Republican Gov. Phil Scott unveiled his plan to overhaul Vermont’s education system earlier this week. And it would make some drastic changes to the way public schools are funded and how they’re governed.
Vermont Public’s capitol bureau reporter Peter Hirschfeld sat down with education reporter Lola Duffort to find out what’s in the proposal, what it would mean for taxpayers and students — and whether it has any shot of making it through a Legislature that’s still controlled by Democrats.
This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Peter Hirschfeld: Lola, this plan the governor put on the table this week, it represents, by far, the biggest changes to Vermont's education system that we've seen in decades, maybe ever.
There's so many aspects to it, but let's start with the one that really seems to go against the cultural grain in Vermont:
Right now, we have more than 100 school districts in this state. The governor wants to squeeze all of them into five big school districts to oversee all of the nearly 300 public schools in this state. Is this the end of local control?

Lola Duffort: It might be the end of local control as we know it. And, you know, what you're talking about is the governance piece. But he is also taking aim at local control when we're talking about the funding piece.
Right now, local voters decide how much their school district will spend in the upcoming year — in the spring, usually during town meeting. Scott is saying, actually the state should decide. That there should be this per-pupil formula, with adjustments for student needs, that says, "this is how much each district will get," and then the state should give that money to school districts.
Peter Hirschfeld: It's not hard to imagine a scenario where a district says, "Look, we're going to need more money than the state is telling us we need to deliver a quality public education to our students." If they find themselves in that situation, A) are they going to be allowed to spend more money than the state says they ought to, and B) If so, where is that money going to come from?
Lola Duffort: So, yes, they would be allowed to raise more money, and that money would come, it seems like, from property taxes. The state says that you could only raise so much money, and also that they would put in some equalizing measures to make sure that very affluent areas can't easily raise a ton more cash than other places. But those details haven't come out yet — and will matter a lot.
Peter Hirschfeld: Back to the consolidation component. It begs a question, if I'm now going to be in one of five districts, presumably, there's going to be a lot of high schools in that district. A lot of middle schools, a lot of elementary schools. Am I, as a parent, suddenly going to get to pick and choose where my kid goes to school?
Lola Duffort: You are getting at a really key question. But, you're presumably asking about public school choice.
Peter Hirschfeld: Yes.
Lola Duffort: So I think the thing that's actually going to really hang up lawmakers, is the question of private school choice.
Right now, you have certain communities in Vermont, certain districts, that offer private school choice. And you know, the current interpretation of the law has been that if you are a district that offers choice, you have to offer it to everyone, all towns in your district — it's all or nothing.
And so if we go to these much larger regional entities, what does that mean for communities that have choice? Do they have to give it up? Or do we see large scale expansion of choice? Both of those scenarios could potentially be political non-starters.
Peter Hirschfeld: When you and I were out on the campaign trail this last election cycle, I don't think we heard from a lot of voters talking about the ins and outs of how Vermont's education system works. Some people certainly were. By and large, though, voters were angry about these huge property tax increases that they were being forced to absorb.
Does this plan deliver the tax relief that we heard so many voters clamoring for in November?
Lola Duffort: The administration is certainly arguing that it would. That it would bend the cost curve, particularly through consolidation, and that would include some schools closing and certain classes getting larger. But the administration is also saying that they think that, through this system, they can direct more money to higher-need communities and higher-need schools.
I think it's a big open question as to whether or not you can deliver on this promise of broad-based affordability at the same time as you direct more cash to certain places, and I think that that is going to be a really big sticking point. And I'm already hearing a lot of anxiety in the building, particularly from Democrats, about, you know, OK, exactly how much money are we talking about?
Peter Hirschfeld: We're talking about policy right now. Politics is going to be a huge issue as well, right? We've got relative partisan balance in the Statehouse now. No major legislation is getting through unless we see bipartisan consensus between Democrats and Republicans. Do you see that happening?
Lola Duffort: I mean, there are so many land mines here, right? There's the fundamental question of, OK, how much money are we going to be sending to schools under this formula? There's choice. And there are a lot of things I haven't thought of. So I don't know.
But I actually think it's very possible that the breakdown that we see will be less along party lines and more along geographic lines. That's historically been the case, especially when it comes to questions of choice. So, I think it's going to be a very interesting discussion and a pretty heated one.
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.
_