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Education Spending Update - March 12, 2024
On Tuesday afternoon Nichole Lee (Director of Education Finance, Agency of Education) joined the House Ways & Means Committee to review updates from the Town Meeting Day votes on school budgets. Out of 119 budgets, 30 failed, 19 were delayed, and 8 have been re-warned.
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Ben Kinsley published Changes to Clean Heat Standard (S.306) - March 12, 2024 in News 2024-03-17 09:45:22 -0400
Changes to Clean Heat Standard (S.306) - March 12, 2024
On Tuesday, the Senate Natural Resources Committee began taking testimony from the Public Utilities Commission, department of Public Service, and Vermont Energy Investment Corporation beating (very carefully) around the bush regarding their worries about the June 1 statutory date to hire a Default Delivery Agent for Act 18 (the Clean Heat Standard). At first it was comments like “we’re just sharing others’ concerns” or “we’re neutral on the date, but….” However, by the end of the conversation the language had become “It’s unrealistic” and “it’s not going to work.”
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Education Spending Update - March 14, 2024
Nicole Lee (Director of Education Finance, Agency of Education) began the House Ways & Means hearing on Thursday with a presentation of recent Education Fund projections following school budget defeats. They have received preliminary redrafted budgets from 18 districts (out of 30 that were defeated) that represent a weighted average increase of 12.17%. These 18 budgets represent just over a quarter of all students in the state, but notably don’t include Milton or Washington Central.
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Tax Changes - March 13, 2024
When the House Ways & Means Committee met on Wednesday Morning, Chairwoman Kornheiser revealed that they moved some items that were “hanging around” into their miscellaneous tax bill. Notably, this included a meals and rooms tax surcharge on short-term rentals.
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School Budget Votes - March 14, 2024
The House Education Committee hosted school officials on Thursday to hear their feedback from budget votes last week. The House Ways & Means Committee listened in for added context in their own discussions.
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Class Size Policy - March 14, 2024
The House Education Committee heard a literature review on Thursday afternoon from Anne Bordonaro (Interim Deputy Secretary, Agency of Education) regarding class size impact on education quality. She highlighted their key takeaways:
- VT has very small class sizes (relative to other states and to our own maximums in SB rule which are 20 for K-3 and 25 for 4-12).
- Per the research on class size, there is room for class size increases without harming student achievement.
- Our very small class sizes may have negative impacts beyond cost.
- If the Leg wishes to contain personnel-related educational costs, they may wish to look at staff: student ratios, not just teacher: student ratios.
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Ben Kinsley published Miscellaneous Education Bill - March 13, 2024 in News 2024-03-17 09:30:09 -0400
Miscellaneous Education Bill - March 13, 2024
Legislative Counsel provided a walk-through of the House Education Committee's v3.1 of the draft bill on Wednesday morning. There were a number of minor changes, but section 8 of the bill would re-introduce a uniform chart of accounts that school districts and supervisory unions will be required to use to provide reporting data to the Agency of Education around budgets and other financial information.
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Ben Kinsley published Cooperative Education Services (H.630) - March 12, 2024 in News 2024-03-17 09:27:38 -0400
Cooperative Education Services (H.630) - March 12, 2024
The House Education Committee reviewed a bill, H.630, on Tuesday that would allow for cooperative education services to be provided by a group of school districts. These services would be intended to provide the “least restrictive environment” for students that require a “higher level of care.” Most of the students who would receive these services have mental or behavioral issues that are disruptive in the normal school environment. Today many of these students have 1-on-1 para-educators which does not provide the necessary level of therapy and contributes to classroom disruption and high staffing ratios.
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LETTER: Don't Tax Small Business Owners
February 20, 2024
House Ways & Means Committee,
We agree that the ‘Who Pays’ report showing that our state’s tax burden is flat, and even slightly regressive, for taxpayers with incomes in the top 40% is concerning. Middle class Vermonters are struggling to make ends meet and inflation, taxes, and other impacts on cost of living have not been kind to them. Learning that they also shoulder an outsized share of the tax burden adds insult to injury. It is also important to highlight, as the report authors did, that this distribution of tax burden is not because our income tax system is inadequately progressive, but rather that we have a number of other taxes that are quite regressive.
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Ben Kinsley commented on Recommendations From the Education Establishment - Feb 29, 2024 2024-03-05 20:30:43 -0500The important thing from a public policy perspective is that the measurement is consistent across all the different reporting entities. The data here is sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics – https://usafacts.org/data/topics/people-society/education/k-12-education/student-to-teacher-ratio-public/
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Education Finance - Feb 27, 2024
Heather Bouchey (Interim Secretary, Agency of Education) and Nichole Lee (Director of Finance, Agency of Education) joined the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday to discuss the cost drivers in education spending. The survey was put out in the field mid-January and most results came back in late January and early February. The survey sought to understand what districts are spending money on this budget cycle that may be driving the $230M in new spending. Lee identified rising health care premiums, the “ESSER cliff” as federal funds go away, capital construction projects, salaries & benefits, and inflation as primary reasons for spending increases.
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Ideal Class Sizes - Feb 28, 2024
Meagan Roy (Superintendent, Washington Central Unified Union School District (U32)) spoke to the House Education Committee on Wednesday. She has held leadership roles at school districts of varying sizes and understands the conversation is “cost containment” and the conversations around education funding issues need to deal with that issue. It is a polarizing subject, she noted.
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Rural Education Costs - Feb 28, 2024
Noah Ampe (Legislative Intern, University of Vermont) presented some findings for the House Education Committee of his research about education statistics from other states.
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Ben Kinsley published Testimony: Education Spending - Feb 21, 2024 in News 2024-02-25 17:20:18 -0500
Testimony: Education Spending - Feb 21, 2024
I had an opportunity to testify to the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday regarding this year's historic property tax increase. Even though it may not have been new material for the Committee, I thought it was important to cover the basics on what is contributing to the surge in property taxes this year. This is not a new problem, schools have increased spending $900,000,000 over the past decade and are projected to spend up to another $240M this year. We have the second highest cost per student in the country, and lowest student/teacher ratios by a mile. Our problem is spending.
National average student/teacher ratio is 15, Vermont's is 10.8
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Education Finance - Feb 21, 2024
The Joint Fiscal Office reviewed the Education Fund stabilization reserve for the House Ways & Means Committee on Wednesday. The reserve is always set at 5% of the prior year’s education spending and is meant to be used if tax revenues miss projections. It also contributes to the bond rating of the state.
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Ben Kinsley commented on Education Finance - Feb 23, 2024 2024-03-05 20:34:43 -0500The Green Mountain Care Board reviews this annually. Last time I checked their overhead had to be 6.5% or less of overall premiums. The cost drivers are really on the provider side.
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Act 127 Fix (H.850) - Senate Floor
Act 127 Fix (H.850) - H.850 was taken up on Wednesday with a walk-through from Senator Cummings on behalf of the Senate Finance Committee. She notified Senators that she would “be a little longer than I normally would because this bill is trying to solve confusion as to what was happening out there with property taxes and school spending… and why taxes were being capped and uncapped.”
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Regional Housing Targets - Feb 20, 2024
The House General & Housing Committee returned to a conversation around setting regional housing targets on Tuesday. Maura Collins (Executive Director, Vermont Housing Finance Agency) had comments regarding the Draft 1.1 that the Committee was reviewing. She was very supportive of the “great changes” regarding the Housing Needs Assessment, with one caveat. She pointed to the Building Homes Together Campaign (Chittenden County) which also set a target but also assumed 25% would be “affordable units.” She noted that in some years that program has come close to meeting the targets but fell short of the “affordable” goals.
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Education Spending (H.850) - Feb 12, 2024
On Monday afternoon, the Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) walked the House Appropriations Committee through a fiscal note of H.850, which would remove the 5% property tax cap in Act 127 and replace it with a step-down mechanism to phase in the property tax hit from 2025 over the next five years. They were unable to calculate the impact of repealing the previous transition mechanism because of its “complex and circular nature,” but the new mechanism will cost the Education Fund $30M in FY2025. JFO pointed out that the property taxes will need to absorb this cost unless another funding source can be found.
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Ben Kinsley
Ben has over a decade of experience in public policy, government relations, and advocacy here in Vermont. He served two tours of duty as a staffer for CFV and then as executive director. After working for several public officials, lobbying firms, and non-profits, Ben started his own public policy research and development consulting firm in 2017. Since then, Imperium Advisors has developed from in-depth policy research outfit to offering a whole suite of products and services around public policy and advocacy from ideation to implementation.
He has worked with dozens of clients across New England and is passionate about taking on intractable challenges with creative solutions – things that impact Vermont like education, health care, energy, public/private investment, and workforce development. Since leaving as Executive Director in 2017, Ben has remained on the CFV Board of Directors and continues to assist with executing on policy initiatives. He also enjoys helping his neighbors and volunteering for community groups.
Enjoying the outdoors is one of Ben’s favorite pastimes; hiking, skiing, and mountain biking are all regular activities. As a native Vermonter, he loves the state and is committed to seeing Vermont’s communities grow and prosper.
Ben lives with his wife Kayla and their dog Pippa in Burlington, VT.