Vermont Government Affairs Update- March 4, 2025

The Vermont Legislature has gone on recess for the week of March 3^rd to return home for town meeting day.  This is a time of the year that elected leaders stand before their localities to share with them the progress that they have made improving the lives of Vermonters. It is also the time where townspeople vote on their selectboards and other local initiatives. This year, however legislators will have very little progress to report to their constituents due to it being the first year of a biennium and the overshadowing priority of school funding.

In response to rapidly rising costs of education and soaring property taxes that fund it, Governor Scotts administration has presented a bill to change Vermont’s system completely. Vermont ended up in a statewide payer model after a lawsuit in the 1990s known as the “Brigham Case” which was brought against the state due to significant disparities between school districts funding which violated students constitutional rights. The system created a separation between voters deciding on their local school budgets and what the impact of taxes would be. Because the statewide property tax is a rate set by state government, it shields some communities from bad (expensive) decisions because they don’t directly pay the costs. This has ballooned over the years, handing Vermonters a 14% property tax increase in 2024.

The Scott administration’s bill proposes to do many things. Scotts “Stronger Schools” approach would make significant changes to funding and governance models. One major move would be to consolidate 119 school districts to just 5 to reduce administrative costs. It would also change the statewide property tax by eliminating a system that had both homestead and non-homestead tax rates and creating just one rate. It would still allow people below a certain income threshold to reduce their property tax burden. It would remove student weighting formulas replacing it with a flat $13,200/student to school districts. The policy also takes aim at classroom sizes, setting a minimum of 25 in grades 4-12 and proposes eliminating programs that do not have minimum populations of students. Two major sticking points for Democrats opposing the policy is the elimination of the COVID instituted universal school lunch program and creating a “school choice” policy the teachers unions fear the most. If the plan moves forward, which is yet to be clear, it will enact over several years completing in the 2028 school year.

While all the politicians at the table agree there is a school funding crisis, and that the voters overwhelmingly told them so last election it is to be seen whether real change will happen or the Democrat majority in the legislature will just try to wait out Governor Scotts proposals until they die at the end of the session. Education funding has plagued Vermont since the Brigham decision and Vermonters votes last election are proof its time for change.