The Report covered the cost equity formula approach which addresses the specific cost factors of each district by allocating actual funding, rather than tax capacity, to cover those costs. Each district would receive a payment from the Education Fund with an amount for each student living in poverty, the number of students in rural district and the number in a small school middle school and high school. Specific local spending decisions would be left up to local school districts to determine how best to allocate these payments.
The cost equity payment approach could improve several factors;
• By eliminating weights and the equalized pupil calculations, the school funding formul would be simpler to understand and more transparent to voters.
• By sending payments directly to districts, communities could understand nd account for the increased costs associated with different student needs, grade levels, and schools.
• By making costs transparent, there would potentially be greater accountability in how funds are allocated.
• Higher spending districts would no longer receive more capacity from the weight than lower-spending districts.
Once the General Assembly updates the weighting factors or determines the cost equity amounts, the factors or amounts would need to be periodically updated to reflect cost changes. Therefore, the Task Foce recommends that a new and ongoing Education Tax Advisory Committee be established. The Committee would issue a written report to several Senate and House and the General Assembly would determine whether and how to recalibrate weights or cost equity amounts. Changes to the weights or cost equity amounts, or both, would be made public at lest ayear before they are implemented.
English Language Leaners – overall, the Tasks Force believes that a simple, flexible categorical aid group program will best meet the needs of Vermont school districts for funding ELL educational programs. Such an approach will improve ELL opportunities for students and enhance accountability, to better ensure that school districts are directing resources to the needs of ELL students throughout Vermont.
Measurement of Poverty – The Task Force recommends taking the interim step of measuring poverty by FRL enrollment (for both weighting and cost equity proposals0 while moving to a universal income Declaration form for all school districts.
Small School and Merger Support Grants – the Task Force recommends 1) eliminating small school grants based on school size and other criteria, and 2) maintaining merger support grants for school districts that merged voluntarily or under SBE order and do not qualify for a small school weight.
Strengthening and Enforcing Education Quality Standards – The Task Force strongly recommends that the house and Senate Education Committee work with the SBE and AOE to ensure that all Vermont students are receiving high-quality education that is continuously verified through a formal oversight process and that AOE has the substantial financial and human resources it need to follow through on this essential obligation.
Special Education Funding – The Task Force chose not to include any recommendations for changes in special education funding as part of its work. They determined that linking two major school funding issues together could complicate each and potentially further delay consideration and implementation of either or both.
Income Tax for Education Funding – The Task Force recommends that the committees of jurisdiction undertake analysis and consider changes in its policy that would shift education tax liability calculations from combination of income (for Vermonters with lower incomes) and property (for Vermonters with higher incomes) for the purposes of
Calculating homestead tax rates to a unified system where all individual tax payers pay based on income.
Most educational experts and many members o the Task Force agree that how money is spent is more important to educational outcomes than how much money is spent and yet that question was outside the Task Force’s scope.
The Task Force recommends building in an evaluation component to any implementation plan. The evaluation should be done by the Auditor’s office or a contracted designee and shall include its findings on the successes and failures of the implementation of this act as amended. The Task Force also recommends that an legislation drafted include explicit goals for both process and outcomes.
There are several related topics which the Task Force has requested that the Legislature pursue and conduct further research and offer potential recommendations:
• Tuition programs
• School Construction
• Early College Program
• Student Mental Health Services and Trauma-informed instructions
As of 12/13/21 the Conclusion has yet to be written and the recommended editorial changes agreed to in its 12/10 meeting have yet to be added. The next meeting of the Task force should provide the FINAL report as amended.