Seventeen years ago I chose to come to this Valley because of the environment, community and my wish to send my children to public school. In 17 years, I’ve sent three children through the local public and private schools, spent 10 years on my local and district school boards, lobbied our legislators and, always, gladly, voted for the school budgets. I now write, sadly, because our local public schools have, with all good intentions, arrived at the precipice of perdition.
The problem is clear – declining enrollment. Fewer students go to our public schools and for several reasons. Our “Valley-native” population grows older, so fewer Valley-native births enter our schools. Our public schools are less attractive relative to other choices so those who can vote with their feet and go elsewhere. Less attractive local schools also are a less attractive lifestyle proposition to potential “Valley in-migrators,” an important historical contributor of student population. How did we get here?
In 1997 the Equal Educational Opportunity Act (Act 60) was passed in response to Brigham v. State of Vermont. Here our Vermont Supreme Court stated, “Any statutory framework that infringes upon the equal enjoyment of that right [education] bears a commensurate heavy burden of justification.” Act 60 equated “equal enjoyment” equal dollars instead of creating objectives to meet the “heavy burden of justification” of a system that works. With good intentions legislators took the first steps on the Road to Perdition.
My town has a bimodal income distribution. There are lots of well-off folks and lots of less well-off folks; there is no big middle. My town is a tightknit community. We came together around local schools and we excelled. We figured the Act 60 “game” and we played hard for our kids. Many Town Meeting Days we openly reviewed our results: increasing enrollment, less spending and top of the class test scores. I learned something important from that experience: Community matters. A local community highly committed to local education can overcome lots and succeed.
ACT 60
Meanwhile, Act 60 came back to haunt us. Local budgets roll up to a state budget that’s balanced by setting a tax rate to cover the cost. Under Act 60 certain schools are incented to spend a lot more because other communities pay for most of the cost. At first no one noticed because property values were increasing, and tax increases were hidden behind property value increases. Eventually though, the devil arrived to collect his due. Property values plummeted, costs grew, taxpayers complained and this triggered Act 46 for the purpose of school consolidation and more steps on the Road to Perdition.
Consolidation is supposed to work because of economies of scale. Enterprises may see decreasing costs per unit when they get bigger because fixed costs may be spread over more units and variable costs may be reduced with increasing purchasing power. I say “may” as there’s a catch, economies of scale are usually lumpy, they only occur at certain points, not each time you get bigger. We have two gas stations across the street from one another in downtown Waitsfield. Most days the price for gas at each is the same. If we closed one, doubling the size of the other, the price of gas would not decrease. Why? Because the resulting gas station, while bigger, is still too small to qualify for a lower wholesale gas price from its supplier. To reduce costs, you must close a lot more gas stations, and our “local” gas station would probably be in Williston. Ditto for Vermont public schools; you must close a lot more schools to achieve real economies of scale and your local school would be in Williston as well.
WON’T REDUCE COSTS
School consolidation won’t seriously reduce costs in a rural setting and does not address the major issue of decreasing enrollment. School consolidation will destroy the bonds between local communities and their schools that have produced great results regardless of income, kept Valley parents from sending their children elsewhere, and encouraged the Valley in-migration we need to keep our schools and community viable. School consolidation will turn communities against one another in a zero-sum game where we fight among ourselves as the pawns, our kids, get moved around the board. This benefits no one except those who enhance their power by dividing us.
What to do? Well we still have a strong hand, our strongest card being our community schools. We can create a plan that strengthens the bonds between communities and local schools. We can empower communities to create individual approaches fitting their needs and market them to the world at large driving Valley in-migration and increasing enrollment. We’ve a great story to tell; we can tell it better. What about cost savings? We’ll get all the available savings through co-op buying and staff sharing, a coalition of the willing, not under a gun barrel. Most importantly, if we put the problem, declining enrollment, squarely in front of our communities they will respond with creative solutions. It worked in Warren and we’re not special; everyone else is equally capable.
We must take a different road and there’s no real risk as the current road does not address declining enrollment and it ends in perdition. I encourage the district board to consider another approach. If they are set on staying the course, then I encourage our respective community members to step up and replace them. To anyone who says the current path is legally locked and loaded, I would respond, “Nuts!” – the words General McAuliffe uttered at the Battle of the Bulge when the Germans demanded surrender. He held his position; we can too. If all else fails, we have the power of the purse. This spring I have no intention of voting for a school that includes funding legal action to silence our local communities. I would encourage others to follow suit.
Rosen lives in Warren, Vermont.
