April 9, 2025

Education Reform

The House education restructuring package is coming to the floor April 10 and 11. It is much different from the Governor's proposal, which, credit due, broke the discussion wide open, but it was not well thought out and lacked crucial detail.

The House bill, H.454, recognizes the scope of change required and the time and further work it will take to accomplish it.

The current structure is a hybrid state/local system, where 119 districts create budgets that the state must finance using an array of taxes but mostly with a complex calculation of property taxes. Complexity has increased over time in an effort to make the system more equitable.

The Governor's proposal starts with turning 119 districts into 5. But processes required to do that were not spelled out, to say nothing of why 5 would be the right number. House Education committee decided they have neither the time nor the expertise to determine the right number of districts or to draw boundaries. H.454 delegates that to people who do.

H.454 sets minimum average class sizes: 12 students for kindergarten, 15 for grades 1 to 4, 18 for grades 6 to 12 (smaller than the Gov's plan). There is flexibility to account for different types of classes and student needs, and a waiver process.

H.454 moves funding to a foundation formula, which makes the state rather than districts responsible for determining budgets (same with the Gov's plan). It also creates new property tax categories in addition to the current homestead and non-homestead, splitting non-homestead into three types: apartments, residential (such as second homes), and non-residential.

Those are the big pieces. I have posted much more detail on my website, https://www.campbellforvermont.com/.

The current system is too expensive and is not serving all of our children as well as it needs to. But change is hard. Moving to a more regionalized structure will yield administrative economies and offer students a richer experience. But it will also reduce our cherished local control.

Importantly, this is a long process—four or five years. There is much more work to do, and undoubtedly there will be course corrections along the way. Completely overhauling the system while at the same time continuing to help 83,000 students excel cannot be undertaken with speed as the primary driver. Education and Ways & Means committees have grappled with this for almost two years. They have been diligent, nonpartisan and unbiased. I trust their work and I will be supporting H.454.

Last update April 13, 2025

H.454 Education Restructuring passed the House on April 11 on a vote of 87-55.

The Governor disagrees with many of the details of the House bill but welcomes the bill’s advancement to the Senate.

Please contact our Senate representative, Sen. Scott Beck, with comments and concerns.

Unfortunately I am unable to meet in person for the next few months due to medical treatment.

However please don’t hesitate to contact me by email and I will respond as soon as I can!

 

St. johnsbury, March 15, 2025

montpelier, April 5, 2025

Among other ongoing work as a legislator, I participate in the Climate Solutions Caucus and the newly formed Flood Recovery & Resilience Caucus. The climate disruption now underway due to human activity is a defining challenge of our time.

My background is building construction, design and energy-savings analysis.

I am not a climate scientist, but I have been keenly aware of the existential challenge facing us for more than 30 years.

Skyler Perkins is a Vermonter, documentary videographer and a member of the next generation, even more aware of this challenge and how we as a society have failed to confront it.

He is in the process of producing a series explaining how climate disruption, pollution, habitat destruction and biodiversity loss is poisoning the planet’s—and humans’—future.

Event calendar
St. Johnsbury/Concord/Kirby

2024 Session Report and past articles.

For help with specific issues, email me at scampbell@leg.state.vt.us.