Future of Education panel narrows focus to engagement, short-term cost containment

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Two months into its work, the commission that’s charged with looking at the future of public education in Vermont is preparing to hold the first of a series of public sessions on Oct. 21, with a venue still to be identified.

The sessions are intended to solicit public feedback for the commission to incorporate into the recommendations it will give the Vermont legislature next year.

The Communication and Engagement Subcommittee wanted to bring a consultant on board to help it with a number of its initiatives, including the public sessions, but the state’s procurement process will take eight to 12 weeks. At the Sept. 16 subcommittee meeting, members decided to go ahead with the sessions anyway.

Interim Secretary of Education Zoie Saunders has spoken several times about the importance of  getting “informed input” from the public. The subcommittee discussed what sort of information the commission should be presenting at the public session since it is still in the information gathering stage of its work. Saunders suggested more discussions about what the commission wants to communicate and what kinds of input it wants. But subcommittee chair Meagan Roy suggested that that could slow down even further the process of hiring a consultant. Roy also noted that the Agency of Education is the vehicle for hiring the consultant, but it’s up to the commission to decide the scope of work.

As she has said in the past, Roy reiterated that one important qualification for a consultant should be experience with equity and inclusion issues.

Members John Castle, Jay Nichols and Jeff Fannon added their take on what sort of presentation would begin the public session. They agreed that the point was to listen to the public and perhaps simply explaining what the commission’s job is was a good start. Castle volunteered to write a first draft of the presentation and Fannon said he was available to help.

Education Finance Subcommittee to look at cost containment

While the Education Finance Subcommittee arguably has the biggest lift on the shortest schedule, it has only met once to date. That panel – by law – is the only group in this process that can have members other than those who serve on the full commission. At its Sept. 4 meeting, the subcommittee welcomed outside member Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, electing her to chair the group. Kornheiser also chairs the House Ways and Means Committee in the legislature.

The subcommittee will be studying the state’s education financing system and weighing the “efficacy and potential equity gains of changes to the education finance system,” according to Act 183, which formed the commission. In the short run however, the subcommittee will be looking for “cost containment” measures that the legislature can take up in January. If that wasn’t a tight enough deadline, members have been reminded that school boards across the state will be putting together their budgets beginning in October and will want to have some idea of what might be coming down the road. Those budgets will need to be finalized in January for voter to consider on Town Meeting Day in March.

The subcommittee discussed the problems the system faces and the expectation that the legislature will want to make changes in the next session. Members talked about looking at the way the education fund gets it revenue and how that revenue is spent. They also talked about identifying the “cost drivers” that make the education system more expensive even as the number of students is dropping. The AOE asked the group to try to be specific in their requests for data on spending.

The education finance group’s next meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 30.

Steering group looks for substantive education presentation

Also meeting on Sept. 16 was the commission’s steering group, which sets the agenda for the full commission meetings. The work of the Education Finance Subcommittee was central to the discussion of the agenda for the upcoming Oct. 21 meeting of the full commission. With school budgeting on the horizon, members wanted to get some guidance for local boards on the record.

Nicole Mace, a commission member representing the Vermont School Boards Association, said they don’t want to “miss the opportunity to influence the budget process for the next fiscal year,” which she said may be the best they can hope for in terms of short-term cost containment.

State Rep. Peter Conlin cautioned that in the near-term the commission should focus on those cost containment strategies requested in Act 183 with a deadline of December 2024 rather than on the entire finance system.

Mace said a recent letter from Gov. Phil Scott to education leaders painted a “bleak picture” but didn’t provide “a lot of clear solutions.” She said the committee’s role is to put some ideas on the table, “the sooner the better.”

Saying that some “draconian steps” might be proposed in the legislature and might pass, Sen. Ann Cummings told the group that “unless somebody gets really creative, there isn’t a lot (of short-term cost containment) out there that I’ve heard of.”

Roy, who also chairs the steering group, pointed to the need to review previous efforts to reform the financing system. The legislation that formed the commission mandates such a review including laws like Act 46 (school consolidation), Act 173 (special education), Act 127 (school funding formula adjustment) and Act 76 (child care and early education.)

In addition, Roy suggested reviewing Scott’s letter to education leaders and the joint comments on education funding created by four education associations that are represented on the commission.