School Choice

As part of Act 73, this year's sweeping education reform law, lawmakers enacted much stricter rules about where families can go with publicly funded tuition vouchers. Deborah Bucknam, a Walden-based attorney, is now laying the groundwork for a legal challenge.

For all the angst the topic of independent schools has generated, there has been little discussion about what the education reform legislation would actually do regarding the private schools that receive public money. But some of the new law’s provisions, which quietly came into effect last week, may surprise some of its critics.

The tiny elementary school does not have enough kids to stay open next year. Instead, Ripton students will be sent to Salisbury in the fall.

The State Board of Education has come under fire for decisions that lawmakers and advocates say prevent participation in its meetings about issues such as private school rules and the search for a new state education secretary.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision about private school tuition payments violates the Vermont Constitution. House lawmakers were not able to come up with a solution in a bill that was passed recently.

When it comes to education, should public money go to nonpublic schools? A school board in Rutland County recently posed this question, and it’s not the first time — or the last — this issue has been debated in Vermont or elsewhere.

Ask a roomful of Vermonters to explain school choice and you will probably get several different answers depending on where they're from. If they hail…