More Learning, Less Money

Vermont is struggling trying to figure out how to pay for their public school system. While the Green Mountain State isn’t the only state finding itself in financial straits, the Vermont’s commitment to pay top dollar to provide its kids a quality education has historically been above reproach – until now.

Last month, Vermont Public’s Lola Duffort posted a story claiming a study suggest Vermont could cut $400 million in school spending and get better results, if only the entire system was willing to change. Duffort writes,

“Vermont could spend $400 to $460 million less on it schools and get better outcomes for students – if schools and districts were configured in radically different ways. That’s according to a new report…commissioned by the Vermont Legislature.”

“The study, conducted by Picus Odden & Associates, is largely a theoretical exercise. But it is likely to strengthen the case for some measure of consolidation as decision-makers in Montpelier [Vermont’s capital city] contemplate overhauls to bend the cost curve in Vermont’s pre-K-12 system.”

“’It is a policy choice to maintain a certain number of school districts and buildings, and this decision influences overall costs,’ the third-party consultants wrote in the report’s conclusion. ‘Vermont’s current structure with many small schools and school districts likely results in higher costs that are not fully addressed in this analysis.’”

“Vermont’s schools are grappling with dwindling enrollments and a slew of inflationary pressures, including the rapidly rising cost of health care, aging and neglected facilities, and special education. Debates over double-digit spikes in property taxes dominated the most recent legislature session, and lawmakers have made clear they have a mandate for change.”

“A Commission on the Future of Public Education was created by the Legislature to explore potential reforms, and it is expected to deliver one set of short-term recommendations as soon as this December. Representative Emilie Kornheiser, a Democrat who sits on the panel, emphasized that this latest study was not a blueprint for action – but she said it would inform the work ahead.”

“’This report is not a policy proposal. It is not a bill,’ Kornheiser said. ‘It is further information that we have available to do the really difficult and collaborative work of understanding what kind of education system we want in Vermont.’”

“The modeling presented by researchers in the 133-page report is grounded in academic literature and departs, in dramatic ways, from the present landscape in Vermont.”

“Ideally, according to the report, every school district would oversee 3,900 students apiece. According to a state education profile compiled by the Agency of Education in Vermont, only four school districts in the entire state had at least 3,000 students in 2023. The report also recommends class sizes of 15 students in pre-K through 3^rd grades, and 25 students per class in the upper grades – far more than is typical in Vermont, which has one of the lowest staff-to-student ratios in the nation.”

“’Each piece of this study contains certain assumptions. That’s what academic studies do, and each of those assumptions is a policy decision. And so having assumptions laid out like this in a report sometimes brings clarity to what policy decisions might need to be made or not made going forward,’ Kornheiser said.”

“The study is sure to draw pushback. Don Tinney, the president of the Vermont-NEA, the state’s teachers union, called the conclusions of the study ‘absurd,’ and a ‘distraction from that real conversation that needs to happen around how we fund education.’”

“And he argued, as he has before, that he did not believe Vermont was spending too much on schools. Lawmakers, he said, need to focus on transitioning to an entirely income, and not property-based, system for funding schools.”

“’If you’re going to talk about consolidation, you really have to get into the weeds of it. And I’m not sure that that can be done with this type of report,’ he said.”

3,200-member school districts across Vermont? It’s hard to imagine, given that many towns support school districts with less than 300 students enrolled.

Here’s an idea for Vermont that would cut costs and allow its towns to keep their small numbers:

For every 40 kids who are eligible to enroll in public schools, identify, recruit, and hire 2 talented learning coaches – one being a literacy expert and the other being a numeracy expert.

Vermont spends around $16,000 per student annually to pay for their education. Instead of applying that per pupil expenditure to places called schools, give two learning coaches $640,000 and charge them with figuring out how to pay for learning plans for their 40 kids. Learning coaches could pay themselves $100,000 each and still have $440,000 left over to pay for learning space, transportation, specialized instruction, learning equipment and supplies, and the like.

I find it difficult to think each learner needs a $11,000 budget annually, after the learning coaches have been paid, so cutting the cost of public schooling is entirely possible.

This system cuts out all the fat that K-12 systems have added over the past 50 years, allows learning organizations (not necessarily schools) to remain small, and allow towns to keep their public schooling operations local.

I’m not holding my breath that Vermont, or any other state, will think the way I’m thinking, but it looks like it would provide all the desired outcomes important to Vermont. And it would take time and effort to execute the changeover, but what if it was more effective and efficient? In other words, what if it made kids smarter and stronger and did it while costing less money?

Friday News Roundup tomorrow. SVB