EDUCATION LEGISLATIVE REPORT

Vermont School Boards Association ** Vermont Superintendents Association ** Vermont Principals’ Association

February 21, 2011 - Issue #5

Pre-K Cap Repeal Bill Approved by Senate Education Committee

S.53, a bill that would remove the current-law caps on the number of prekindergarten children a school district can count in its Average Daily Membership, has been approved by the Senate Education Committee by a unanimous vote of the members who were present (4-0-1).

The bill is scheduled to receive consideration from both the Senate Finance and Senate Appropriations Committees on Tuesday, who are charged with examining the revenues and expenditures of the State, respectively. The Department of Education and the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office have previously testified that they project that the cost of S.53 will be less than $200,000 in the first year of enactment.

House Education Votes to Repeal “Two-vote”

The House Education Committee voted 8-1-2 to repeal the law that required school boards that met certain conditions to propose the school budget in two separate articles to the voters. The provision of law is sometimes referred to as the “divided question” or “two-vote” requirement. H.299 is the bill the Education Committee introduced that would eliminate the two-vote requirement beginning with FY 2013 budgets. The divided question law is scheduled to expire before the FY 2015 budget cycle, so H.299 would hasten its repeal by two years.

The VSBA and VT-NEA testified that the divided question law was an arbitrary threshold that introduced unnecessary complexity to the budgeting process. Gov. Shumlin has said that he would support a bill that would repeal the divided question.

Senate Committee Hears Testimony on Public Funds and Independent Schools

The Senate Education Committee has been taking testimony on S.44, a bill that would increase the obligations of approved independent schools effective July 1, 2012. “Approved independent school” is a defined term (16 V.S.A. § 11(20)) that means the school and its program of education has been sanctioned by Vermont’s Department of Education or a Department-recognized school accrediting organization such as the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

S.44 would require that approved independent schools in Vermont:

· Do not deny enrollment based on a student’s race, nationality, sexual orientation, or disability;

· Comply with School Quality Standards (defined in 16 V.S.A. § 165);

· Assess student attainment of grade-level standards pursuant to 16 V.S.A. § 164(9);

· Comply with federal and state requirements that apply to public school districts to provide special education services for all categories of disability;

· Comply with state standards relating to health, safety, and civil rights that apply to public school districts;

· Comply with all federal requirements applicable to public schools;

• Be approved by the Department of Education (i.e., approval could not be granted by an accrediting organization).

Current law says that to be eligible to receive publicly funded tuition from a Vermont school district, an independent school must be approved and nonsectarian. Because S.44 would subject approved independent schools to new requirements, these schools would need to either meet the requirements or see their designation as approved rescinded. Therefore, S.44 could redirect publicly funded students who are currently attending an array of approved independent schools to public schools and a limited pool of approved independents meeting the new requirements.

At this time, it is unclear what action, if any, the Committee intends to take on the legislation.

H.170 is a similar bill in the House that contains all of the same provisions as S.44 and includes two other significant provisions:

• Approved independent schools would have to guarantee admission to every student who is a resident of the town where the school is located;
• Public or independent schools located outside of Vermont would be ineligible to receive public tuition dollars, except for the purpose of providing special education services and excluding specific existing relationships certain school districts have with schools located in New Hampshire and New York.

At this time, the House Education Committee has not taken up H.170 for testimony or consideration.

House Committee Hears Testimony on Appointment of State Board Members and Commissioner of Education

The House Education Committee is considering legislation that could make changes to the roles, responsibilities, and appointment processes for the Commissioner of Education and members of the State Board of Education. The Committee does not have any draft legislation at this point; at this time they are considering the issue conceptually. The Committee is holding a public hearing on the matter on March 9 (see the sidebar on page 1 of this report for details); at the time of the hearing, there may be draft legislation on which to comment.

The Committee has already heard a number of perspectives on these issues. Regarding the structure of the State Board of Education, opinions have been wide-ranging and include:

· Making no change;

· Abolishing the state board;

· Amending the length of the term of appointment;

• “Slotting” the board to require that some members are current education practitioners and local officials.

The Committee has also heard varying opinions on appointment of the commissioner or secretary of education. Testimony on this issue has centered on whether the governor or the state board should appoint the commissioner.

We will monitor the Committee’s ongoing discussion and we hope to provide you with more information regarding the direction the committee is leaning prior to the hearing on March 9.

New Bills

The following education-related bills have been introduced by one or more members of the Legislature from February 11 – February 21. To read any bill’s full text or see its status in the legislative process, go to http://www.leg.state.vt.us/database/status/status.cfm.

H.245 AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION PROPERTY TAX RATES

Introduced by Representatives Manwaring of Wilmington and 17 other representatives

Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to clarify how the rates for the education property tax are set and to require that the rates be adopted in a separate stand-alone bill.

H.248 AN ACT RELATING TO NOTICE OF OPEN MEETINGS

Introduced by Representatives Partridge of Windham and Trieber of Rockingham

Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to require a public body to post notice of a regular or special meeting on its website, if one exists, at least 24 hours before the meeting.

H.282 AN ACT RELATING TO ALLOWING A STATE EMPLOYEE, TEACHER, OR MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEE ONE OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE THE BENEFICIARY INDICATED ON HIS OR HER SURVIVORSHIP OPTION

Introduced by Representative Savage of Swanton

Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to authorize a state employee, teacher, or municipal employee to redesignate only once the beneficiary on his or her survivorship option. A member shall be authorized to redesignate a beneficiary by January 1, 2012, or within 30 days of reaching retirement.

H.288 AN ACT RELATING TO PROVIDING STATE TEACHERS WITH AN EARLY RETIREMENT OR SEVERANCE BONUS

Introduced by Representatives Condon of Colchester, McAllister of Highgate and Wright of Burlington

Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to require the payment of a one-time severance benefit to a state teacher who files for early retirement or who is terminated without just cause in a school district that reduced net teacher employment.

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