Education Spending and Quality Goals

High quality educational opportunities are the key to the future

Well-educated citizens have the knowledge and confidence to invent new products, start new businesses, be great employees, and to be active participants in their communities, be it as a basketball coach, a volunteer firefighter, a select board member, or a member of a local theater group. We owe it to our students to prepare them to compete in our rapidly changing world.

Act 60

Act 60 has worked to equalize spending among Vermont's communities, thereby compiling with the Supreme Court's Brigham decision and ensuring that all children have the same access to education, regardless of a town's property wealth. However, changes must be made to the Common Level of Appraisal (CLA) to make our educational funding formula less confusing. I favor replacing the system with a statewide, three-year rotating professional appraisal.

Vermont must reduce spending statewide in order to reduce local school taxes

Vermont is among the highest per pupil spending in the country, and Vermonters are frustrated by rising property taxes. It is important to understand that school taxes are determined not only by what we spend, but by what is spent across the state on education as a whole. In order to reduce taxes at the local level, we need to take a system-wide approach to reducing spending.

We can control spending and enhance educational opportunity in Vermont

Here is what I would support as Governor:
Larger School Districts - Vermont should have 16 school districts (as opposed to the current 307). The path to getting to larger districts needs to be paved by requiring all districts to implement best practices in administration over two years with the goal of creating larger districts in five years.


Minimum-Maximum Class Sizes - Each district would adopt a minimum-maximum class size policy. This would mean greater job security for teachers, increased flexibility for staff planning, and reduction in costs associated with the hiring process. In addition, it would keep investments made in professional development within each district, increase capacity and help preserve some of our smaller schools.

Critical Evaluation of Special Education - Our schools and our property taxes have become the deep pockets of special education/social services. We need to have our department of education define what truly belongs as an educational cost and what is a "social cost. I believe it is correct to have education taxes pay for educational costs, and the general fund pay the social costs.

Teacher Support and Training - I believe that the most significant progress toward the success of all children happens in classrooms with excellent teachers who base their work on research proven instruction and educational practice; for example, differentiated instruction as a method of teaching and workstations as a strategy to help all students to learn.

Read the detailed policy paper.