House lawmakers have abandoned their efforts to force Vermont’s school districts to merge and are now pursuing a voluntary consolidation plan that’s already meeting with sharp opposition from Republican Gov. Phil Scott.
Last year, Scott and the Democratically controlled Legislature united behind a historic education reform law, called Act 73, that called for an overhaul of the governance and funding of public schools. Forced mergers are the critical first phase in that process. And up until last month, Democratic House Speaker Jill Krowinski said she was committed to following through.
In recent weeks, however, legislative leaders have come to terms with the fact that they don’t have the votes to pass a mandatory consolidation measure on the House floor. And on Thursday, in a 7-4 party-line vote, the House Education Committee approved a bill that leaves school districts’ fates in their own hands.
"Making significant changes is something that we can’t do without Vermonters’ support."Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall
Cornwall Rep. Peter Conlon, the Democratic chair of the House Education Committee, spent the first three months of the legislative session trying to sell his colleagues on the merits of forced mergers. He said it became clear there wasn’t “much love” for that plan.
“Forced mergers, even at the smaller scale that I proposed, is something that would probably fail to get the majority of Vermonters’ support,” Conlon told Vermont Public. “And really making significant changes is something that we can’t do without Vermonters’ support.”
The House education bill drew a swift rebuke from Scott, who says Vermont won’t be able to curb growth in education spending — and the property taxes that fund it — until the state condenses a sprawling governance system that currently has 119 school districts and 52 supervisory unions for about 85,000 students.
Larger districts, according to Scott, are the only way to guarantee operational efficiencies. And he said districts won’t consolidate unless the Legislature forces them to.
“Do the tough work,” Scott said during a media briefing this week, in remarks directed to legislative leaders.
But both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, especially those representing more rural areas, have been reluctant to fall in line.
Glover Rep. Leanne Harple, a Democrat who serves on the House Education Committee, said her constituents fear that larger districts, governed by more decentralized boards, will usurp local control, which could lead to closures of rural schools.
“That’s a critical piece of our economy,” Harple said this week. “That’s what’s going to bring families there, it’s what’s going to keep kids tied to those communities.”
House leaders maintain that Vermont can bend growth in education spending without forced consolidation. Their legislation requires all districts to participate in what are called Cooperative Education Service Areas — formalized regional collaborations that would allow districts to split costs for services like transportation, professional development and IT.
And the House bill keeps Vermont on track for another key component of Act 73 — the foundation formula. Instead of local boards making spending decisions, the foundation formula would see the state set a base per-pupil spending level, and send each district a corresponding education payment.
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth said this week that he’s amenable to the concept.
“I have said from the beginning, if there was a way to get the foundation formula and we didn’t wind up with mandatory consolidation … then I could support that,” he said.
Under Act 73, the foundation formula won’t kick in until and unless the Legislature forces districts to merge. And Scott said this week that he’ll insist on maintaining that construct. Smaller districts with volatile student enrollment numbers, he said, could be devastated financially by a per-pupil funding formula.
“That will in some respects just punish some districts … because it’s a smaller amount of money without the efficiencies that would come along with the restructuring,” Scott said.
Scott plans to force the issue. And he says he has the leverage to make the Legislature fall in line. He reiterated this week that he won’t pass a state budget into law unless lawmakers approve a mandatory redistricting map. And he said it’s on Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to bring their rank-and-file lawmakers to heel.
“They should be able to convince their members,” he said.
