Learning & Education
Educational Ideas

• Focus On:  How Are Vermont's High School Students Doing? 
     Part 2: Vermont High School Grads, Off to College?

• Educational Ideas:  What Ed. Issues Will the Legislature Focus On?

• Links to Learning & Education On-Line:  Vermont's Educational Standards

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What Ed. Issues Will the Legislature Focus On?
   If you went by the media and whispers, you might think that the
   State Legislature will be tackling Act 60 again.  But ...

There's no question about it:  Act 60 was and, at least in some respects, remains a hot topic on the educational end of the legislative agenda.  But it may generate more heat than light.

Since the beginning of the year -- January 1st, 2001 -- the Vermont Legislature has tackled a number of bills, both large and small.  Up to this point, together, the House and the Senate have passed a total of 82 bills that have been enacted into law.  Of those 82 Bills, 13 of them [15.9% or roughly 4 of every 25] relate to education, training, education taxes, teachers, or other similar issues. 

The new laws range from the locally focused to somewhat more far-reaching legislation, though nothing in the list has either the impact or the import of the Act 60 changes.  ... Among thee laws passed so far:

a purely local issue ...

• S.0165, Designation Of One Or More Independent Or Public Schools As The Elementary And Secondary Public Schools Of The St. George Town School District;

a series of laws supporting apprenticeships, training, and education opportunity, including  ...

• H.0198, Apprenticeship Training,

• H.0278, The Job Start Program, and

• H.0495, Regional Technical Centers;

a couple relating to higher education ...

• H.0176, The Commission On Higher Education Funding And The Higher Education Endowment Trust Fund, and

• S.0086, Approval Of Postsecondary Institutions.

In addition, there are a miscellany of provisions like ...

• H.0314, Ensure That Every Union School Board Follows The Proportional Representation Principle,

• H.0486, Education Property Tax Exemption For Whey Processing Fixtures,

• H.0494, Adjustments To The State Employees' Teachers', And Municipal Employees' Retirement Systems,

• H.0499, Sharing Of Special Education Services Costs, and

• S.0025, Foreign Language Credit For The Study Of American Sign Language;

and, finally, a bit of admittedly overdue legislation in light of all the changes that have come through the Legislature over the past four years  ...

• S.0088, Education Statutes To Reflect Recent Changes In Law.

That last, according to the Bill Summary, "updates language throughout the education statutes to coordinate it with changes that have been made to the education statutes during the past four years."  For examples, the Summary cites ...

• the repeal of public school standards and their replacement with school quality standards;

• references to sections of law which have been moved to other sections;

• the fact that school districts now use an accrual method of accounting instead of a cash method; and

• language no longer needed because of the Act 60 system of distribution of state aid.

Not to make too much of it, but the need for a bill that goes back through the language of the existing laws in order to bring them in sync with newer laws does say something about the pace at which education laws in Vermont have been changing.  And it may not be ready to rest yet.

We searched the Legislative web site for several key terms and discovered the following little footnotes to what's still making the rounds in Montpelier:

• Both a search on "Act 60" and one on "teach" yielded 11 bills each.

• A search on "school" found 33 bills.

• A search on "education" brought up 102 bills.

Of course, some of the results were duplicates, but not many.  When we finished sifting and sorting through them, there were no fewer than 122 House or Senate Bills or Joint Resolutions on the table.  If you're curious to know what they are, you can click here for the complete table, along with individual links to the Vermont Legislative for each of them.

That's a lot of potential change waiting to happen.  ...

A number of the bills focus on the supervisory unions and school board organization and due process.  There are even a few targeted at teachers, including some aimed at supporting continuing ed and training.  But a number of them also take on what is probably a significantly hotter topic for the coming legislative session than anything having to do with Act 60  ...  school choice.

The bills come in various shapes, shades, and sizes.  But there seems to be little question that things like tuition vouchers, charter schools, and school choice will be among the more prominent headlines making legislative news in the coming session.

This is not to say that the struggles over Act 60 are behind us altogether.  But it seems it may well end up, not so much with a back seat, as waiting at the station for the next train to pull out.  There may be minor adjustments to Act 60, of course.  But it's doubtful that it will be anywhere near the most heated locus of legislative efforts in the months ahead.

lmc

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DownStreet is particularly interested in publishing the Educational Ideas of teachers, students, and others from our local communities.  If you would like to submit an article to Educational Ideas, please e-mail it -- in the body of the e-mail or as an attachment -- to ...

learn@downstreetmagazine.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

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