Why We Voted Yes On H.454

WHAT VERMONT GAINS WITH THE PASSAGE OF H.454
1. A deliberate and thoughtful multi-year process with contingencies built into the process and required future legislative votes.

2. A more sustainable and predictable funding structure for Vermont’s education system.

3. A comprehensive approach for decreasing the cost curve of education spending.

4. Increased access to equitable educational opportunities across the state.

5. A commitment to our public schools. Far fewer independent schools will qualify to be approved, including and especially those that have been able to preserve the right to discriminate with public dollars.

6. No longer will public dollars flow to out-of-state private schools, subsidizing elite boarding school experiences.

7. No longer will approved independent schools be able to set their own tuitions.

Why We Supported the Passage of H.454
This has been a challenging process and we did not come to this decision without long and thoughtful contemplation. We all have or had children in the EWSD school system. We treasure the role that the district’s teachers and staff have played in their lives and we are committed to ensuring EWSD has the resources to continue its dedication to our youth.
We began this work last session, and again in January, with months of testimony from throughout the state and all levels of our education community. Students testified, teachers, principals, superintendents, school board members, and many members of the Administration taking extensive testimony. We listened deeply to Essex community members, parents, school leaders, and local taxpayers and ultimately chose the path of “yes” to move the work on Education Transformation forward. Do we wish it would go further? - yes, but ultimately we understand that this moment may not come again and Vermonters deserve the progress of education and tax progress that H.454 will bring. As legislators, we work to hear all of the perspectives and choose a path that best serves our community and Vermont as a whole. H.454 makes significant strides.
SUSTAINABILITY
Our current system for providing and funding education in Vermont isn’t working. Children have unequal access to quality education opportunities and the current funding system is unpredictable for individual voting communities as well as at the state level. With 100+ districts passing tailored budgets and the requirement for the State to fund those budgets, there are limited checks and balances. H.454 takes bold steps to address both the implementation and funding of Vermont’s education system.
TAXES
Do you remember receiving your property tax bill last year? If you were like many Vermonters, you were shocked by the increase and vocally demanded change. One of the reasons last year’s bill was so high was that the legislature chose not to hide the increasing cost demands, which we had done in the past by buying down the tax burden with general funds. 
When we buy down the tax rate, it addresses immediate property tax hikes, but it doesn’t address the underlying cost drivers and kicks the can to the following year. It also means that those general fund dollars can’t be used for other critical needs in our state such as housing, healthcare and workforce development. 
H.454 provides a framework for Vermont to bend the cost curve on education spending by prioritizing scale in the system, maintaining a focus on in-state, public schools and creating a tax structure that better spreads the burden among all Vermonters with extensive guardrails and off-ramps to minimize the impact on the most vulnerable. In the future, property tax bills will be more predictable and easier to understand.
Additionally, the legislature took critical steps to address other cost drivers of education spending, such as rising healthcare costs and a lack of housing to grow our grandlists. 
STATEWIDE STRATEGY
Education stakeholders across the state shared that a statewide approach is essential. In our current system, there is very little incentive for individual school districts to make the hard decisions about scale, down-sizing and governance change. If one district does do the work in our current system, like EWSD has, there is no guarantee that their taxes will go down, because we are still paying for the decisions of all districts. H.454 puts us on a path for a more statewide approach by reducing the number of districts, setting a foundation formula and creating statewide standards for scale. This will require change in all areas, but everyone will be navigating change together.
PRIORITIZING PUBLIC SCHOOLS
We are fortunate to have amazing public schools in Vermont and we should take every step we can to ensure our public schools remain strong and all children have access to a quality public education. In our current system, there are many ways that independent and private schools can work against our public education system such as high tuition rates, avoiding education quality standards and/or not adhering to the same inclusion requirements that our public schools must meet. H.454 takes a giant step forward in addressing these areas in order to keep Vermont education dollars in Vermont and prioritizing public schools when possible. H.454 is the biggest rollback of tuition dollars to approved independent schools ever.
TIMING
If we walked away from this vote, we would have lost a once in a generation opportunity to make bold change. It is accurate that this bill is far from perfect, but it is tremendous progress, considering legislatures have been trying to address these issues for decades. By walking away, we would have allowed the status quo to remain. That would have continued to put the burden of an unsustainable system on our individual communities, maintained the current inequities between public and independent schools and guaranteed that our property tax rates will continue to rise at unprecedented levels. By voting yes on H.454, we chose not to let that happen and instead offer a path forward and keep the door open for future positive change. We look forward to the work ahead next session and will remain vigilant in our efforts to gather feedback and understand the full impact.
We understand that community members will have a variety of perspectives on this vote. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your thoughts, better understand the impact and explore the considerations that should be made for future steps in Vermont’s Education Transformation. 


Representative Alyssa Black
Representative Karen Dolan
Representative Lori Houghton
Representative Rey Garofano
Representatives Leonora Dodge