More Independent Schools and More Choice Are the Property Tax Solution

So, leftist legislators are, of course, trying to shut them down.

Vermont taxpayers are desperate for relief, especially in regard to funding public education. The only way to provide that relief is to return spending levels on Pre-K to 12^th to something resembling normal pre-Covid levels. The obstacle to this necessity is the politically powerful VTNEA, Superintendents’ Association, Principals’ Association, etc. (aka The Blob) are violently opposed to any reform of the system that impinges on the ever-increasing flow of money from Vermont taxpayers’ wallets into their own. And, conveniently for them, just as firmly ensconced in their pocket as $2.5 billion and growing of our hard-earned money is the Democrat Supermajority.

Taxpayers beg for relief; union special interests demand more cash, not less. Guess who the Democrats are doing the bidding of? Spoiler alert: not you!

We saw this in bald terms when Rep. Nelson Brownell (D-Pownal) explained that the education finance “reform” bill being proposed today is about “look[ing] at costs, but not in a containment way (emphasis added).” Just yesterday, House Ways & Means Chair Emilie Kornheiser (D-Brattleboro) snapped at Republicans offering an amendment to the property tax bill that would lower taxes, “There’s no decision on no taxes here. That’s just not an option.” Translation, “VTNEA et al, keep telling us how much you want to spend, and we’ll keep hitting up the taxpayers with more and higher taxes to pay for it.”

Here's the reform reality we need to embrace: Vermont independent schools that participate in the Vermont’s 150-year-old town tuitioning system very generally speaking do a better job of educating our children for far less money. It’s a win/win for everyone who should matter.

We need more of this – lots more of this -- not less.

Now, when opponents of this cost-effective, highly popular form educating our children howl – as they are certainly doing at this point in the story – that independent schools are only able to achieve these stellar results because they discriminate, no they don’t. That’s a lie. Every school, public or independent, in Vermont that accepts state dollars is subject to the same state and federal non-discrimination laws and regulations. Period.

The taxpayer funded per pupil costs for independent tuitioning schools are capped at $16,756 for elementary students, and $18,266 for middle and high school students. That’s 30 percent less than the official, weighted per-pupil average of $23,586 spent by the government run public schools. And, if one simply takes the $2.5 billion education budget and divides it by the 80,000 actual living, breathing student bodies in the classrooms, that number goes up to over $30,000 per kid.

So, using the most conservative numbers here, if every Vermont student were in the tuitioning system with a capped per-pupil spending rate, Vermont taxpayers could save around $750,000,000. And we’d still be spending 15 percent more per child than the national per-pupil average! And we’d more than likely be achieving better student outcomes.

Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it!

There are some communities that are coming to this conclusion. Parents of children in the Windham Elementary School, for example, just won a school choice petition battle – taking on the Blob as well as a hostile local school board – by an overwhelming vote of 82-45 to close the school and give the kids choice. As the Brattleboro Reformer reports:

“Windham families spoke up forcefully at the town meeting, giving several reasons for their fear and dislike of the Windham Elementary School, which is currently closed. They particularly cited the school board’s inability to affirm that the school would be improved in the immediate future, given lack of staff and serious deficiencies in the school plant," the Windham Committee for School Choice said in an announcement. "The resounding victory for the solid majority of parents who wanted school choice was unexpected, and suggested that some pro-school voters at town meeting changed their minds on the basis of what they learned from the unhappy parents."

That last point is key. Parents and taxpayers need to speak up, speak out, and make the case for school choice. Forcefully. It’s a winning issue.

National and state polling data tracked by the American Federation for Children shows public support for school choice at landslide levels between 65 and 75 percent. And for all you wokester social justice warriors out there, demographically that support is highest among Black respondents at 73 percent. (Or is your real attitude, “Black lives matter, but their opinions not so much”?) Hispanic support is at 71 percent.

Really, the only segment of the population that doesn’t support school choice is the special interests that profit mightily from the public school monopoly system. Breaking up that monopoly is the reform we need for the benefit of both as taxpayers and students. The system we have now, with rising cost and falling test scores is failing both. And so are the Democrats in Montpelier who are placing the demands of special interests above those of their constituents.

RELATED STORY: My Constituents Want School Choice and Must Be Stopped!

• Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.

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Media Notes: In case you missed my appearance on WVMT’s Morning Drive on Thursday, April 18, you can find the link to the replay HERE.

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