Vermont Education Secretary Zoie Saunders spent last week unveiling more specifics about the Scott administration’s plan to revamp the way schools are funded in the state using a mechanism known as a foundation formula. But lawmakers in several key committees in both chambers appeared skeptical of the plan and had several big questions that weren’t immediately answered.
In presentations to the Senate Education and Finance committees on Thursday and the House Education and Ways and Means committees on Friday, Saunders and consultants for the Agency of Education explained that K-12 students would each receive a base amount of $13,200. Those that cost more to educate, such as economically disadvantaged students, would get an additional $9,900, while English language learners would receive $19,800 on top of the base amount. Full-time career and technical education students would receive a total of around $25,000. Additional grants would go toward special education and transportation.
The funding plan — which is contingent on the state moving to five regional school districts by the 2027-2028 school year but assumes the same number of schools as the state has now — is projected to save $183.6 million annually, Saunders said. Some $20 million of those savings come from eliminating the universal school meals program, which provides all Vermont students with free breakfast and lunch under law that was enacted in 2023. Democratic lawmakers have already pushed back on that aspect of the plan.
School Funding Proposal Would Change How Vermont Pays for Education
School Funding Proposal Would Change How Vermont Pays for Education
By Alison Novak
Education
Under the proposed funding model, Vermont would have a base amount that’s one of the highest in the country and the highest allocations for economically disadvantaged students and English language learners, the consultants said. The new foundation formula would also allow for increased college and career opportunities, expanded electives, additional resources to support students’ mental health, and higher teachers’ salaries, their presentation noted.
Vermont Education Secretary Unveils Sweeping Plan to Transform K-12 System
Vermont Education Secretary Unveils Sweeping Plan to Transform K-12 System
By Alison Novak
Education
On Friday, legislators tried to make sense of how such a generous plan could also save the state $183 million.
Saunders’ answer was opaque.
“There will need to be shifts in terms of operations and staffing to be able to deliver on the proposal,” she said. “We know that there are certain schools where this would be very challenging to achieve without considerable adjustments and changes.”
Saunders told legislators that the changes to the funding formula were based on “education quality” and “not about getting to a cost savings.”
“The approach of this was, ‘How do we prioritize how we fund education to ensure we can deliver on explicit and express policy objectives that Vermont has already established, and do that in a way that is going to be efficient and at scale so we can be sustainable?'” Saunders said.
But Rep. Teddy Waszazak (D-Barre City) pushed back on that framing.
“I appreciate that your view is that this has been approached with the lens of educational equity,” he said. “However, I would argue that we’re almost certainly here because the governor has been arguing that we’ve been spending too much money on education for many years.”
Some lawmakers asked whether the funding plan addressed the increasing cost of health insurance for school staff. Since health insurance negotiations began happening at the state level in 2021, costs have risen substantially each year; school districts say it’s a major cost driver. But the new funding plan doesn’t directly address that issue.
Another area of concern was whether the administration’s two-year implementation timeline for changing the funding formula and consolidating school districts is overly aggressive given the scale of the changes. This week, Secretary Saunders plans to flesh out the details of the new plan for school governance, which calls for five regional school districts, ranging in size from roughly 10,000 to 34,000 students.
“Years of policy decisions have got Vermont in the place where we are,” said Rep. Rebecca Holcombe (D-Norwich), who served as state education secretary from 2014 to 2018. She suggested that the administration consider mapping out, in greater detail, how the transition would be rolled out.
“How do we get from where we are into this imagined future that you’re hoping we can achieve in a way that protects our children?” Holcombe asked.
Even some Republicans seemed wary.
“The work doesn’t bother me,” Rep. Carolyn Branagan (R-Georgia) said. “What bothers me is that I’m not convinced that in the end we’ll have a more productive system.”
But Saunders assured legislators that the administration is “really committed to doing this the right way” and “making sure that it’s quality.”