By Guy Page
The House Education Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday at 10:30 a.m. will discuss a draft bill about how homeschooling affects public school financing.
Details of the bill are unclear at present. Vermont Daily has reached out to state education officials and Education Committee legislators for more information. Here’s the cryptic title for the joint meeting, from the Legislative website: “Financial Implications, Homeschooler Interface with Supervisory Unions, Draft Bill Addressing Average Daily Membership.”
As reported first in VT Daily on July 21, Vermont homeschooling applications are up by 75%. Parents are concerned about children’s health, their own health, and/or changes in the public school learning environment in response to Covid-19. Public school funding is based partly on enrollment, so an exodus of students for any reason reduces revenue.
Guy Page
Among those invited to testify tomorrow is Jeff Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association. In early August, Francis spoke with about record high numbers of homeschooling applications affecting public school revenue. VT Digger reported on August 4: “Jeff Francis, the executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, flagged sharp fluctuations in enrollment as a concern for legislators on Thursday, and asked them to consider changing the state’s education funding formula so that schools are not hit with a “double-whammy” of plummeting enrollments and Covid-related expenses.”
Police neckhold ban reviewed
The House Government Operations Committee on Wednesday held a “walk through” initial review of S.119, which says “a law enforcement officer shall not use a prohibited restraint on a person for any reason,” and defines a prohibited restraint as “the use of any maneuver on a person that applies pressure to the neck, throat, windpipe, or carotid artery that may prevent or hinder breathing, reduce intake of air, or impede the flow of blood or oxygen to the brain.” It also sets guidelines for police use of deadly force.
House Judiciary considers more criminal record expungement
S.294, now under review by House Judiciary, would allow criminal record expungement of crimes related to burglary under the age of 25, forgery, counterfeiting, credit card skimming, home improvement fraud, identity theft, grand larceny, petty larceny, embezzlement, receiving stolen property, organized retail theft, unlawful trespass, and other crimes.
Global Warming Solutions on full House agenda
Both House and Senate have approved H.688, but their versions differ. The House may choose to accept the Senate version, or call for a Committee of Conference to reconcile the two versions. At present Gov. Phil Scott and House GOP leaders oppose at least two key components of the bill aimed at forcing steep reductions in carbon emissions.
Read more of Guy Page’s reports. Vermont Daily is sponsored by True North Media.
Great for homeschoolers, I suppose: but the tax won’t go away. It’s like the Massachusetts excise tax that was levied in WWII for owning a car when I lived there. The war is over. People have even more cars than then. The tax, on the other hand, remains. Where, oh where, does that money go?
Comments below, wonderful, they could lead us out of our problem. There are many people that understand the issues, would make great leaders, just read below.
That the public school education monopoly and its enabling legislators are assigning blame for its mismanagement (educational and financial) on parents choosing to opt out of the monopoly’s obvious and extensive failure is no surprise. On the other hand, I remind everyone that the monopoly has NEVER been short of cash. In fact, under State law, school boards can spend beyond their approved budgets whenever they deem it to be necessary, and taxpayers are required to foot the bill when they do.
Is homeschooling costing school districts money, as the headline implies? NO. What the legislature is saying is that homeschooling is making the monopoly look bad…. and, hopefully, that enlightenment will cost them when the monopoly is finally busted and parents can choose the schools that best meet the needs of their children.
Hear, hear! Part of the problem is the state ending county governments, centralizing power, and creating extra-governmental entities (such as school uniosn) that subvert the power of communities.
Unfortunately, Ken, the ‘power of communities’ is as tyrannical as the State Board of Education (SBOE) appears today. Local school boards are replete with conflicts of interest, often including retired teachers, teachers from adjacent school districts, government social workers, and many of their family members.
BTW, I’m a former school board director. Typically, school boards march to the tune of their school principals (the Vermont Principal’s Association), district superintendents (the Vermont Superintendent’s Association), the Vermont School Boards Association, not to mention the VT NEA (National Education Association). After all, the problem with Vermont’s public education monopoly began decades ago under the so-called ‘power of communities’… euphemistically referred to as ‘local control’. Now the two governance entities, local school boards vs. the SBOE, are jockeying for control of one of the most expensive per student cash flows in the country, with nothing, least of all Act 46, to improve costs or outcomes.
There is only one way to make education accountable… a free market economy with school choice vouchers in which parents choose the education programs they believe best serve their children. If one program fails to deliver, parents will ultimately choose the successful program. No politics. No standardized curriculum. No one-size-fits-all tyranny.
Very enlightening, Mr. Eshelman. I’d suspected that there was even more to this. Incredible & unconscionable how these establishment operatives could be so sneaky. Again, I am in accord with you and add that the school systems must have their power structure founded and controlled from the bottom up, starting with the individual citizen. That would necessitate that home school agendas be set by parents with no overriding ability or “oversight” from ANY government agency or personnel.
Check out the comments on ‘equalized student enrollment’ calculations in the ‘Plan to fund schools hit by homeschooling losses would cause slight hike in property taxes statewide’ article, currently at the top of the TNR page.
‘Incredible’ doesn’t do it justice.
I have said for years now, if parents want to get serious about solving all this, they’ll all organize and take their kids out of the schools.
They can’t keep half empty buildings open. There is no fixing this rotted house that is Education, let it fall to the ground and clean up the mess after.
Do you see this rioting going on across America right now? THIS is where “Education” has brought us. And that is the bottom line. We’ve been robbed to fund what is now “The Resistance Movement”- which grows more violent by the day. Look at “Red For Ed.” These Teachers are literally Political Activists in the classrooms. In Tennessee right now, I just read that a school wants parents to sign a waiver that states that they won’t eavesdrop on their kids classes! They KNOW what they are doing is wrong and are scared now to get nailed by parents.
We are being nothing but robbed and our kids turned into people obsessed with Social Justice..
The entire system that created such a thing needs to be gone.
Start looking more at What You Are Getting For This Money?
Vermont is now one of the Bluest states in the country- well where do you think this happens? You can’t keep the education system in place as it is and then think you will clean out your government and elect Republicans!
Parents are extremely busy and some couples work several jobs – primarily to accomodate the feelgood of our Communist legislators resulting in the cutting of hours to 30, or lower, rather than the customary fulltime 40.
So IOW – did nothing but make businesses less profitable, reduce employment, and another reason empty business and houses for sale are the most prominent feature in our municipalities and a teenager makes same pay as adult with family.
Political affilliation makes it difficult to organize so parents are going their own way, making decisions based on this reality and fact that we can no longer trust and rely on the teachers whose loyalty begins and ends with the school-destroying NEA – our children and families come last. Tho there are many outstanding teachers they must follow the union or be bullied and shunned out of their job.
And it is harder for single parents as many have little to no support and also hold multiple positions.
It’s not public education that brought Antifa but they set the stage – our youth being pied-pipered to Marxist mob-rule under the guise of ‘social justice’ under the flag of Antifa-light: BLM and now power-brokered by and existing under the Democratic Party banner.
Antifa is their ISIS and silence is deafening. They cannot discuss it bc they’re guilty as charged. And the so-called SJW are not the resistance as they poster-child each and every disadvanted voting sector of society.
We the Trump supporters are the resistance to the haughty elitists of the boomer generation who fought Richard Nixon and conservative policies and are now the controlfreakery of New Nixonians complete with a governmental conspiracy which dwarfs Watergate mushrooming into mini-gates within the central plot including DOJ, FBI and CIA – I’m sure there’s more. And the trail leads right to Hussien and Biden is the puppet that will cede the Presidency to the radical Marxists and agenda of pure evil.
Antifa and the rioters are bankrolled by bagman George Soros, who does this all over the world, travel from riot to riot and are called “Crisis Actors”. Rand Paul remarked that they were wearing new clothes and looked like they went from a plane to the hotel. If so – this was an effort to blend in so as not to attract attention imho.
And they were hired by Bolshevik Bernie campaign, personally believe they’re still on payroll darkmoneyed by Sanders also as they have the same agenda to control and destroy our nation turning us into another Communist backwater.
Looting the nation and placing every aspect of our lives under their control is the goal – the politics and poster-childing is merely a distraction.
Local school boards were indeed co-opted and shadow-governed by retired academicians and their minions mostly friends and fam.
Apportionment under Hoff resulted in what you appear to be speaking of. All local communities no longer had a rep but it was districted placing the power in the hands of fewer individuals bankrolled by special interests to the point that it’s nothing but a clearing house for powerful nonprofits as our leaders merely march to their drumbeat.
‘Tis a beauty of an observation, Jay.
I think some, perhaps most districts are overloaded with people who are not needed. They all have work to do, but no one is actually looking at the cost vs. results. Perhaps, this funding problem will make rational people look at what is being paid for and is it actually necessary and needed for a change, and not just feel good ideas of motherhood and apple pie.
Again, there is NO funding problem in Vermont public schools. State law dictates that school boards can spend beyond their approved budgets whenever they deem it to be necessary, and taxpayers are required to foot the bill when they do. That’s why public education costs, and the taxes paying those costs, increase every year.
Vermont homeschooling applications are up by 75%, parents are concerned about
children’s health, their own health, and/or changes in the public school learning !!
Great, now the Children of Vermont will be gettting a real education instead of the
liberal indoctrination……………
Vermonter’s are waking up, make sure the money follows your children !!
One of the few good things coming out of the pandemic: a lot of new home schoolers.
schools losing money. lol! right