehouse for a scintillating session of the Vermont House Committee on Education. That day I heard my first two stanzas of the swan song.
The initial stanza was our state’s first Secretary of Education Armand Vilaseca (previously the commissioner of ed) telling the VSBE that he wasn’t sure if implementing the governor’s desire to see algebra in eighth grade and geometry in nineth would be a matter of policy (presumably the VSBE), legislative action (the General Assembly) or rule (the governor). It sounded to me like the beginning of the end for any real relevance for the Vermont State Board of Education regarding educational policy in Vermont and our children’s long-term education was being placed in the two-year political cycle of legislators and governers — an out-of-key, out-of-tune chorus singing whatever fits short-term needs.
The education of our children and young adults should not be a Ping-Pong game used to garner political advantage.
The second stanza was a response Vilaseca made to a question from then-Rep. Campion regarding possible changes in legislation that would allow the secretary to go around the Vermont State Board of Education. Quoting Vilaseca: “It can be cumbersome having a board with policy/rule making authority and a governor with the same authority.” Absolutely nobody on the House committee made any attempt to speak up for the VSBE — nobody.
Sen. Campion has been a champion of centralization of power over your child’s education. The Bennington Banner just few weeks later on Feb. 4, 2013, quoted Campion in an article titled “New school laws in pipeline”: “Governance continues to be a priority for the committee, looking soup to nuts at how education is delivered and (how) we govern education in this state.” The article went on with “Two bills being drafted will look to change the role of the State Board of Education — one eliminating the board and giving total control of the Agency of Education to the governor, and another eliminating the state board’s authority to nominate department secretary candidates for the governor to chose from. This is the first year the AOE has had a secretary with a cabinet position instead of a commissioner chosen by the state board, but the legislature is already looking at giving more authority to the governor, Campion said.”
So we have on one side the VSBE, with six-year appointed seats that don’t answer to the vicissitudes of short-cycle politics. The same VSBE that can and does take the very long-term interests of our students and state to heart. The VSBE that did not centralize local school district authorities by moving them away from elected local boards to the supervisory union level. The VSBE that did not mandate school district consolidation.
And on the other side are such as Campion who have long favored removing independent voices from our educational discussions. This is the crowd that thinks two-year policy cycles is a great thing for our state’s elementary and secondary school students not to mention the districts. This is the crowd that passed Act 46.
The education of our children and young adults should not be a Ping-Pong game used to garner political advantage. How many school boards will have to discuss whether or not to put off a major change in curriculum or expensive building repairs because nobody knows what education policy will look like in another year? The ones who should be moved out of the educational policy cycle are the legislators and governors.
Unfortunately, Sen. Campion is signing up with the Gleeful Club and singing the swan song, and it seems the first line is “Oooo, oooo, baby, I finally got you now!”
