Published in the Mountainview
Last week the Vermont Supreme Court handed down a landmark
decision striking down the property-tax-based method of funding public
education in Vermont .
Deemed unfair to poor towns, the Court said that the current system is based
too much on the financial base in the community, rather than on the actual cost
of giving each Vermont
child a solid education.
The case, brought by the ACLU on behalf of a Whiting third-grader,
has already had strong effects in Montpelier .
The Statehouse was abuzz with discussion as the Vermont Assembly begins its
second month of legislative session. Already on the slate for this session was
property tax reform. The Court's decision has forced the issue, and has forced
the reform to be even more sweeping than anyone was previously talking about.
The basic structure of a new school financing structure for
the state is likely to be a single pool for statewide funding, with a dollar
amount earmarked for each student. This will improve the funding levels for
schools in poor communities; what remains to be seen is the impact on funding
for schools in middle and upper-class towns. There has been some talk of
prohibiting wealthier towns from spending more money on their schools, but that
initiative is likely to fail. Local control of schools has become a national
concern; preventing parents from materially influencing their children's
education is a dangerous and potentially litigation-causing issue.
The major questions now are how this statewide pool will be
funded and administered. Property tax is a deeply controversial issue in Vermont , where farms and
condominiums are closely juxtaposed on similar plots of land. Some suggestions
for an increased income tax to fund schools have also surfaced.
That suggestion is based on the idea that a family's tax
burden should be proportional to their ability to pay it, rather than taxing a
poor farmer on large tracts of land which yield little income. Income taxes
would also place more directly the burden of school support on renters, who now
currently cover their landlords' tax payments with their rent bills. This is a
concern; should property taxes drop, will rents decrease statewide? It is not
likely, though renters' other tax bills will increase.
Another potential method of funding schools is additional
sales tax. This would leverage tourist dollars to directly benefit Vermont 's children and
future, in additional to being based on the ability of the taxpayer to pay;
most essential items are not subject to sales tax,
We are likely to see this reform process move forward this
legislative session, but there is no guarantee of a solution anytime soon.
Other states have had similar court decisions come down in recent years;
notably, New Jersey 's Supreme Court ruled very
similarly to the Vermont
decision. That was eight years ago, and nothing substantial has changed about
the way New Jersey
funds education; solutions are bogged down in legislative subcommittees.
The Supreme Court has not said much to guide them, except
that the current system is unacceptable. Vermont 's
constitution states that all Vermonters have a right to equal access to public
education. The Court has said this translates easily into dollar figures per
student. Schools doing more with less are likely to see increased funding,
while schools doing less with more will be forced to be more efficient. We can
only hope that schools which are spending large amounts of money per student,
and which are seeing material results, will be permitted to pursue their
excellence without fear of financial cuts.