The proposed cuts were the result of a piece of legislation, Act 146,
that required the Department of Education to come up with $23.3 million
in reductions in education spending.
Accordingly, the Department of Education scrutinized
district-by-district and school-by-school spending, comparing ratios of
educators, aids and administrative staff to enrollment and per pupil
spending.
Act 146 was part of the Challenges to Change budget act designed to
reduce not just education spending in the state but also spending across
all spectrums in the state.
No sooner than the proposed reductions were released, the federal
government stepped in and filled $19 million of the proposed $23.3
million in cuts.
Deus ex machina! For those who have forgotten tenets of Greek drama, deus ex machina is the seemingly improbable device or solution that occurs in a drama
when an almost impossible problem is solved by the appearance or actions
of a new character, skill or object.
And that's what has happened here. Federal money, dispensed at a late
hour, will mean schools don't have to cut spending-but only for 2011.
The problem of the missing $23 million will return in 2012.
But one must ask whether or not federal money being used to avoid state
education spending reductions really meets the spirit of the law. Act
146 was an attempt to reduce the spiraling escalation in education
spending in Vermont. Using federal funds rather than state funds does
not mean education funding has been leveled or reduced.
Not to look a gift horse from the feds in the mouth, but at some point
the issue of how Vermont funds education and how it is not working must
be addressed. Act 146 was a start, and it has been emasculated by this
influx of federal money.
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