Vermonters have asked and advocated for solutions to address the educational funding crisis. This requires a plan to balance the needs of taxpayers, staff, and students, just as we do annually as a board through the budgeting process. As such, we recognize the magnitude of the challenges necessary to move forward to this end. We also recognize the signs of concern about a plan that does not have evidence or a strategic build-out that would indicate success in these goals.
Essex Westford School District serves 3500+ Vermont students and is a major local employer as one of the two largest districts in the state.
The impact to EWSD if the governor’s proposal is implemented as currently put forth:
The proposed funding formula would result in a funding loss of $8.9 million to EWSD. This value does not account for any other inflating costs such as health insurance or other state/ federal revenue loss. This is after EWSD was forced to cut $6 million for a level spending budget this year.
The proposed plan does absolutely nothing to address the main cost driver: skyrocketing health insurance costs, negotiated by the State. For EWSD these are projected to be another 12% increase for this budget cycle, resulting in a 1.8 million cost increase.
Since the inception of the state negotiated health insurance in 2017, EWSD has had to absorb 6.5 million in health insurance cost increases. A family plan, which most staff utilize, has increased from $17,394 in FY18 to $40,909 annually in FY26.
Eliminating Universal School meals would increase local budget costs due to the burden of means-testing and administration, while many food-insecure families in the district would be harmed. The administrative and system costs for this model would be the same as running the current USM program. It would not save money and instead, would harm the missing middle class Vermont families whose food insecurity is not reflected in federal guidelines.
Consolidation of CTE into one district and rebranding as BOCES will add high levels of administrative costs and diminish the impact of CTE. This approach will diminish the day-to-day relationships between CTE centers and host districts. Again, it will harm outcomes, decrease effectiveness, and will not save money.
In the proposed plan, EWSD would be combined with districts from Grand Isle to Bristol in a district containing nearly 34000 students. This would require massive expenditure in building out administrative overhead while undermining necessary investment in ground-level services of teachers and support staff.
In the proposed plan, local voters would have no control, input, or levers for accountability in decision-making around consolidating and closing local schools.
Local taxpayer dollars would follow any students to private schools which have limited if any measures of accountability. This would dramatically reduce funding from local public schools which would disproportionately harm the most vulnerable students who private schools do not have the capacity to serve. Public systems would be undercut in their capacity to serve students with the highest needs, who cost more to educate. Middle class taxpayers would be forced to consider the burden of payment to get private access to quality education, which would further weaken middle class families and exacerbate Vermont’s wealth gap.
Local boards would no longer exist to reflect the priorities and context of their taxpayers. This would be a loss not just of strategic control, but of an important accountability lever for local schools and the needs of parents and taxpayers.
The Agency of Education would be tasked with ensuring the systems and structures, but lacks the capacity to do so, requiring greatly increasing their funding and staffing. This would give more responsibility and control to an agency that has already demonstrated difficulty meeting expectations they currently own.
AOE would no longer have any accountability to the state board of education and would therefore be under the full direction of the governor, and therefore subject to politically motivated direction as opposed to responsible best practice.
Increasing class size is being identified as the singular way to improve outcomes.
As elected officials, we are tasked to represent our communities. We have received overwhelming feedback from our constituents:
The proposal contains no evidence or answers on how any costs will be saved.
This proposal contains nothing to address the primary driver of cost inflation: addressing health insurance costs negotiated by the State.
This proposal contains nothing to address statewide facilities' needs.
This proposal contains nothing to support effective teaching and learning outcomes.
This plan would push districts statewide off a financial cliff while not addressing any of the underlying cost factors in State control. As a result, tax rates will soar due to loss of funding and districts needing to offset costs or apocalyptic cuts will deeply harm communities, particularly middle class taxpayers who struggle the most and upon whom Vermont revenue relies.
We advocate for the following actions:
Each legislator takes the time to connect with their local school board and staff to understand the full impact of this plan on their community and constituents as our reps have.
Legislators and the Governor examine the alternate forms of funding such as Bill S.104. There are already multiple other solutions brought forth that should be explored.
Legislators and the Governor evaluate the domino effect of cuts from other Vermont systems of care causing undue burden on school systems as frontline community hubs, such as cuts in mental health, social services, and healthcare driving up school budgets to address massive system gaps.
Vermont education funding is in crisis. Vermonters desperately need solutions that will address cost drivers while meeting the needs of our community. We stand ready to collaborate with you on meaningful reform, which starts with realistic, evidence-based solutions that actually address cost drivers and intersectional needs.
Robert Carpenter - Board Chair
On behalf of the Essex Westford School Board and Student Representatives