The House Education committee has come up with a new plan to cap local school spending over the next three years. The panel has replaced a rigid cap with a flexible approach that reflects a town's current spending level.
The committee decided to revise its original plan after a number of lawmakers complained that the proposal would have a devastating impact on their local schools.
The initial plan would have placed a 2 percent cap on either the school budget or the town's per-pupil spending rate. That approach has been replaced with a flexible cap.
Bristol Rep. Dave Sharpe, the chairman of the House Education committee, says the new cap will have a range of between 1.5 to 4 percent. Towns that spend above the statewide average will have a lower cap and towns that spend below the average will have a higher cap.
The legislation also calls for larger school districts by 2018 and the new districts would have at least 1,100 students. Sharpe thinks the flexible cap will help control costs until the larger districts go into effect.
"In my opinion, caps are a terrible thing. I don't like doing this, but we must respond to voters and property tax payers in the state in the short term, and this was the methodology our committee chose,” Sharpe says.
"I don't like doing this, but we must respond to voters and property tax payers in the state in the short term, and this was the methodology our committee chose." - Rep. Dave Sharpe, House Education committee chairman
Sharpe thinks some schools will look to reduce staffing levels to meet the requirements of the new cap.
“I think it will draw attention to staffing situations in schools, and that we'll see a change in those ratios,” he says.
And Sharpe doesn't think the flexible cap will undermine the quality of schools across the state.
"The education budget growth this year is 2.95 percent, so this isn't like eviscerating our schools,” he says. “But schools need to figure out how to do a better job of educating our students within cost constraints."
Jeff Francis is the executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association. He thinks the plan to cap local school budgets is a bad idea, in part, because schools will still need to respond to a growing number of state and federal mandates.
"They [spending caps] look past the ability of local school officials and the electorate to weigh in on what the practical needs are of schools." - Jeff Francis, Vermont Superintendents Association executive director
"If you take a look at caps at their base level, they don't reflect legitimate needs for variability in budgets,” Francis says. “They look past the ability of local school officials and the electorate to weigh in on what the practical needs are of schools."
Francis does support the part of the bill that calls for larger school districts, because he thinks it will lead to a consolidation of staff in some schools.
"It's about 80 percent of the cost of education, and see if we can't get some economies of scale through somewhat larger school district configurations that are going to allow for better management and deployment of personnel,” he says.
The legislation is scheduled to be debated on the House floor next week.
