On Education

The education committee is taking testimony and finding a path forward after the School Redistricting Taskforce Report. I voted no on Act 73 or several reasons. One of the main drivers of rising costs in education, and elsewhere in our economy, is healthcare. Over the past 20+ years we have witness over consolidation in the healthcare field. Rather than the promise of lower costs for better service due to economies of scale, we have experienced rising costs, struggling hospitals, and a hollowed out primary care sector leading to the over use of hospitals creating pressure on costs across the board. Including on our insurance costs which is affecting our labor costs in education. Add to that Vermonts demographics and this tips the scales out of our favor

I voted no on Act 73 for several reasons. First I’m not convinced that blanket consolidation will bring the savings we are hoping for. We have been through consolidation efforts with Act 46 and while there were benefits, long union contract negotiations extended the amount of time it took to complete the process, costing money in the meantime. I'm also concerned about rural representation within bigger districts if we consolidate education into larger population centers. How will the voices of outlying rural areas be heard among the needs of schools in larger communities? How will CTE and special ed be administered with larger districts?  I also worry about consolidation leading to longer commute times for rural families limiting access to community and enrichment activities. The potential of increased transportation needs has a real cost as the prices for cars and repairs rise. There is also a tax on our environment as travel time increases.

We also need to have a real vision for what communities should do with our school buildings. Right now there are no specific funds for maintaining or constructing school buildings. The maintenance is happening but it falls on the community education dollar. My concern is that having these cost bundled does not give us access to the best most cost effective sources of funding for school maintenance and construction.

I am of the mind that we should use these buildings more to serve our communities, not less. We have many educational and community needs in this state including early childhood education, adult education, continuing education, technical education. We also have community service needs like daycare, healthcare, mental healthcare, community nutrition, and small business support. School buildings that are being underutilized offer the opportunity for these two areas have the possibility of working together. We see this working in our own community everyday with OSEC. We have the chance to establish an education solution that plants the seeds for our future growth.

We have home grown experts that know where savings can be made through things like collaboration and collective purchasing. We saw this in the redistricting report which outlines some alternative paths. I look forward to seeing what solutions find that include ALL Vermonters.