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The Issues

Education

Providing An Excellent Education for Vermont’s Children

Education in Vermont is personal for me. I attended the public school in Hartland and graduated from the Dresden School District.  My mother spent her life training and empowering a generation of Vermont teachers.  She was also chair of the Hartland school board. Now, I am raising my family in the farmhouse where I grew up and my son Judson will start Hartland Elementary School in the fall.

This election is about moving into the next era of the State of Vermont.  Nothing will be more important in defining that next era than the quality of the education we provide to the next generation. Our decisions in the next few years will determine how the next generation is prepared to work in the global marketplace, and whether families will stay in or move to Vermont.

But, education in Vermont is facing serious challenges including declining student enrollment; increasing costs resulting largely from escalating health care costs; a generation of teachers retiring; increasing disparity between those who have access to information at home and those who do not; increasing racial discrimination as we become a more diverse state; one of the smallest percentages of high performing students pursuing college at all; and the highest per capita debt for college graduates of any state in the country.

A quality education will not come from demonizing good teachers and making school boards the enemy. A strong education system will also not come from Montpelier-mandated school consolidation, supersized school boards, or using cookie-cutter curriculum that destroy the creativity of innovative school leaders and teachers, or by publishing test scores that have nothing to do with actual student progress.

Providing a quality education in Vermont demands that we focus our resources on the students, invest in excellent teachers, remain open to rethinking how we do education, focus on the greatest return on investment, create tools for measurement that empower teachers and school leaders, involve our communities, and make sure our education system prepares our students for the emerging economy.

As Governor, my administration will:

Finance education -- Make sure that our current fiscal challenges do not lead to compromising the future of our state’s children. 

• Ensure we continue to base our education funding system on ability to pay, protect use value appraisal and maintain equal opportunity to raise funds across the state.

• Eliminate the Common Level of Appraisal (CLA) and instead move to a regularly scheduled appraisal system.  The CLA causes too much confusion and prevents communities from understanding how spending decisions affect taxes.

• Support communities that support their children’s education by repealing the current “vote twice” law, which is ineffective and actually increases costs in many cases.

Make smart cost reductions -- Take immediate steps to ensure we are reducing costs in ways that do not hurt children. 

• Reduce the number of superintendents by 2/3rds to reduce overhead

• Encourage bulk purchasing of everything from computers to heating oil. 

• Establish teacher-aided distance learning within and across school districts, allowing teachers to work in different schools on different days, while providing and in some cases enhancing the rich curriculum we have today.

• Provide capital to allow schools to slash energy operating costs by using renewable energy systems and investing in efficiency.

• Allow communities to make informed decisions on school consolidation, continue small school grants for those that choose not to consolidate, and give resources to help with transitions for those that choose to bring schools together.

• Reduce special education costs through investment in early childhood education.

• Tackle the cost of health care through self-insuring all Vermonters. 

Establish meaningful accountability measures that empower teachers to excel -- Develop accountability measures that are meaningful and incorporate the full spectrum of learning we expect from our students.

Implement electronic student records -- Establish a statewide student record system so we can actually track progress year after year. Empower teachers, school boards and administrators with this information for continuous improvement. In addition, an electronic student record would prevent losing important information on a child that moves from school to school.

Partner with teachers and educators – Take advantage of the wealth of knowledge and experience available within Vermont’s committed cadre of teachers to explore new models of teaching our students including “critical friends groups” and other professional development strategies.

Provide equal access to classroom resources through universal broadband and equipment -- Ensure the infrastructure is in place that provides all students with equal access to content and supplementary, online education opportunities. With internet access in every home, the cost of hardware to get online will drop to the cost of a few textbooks and we will be able to give all young people access to the world’s information.

Educate beyond the classroom -- Engage students in education beyond the classroom.  Our community-based education system is a tremendous asset that should be encouraged.  As Vermont’s own John Dewey wrote, “Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.”

Support student community service and reduce financial barriers to higher education -- Develop a student service scholarship program to ensure that every Vermonter who attends one of our state colleges or UVM and commits to two years of national service can graduate from college debt-free.

Assist all students to participate in post-secondary education -- Reach out early to students whose parents did not attend college to ensure they are exposed to the opportunity.  Small steps like paying an application fee or reminding a student to take the PSAT dramatically increase the likelihood of college attendance. Invest in models that work efficiently in schools and after school programs such as Boys and Girls Clubs to scale these efforts statewide and increase the numbers of Vermonters going into higher education.

Start early for all -- Support a strong early education program to bend the cost curve on special education.  Because of the scale of our state (we have only 15,000 children between the ages of 2 and 5), we can approach sources such as the Nellie Mae Education Foundation to fund the first statewide demonstration project for comprehensive, quality early education with Vermont early education innovators, and then use the savings in early education to continue the program into the future.