A South Royalton resident has filed an ethics complaint against two state senators, arguing their role in education reform negotiations crossed a line because of their ties to independent schools.
Geo Honigford, a member of the advocacy group Friends of Vermont Public Education, filed his complaint with the Senate Ethics Panel on Monday. It claims Sens. Seth Bongartz and Scott Beck, who played a key role crafting the sweeping education reform bill H. 454, violated state conflict of interest rules in their advocacy for private schools.
Beck, a Caledonia County Republican and the Senate’s minority leader, is a teacher at St. Johnsbury Academy in St. Johnsbury. Bongartz, a Bennington Democrat and the chamber’s education committee chair, was a longtime trustee of Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester and has done consulting work for another private school.
Beck and Bongartz’s Senate districts are steeped in private school politics. Three independent schools — St. Johnsbury, Lyndon Institute in Lyndon, and Burr and Burton — educate the vast majority of the high school students in their regions. The two lawmakers have long been proud defenders of the state’s town tuitioning system, which allows families to use state-funded vouchers at the school of their choice, and their influential role in the high-stakes talks over a historic education reform package angered public education groups throughout the process.
“I think it's ginned up by people who just don't like the fact that we understand independent schools, we understand their role — their critical role — in the delivery system of education in Vermont in the areas they serve,” Bongartz said.
He called the complaint “total garbage” and said it was tantamount to “character assassination.”
“I know a lot of people in the Legislature with whom I disagree, but you know, I don't try to discredit them,” he said.
Honigford argues that Beck and Bongartz shouldn’t have pushed for provisions that would have reimbursed high schools and schools that operate career and technical centers at a higher rate given their ties to schools that might benefit financially. And he noted that Bongartz has done consulting work for the Maple Street School in Manchester — a school that will likely remain eligible for public funding thanks to a laxer threshold proposed by Bongartz.
The House — and Gov. Phil Scott — had proposed that independent schools be made ineligible for public funding if fewer than 51% of their current students are publicly-funded. Bongartz proposed 25%. Preliminary data from the state shows that 33% of Maple Street’s students are publicly tuitioned.
Bongartz said a consulting contract with the Maple Street School had ended “two headmasters ago,” and that he hadn’t spoken to anyone from the school since becoming chair of the Senate Education Committee. The threshold he proposed had simply been “a round number,” he said, that was “less draconian” than what the House proposed.
Lawmakers generally aren’t expected to recuse themselves from legislation unless they have a “direct and immediate” interest in the matter. That’s been interpreted to mean that if a vote impacts a legislator and a larger group of people, that lawmaker can still participate, according to Senate ethics guidance.
Beck noted that this same guidance specifically says teachers can work on education bills. And he argued that, given the outsized role independent schools play in educating students in his region, any lawmaker — whether employed by St. Johnsbury or not — would have advocated for the same stipulations he did.
“Guilty as charged,” he said. “I stuck up for my kids in my area.”
Vermont lawmakers frequently write laws that touch directly on the sectors in which they work or volunteer. Indeed, two House lawmakers with key roles in the final round of negotiations over H.454 — Reps. Peter Conlon and Chris Taylor — have ties to public schools. Taylor, a Milton Republican, works for the local public elementary school, and Conlon, a Cornwall Democrat, was a longtime school board chair in Addison County.
Defenders of the system argue that’s precisely a strength of the state’s citizen Legislature, where those with on-the-ground knowledge can craft relevant legislation. But critics say this system breeds conflict.
The Senate Ethics Panel is composed of five lawmakers. Its deliberations are private, and the biennial report it issues does not have to disclose much about the complaints it receives, including which lawmakers they concern or what they were accused of doing. Honigford’s complaint was made public when he sent a copy to the press.
