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Ben Kinsley published Eliminating Independent School Choice (H.258) - Feb 22nd, 2023 in News 2023-02-25 14:24:55 -0500
Eliminating Independent School Choice (H.258) - Feb 22nd, 2023
On Wednesday, the House Education Committee took up the H.258, which would eliminate Independent school choice in Vermont. Andrew Jones (Assistant Superintendent, MMU) shared that he was also an education policy researcher at UVM and considers himself an expert on “school privatization.” As someone who strongly believes in the institution of public education, he voiced his support for the bill because he is “gravely concerned” about the 2022 Carson V. Makin ruling. He believes that allowing school vouchers to go religious schools undermines the public education system. He also argued that vouchers “effectively subsidize the wealthy” because research from other states with vouchering programs indicated that they were most often utilized by families who would have sent their kids to private schools regardless.
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Public Elementary Choice (H.209)
Representative Sibilia presented H.209 to the House Education Committee on Tuesday. The bill proposes to give elementary school students the choice to attend other elementary schools within the same Supervisory Union. The language models the public high school choice mechanism, which requires that both the sending and receiving schools would need to agree to the transfer.
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NEASC Accreditation
Jay Nichols (Executive Director, Vermont Principals Association) joined the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday. Chairman Campion said he had invited them to respond to the question: “Should we consider encouraging or requiring NEASC evaluation for public schools?”
The Vermont Principals Association is opposed to doing this, mostly because of cost and they feel like the benefit to them isn’t as great as independent schools. Read more…
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Vermont Pension Investment Committee
Eric Henry, the CFO of the Vermont Pension Investment Commission (VPIC) joined the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. He highlighted that it's important for them to be separate from the Treasurer's office to provide more transparency.
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Legislative Update - February 19, 2023
The Senate Natural Resources Committee passed the Clean Heat Standard (S.5) on Friday, paving the way for $1.2B in subsidies to clean energy groups. Affordability and equity advocates cautioned that this bill was a blunt instrument and unintended harm would be done to Vermont's most vulnerable, but to no avail. Adequate safeguards were not included in the bill passed by the Committee.
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Workforce Development - Feb 17
The House Commerce Committee met on Friday with representatives from higher education and Advance Vermont, at the invitation of Chairman Marcotte, to discuss alternatives to higher education as a pathway to Vermont's workforce.
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Ben Kinsley published Clean Heat Standard (S.5) - Senate Markup and VOTE in News 2023-02-19 14:11:12 -0500
Clean Heat Standard (S.5) - Senate Markup and VOTE
The Senate Natural Resources Committee took up S.5 again on Tuesday.
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Changes to Election Laws - Feb 14, 2023
The House Government Operations Committee took up a draft elections bill on Tuesday that would, among other things, ban fusion candidates.
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School Spending Update - Feb 14, 2023
Brad James shared with the House Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday that now 73% of districts are reporting (a significant jump from last week). With the latest budgets, the Agency is now showing an 8.2% increase from FY2024. Champlain Valley and Burlington are still not in yet, which are both large budgets and could sway the final numbers. James noted that if both went up by 10% it would increase the statewide average to 8.4%.
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Independent School Bill - Feb 16, 2023
The House Education Committee came back to their draft bill on Thursday dealing with independent schools. Timothy Newbold (Head of School, Village School of North Bennington) introduce himself after Chairman Conlon prefaced by saying that they were interested in hearing from some of the smaller independent schools.
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Ending Independent School Choice (H.258)
Representative Graning introduced the House Education Committee to her bill, H.258, which she claims is to support high quality public education. The bill effectively restricts public tuition to the four traditional academies, which essentially removes school choice for students that reside in districts that do not operate a school. She admitted that this bill was about stopping the “siphoning of money” away from public schools.
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Financial Literacy (H.228) - Feb 14, 2023
On Tuesday, Representative Jerome presented her bill, H.228, which would require high school juniors and seniors to receive financial literacy instruction as a condition of graduation.
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Ben Kinsley published Reorganizing State Board of Education and Creating a Statewide SU in News 2023-02-19 13:52:52 -0500
Reorganizing State Board of Education and Creating a Statewide SU
On Tuesday, Representative Elder introduced his bill, H.179, that re-organizes the State Board of Education (SBE). He believes it is important to recognize that the SBE is staffed by the Agency of Education (AOE). The bill largely re-introduces language from a 2020 Senate bill – S.166. He thinks it’s confusing to the public, saying that he thinks “it’s good to say the Secretary is in charge.” He believes it is not too late to make this structural change. The SBE has only acted independently for a dozen years or so. He also asserted that the Agency would support this bill.
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Ending Independent School Choice (S.66)
Mary Newman (Head of School, Sharon Academy) introduced her school and the students that were with her. Eighth grader Chloe Evans was the first student to testify. Chairman Campion asked what she likes about the school, what she doesn’t like, and what her message was to the Committee. Evans shared that she feels like there is a misconception that independent schools are just for rich kids and that has not been her experience. She was bullied and mistreated at her last public school because minorities were not widely accepted there. She has diagnosed trauma and would often fake sickness so she didn’t have to go to that school. She didn’t know a school couldn’t be so supportive until she was at Sharon Academy. She didn’t know there was a place she could feel at home before her current school.
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Education Quality Standards - Feb 15
The Senate Education Committee revisited Education Quality Standards (EQSs) on Wednesday with Heather Bouchey (Deputy Secretary, Agency of Education).
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Ben Kinsley published Mark-up: Clean Heat Standard (S.5) - Feb. 9-10, 2023 in News 2023-02-11 17:15:28 -0500
Mark-up: Clean Heat Standard (S.5) - Feb. 9-10, 2023
The Senate Natural Resources Committee came back to S.5 on Thursday for mark-up of the bill. Chairman Bray thought they were dealing with mostly just minor corrections at this point, fixing typos and minor date changes, etc. Larger discussion points were deferred until later.
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Clean Heat Standard (S.5) - Feb. 8, 2023
The Senate Natural Resources Committee returned to testimony on S.5 Wednesday, hearing from Judy Dow (Executive Director, Gedakina) who called out the Committee for listening to “only Jared Duval.” Listening to only one story is a mistake.
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Clean Heat Standard (S.5) - Feb. 7, 2023
The Senate Natural Resources Committee kicked off the week hearing from Kathy Beyer (Senior Vice President of Real Estate Development, Evernorth). Evernorth is working in ME, NH, and VT and consider themselves leaders in energy efficiency and renewables – connecting apartment units to advanced wood heating systems, solar hot water, solar PV, geothermal and heat pumps. They are focused on energy equity, which, according to Beyer, Vermont lags behind on implementation of energy equity. Other states in the region are ahead of us.
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Ben Kinsley published FY2024 School Spending Update - Feb. 7, 2023 in News 2023-02-11 17:00:09 -0500
FY2024 School Spending Update - Feb. 7, 2023
Brad James (Director of Finance, Agency of Education) provided the House Ways & Means Committee with an update on school budgets. The December letter from the Tax Commissioner estimated an 8.52% increase in spending over FY2023. James has heard from about 20% of schools about their budgets (as passed by school boards) as of right now, budgets are coming back closer to 9%.
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Public Tuitioning Bill - Feb. 8, 2023
The House Education Committee met on Wednesday morning to discuss an outline of the potential committee bill around Vermont’s town tuitioning program.
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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.