Dear Chair Cummings and Members of the Senate Finance Committee,

Thank you for your ongoing work to address the trajectory of education spending through S.220. We urge the Committee to adopt enforceable mechanisms that align spending growth with the sustainable capacity of the Education Fund and provide immediate relief to Vermont property taxpayers.

Since the passage of Act 60 nearly thirty years ago, Vermont’s per-pupil education spending has grown at a rate nearly triple the national average. This expansion has also doubled the rate of inflation and, crucially, exceeded the growth of the consumption tax revenues that support the Education Fund. Because the Fund is self-leveling, any spending growth that surpasses organic revenue growth creates a deficit that is shifted onto property taxpayers.

H.686, seeks to expand and modernize the scope of disclosure and identification requirements for lobbying-related advertisements in Vermont by broadening the definitions of "advertisement" and "lobbying," removing session-based timing limitations on disclosure, and updating statutory language to be technology-neutral, affecting lobbying regulation, campaign transparency, and public communications policy.

S.190 seeks to enhance state oversight of healthcare costs and improve financial transparency within Vermont’s hospital system, healthcare reform, hospital budget regulation, and consumer protection.

It was a busy week keeping tabs on the pre-crossover sprint. Vermont's school performance took center stage in Senate Finance's joint hearing on the annual state report card (based on the ESSA accountability dashboard), where Education Secretary Zoie Saunders revealed the stark underperformance in Vermont's schools: no english grades surpassed 60% proficiency, math rarely topped 50%, science ranged in the low 40s, and over half of schools were "not meeting" expectations or declining. Equity gaps widened dramatically with designations nearly doubling for students with disabilities, low-income kids, and English learners. These results prompted the Agency of Education reorganization and initiatives like READ Vermont (Act 139 literacy), COUNT on Vermont (math), and Act 73 graduation standards aim to reverse trends.

The bill would end the State’s current broad program of indoor air testing for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Vermont schools while clarifying when the State will pay for PCB investigation and cleanup at schools that already tested positive and directing remaining funds and future planning toward long-term remediation, education facility health, environmental safety, and state budgeting for school infrastructure.

The legislative gears are grinding towards crossover, with committees balancing ambitious reforms against practical fiscal and rural realities. This week the House Education Committee grappled with how to move forward on education reform. The Committee appears deeply divided and was looking for solutions to break a stalemate. It was perfect timing for our testimony on Friday. Our research on the efficiencies of replacing supervisory unions with CTE-based Education Service Agencies, we believe, will help inform the Committee's deliberations, by leveraging regional models to capture administrative savings without top-down mandates or the need to buy out collective bargaining agreements.

I think we all are aware that they are several large funding gaps that need to be filled this year and a lot of issues that need to be addressed like a housing shortage, cost of living, health care, the economy, education crisis (on several levels), etc. We are faced with some touch decisions this year. There is perhaps another issue, a more fundamental one, that looms above them all...

It was another impactful week in the legislature. Lawmakers are still wrapping their arms around an absenteeism issue this week as some superintendents shared successes in cutting chronic absentee rates by engaging directly with students and families. This restorative approach contrasted with what was described as outdated 1960s truancy laws that alienate families, especially low-income ones.

S.220, seeks to curb the growth of property taxes by placing temporary limits on school district budget increases.