FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 20, 2001
CONTACTS: Kathy Westra, (703) 243-1487
Lorna Jimerson, (802) 425-2497
Marty Strange, (802) 728-4383

Vermont's "Act 60" Has Improved Education Equity,
New Report Finds
State is on Right Course in Funding Schools, Says Rural Education Group

Washington, DC -- Vermont's Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1997 (Act 60) has significantly improved educational equity in the state, according to a new report released today by the Rural School and Community Trust, a national nonprofit rural education group. The report, A Reasonably Equal Share: Educational Equity in Vermont, looked at statewide data to see if the 1997 law had achieved three main goals established by the state's Supreme Court and the Legislature: student resource equity, tax burden equity, and academic achievement equity.

"Our conclusion is that Vermont is on the right course in the way it funds its schools," said Lorna Jimerson, Ed.D., the researcher who compiled the report. "Inequities are diminishing, but local control has not been abandoned. Tax burdens are more appropriately related to income. More children are performing better on statewide assessments. These changes have not been without pain, but they have been for the better."

Passage of Act 60 sprung from a 1997 Vermont Supreme Court case, Brigham v. State of Vermont, in which the court ruled the state's education funding formula unconstitutional. The Court stated that "to keep a democracy competitive and thriving, students must be afforded equal access to all that our educational system has to offer. In the funding of what our Constitution places at the core of a successful democracy, the children of Vermont are entitled to a reasonably equal share."

Dr. Jimerson, a member of the policy staff of the Rural Trust, set out to examine the available information to assess the impact of the Court's decision and the subsequent passage of Act 60. Her conclusion is that the legislation, while controversial, is meeting the requirements of the Vermont Supreme Court and the intent of the state's legislature to come up with a school funding formula that improves educational equity. Specifically, she found that:

• Act 60 funding mechanisms have made significant gains in increasing student resource equity. The amount of financial resources spent on students in Vermont is no longer correlated at a statistically significant level to the property wealth of towns.

• Act 60 has significantly improved tax burden equity in terms of the percentage of household income needed to pay for school property taxes. Prior to Act 60, the poorest families tended to pay the highest percentage of their income for school taxes. This relationship is no longer true. The lowest-income households now pay the least percentage of their income for school tax.
• With respect to equity in academic achievement, the study reveals that:
  • Inequities still exist in academic achievement. Academic achievement is still significantly related to the wealth of the community and to spending per pupil. Students residing in property-wealthy towns tend to do better academically than those residing in poor communities. Students residing in towns that spend more per pupil tend to do better academically

  • This achievement gap, however, has narrowed since the passage of Act 60. The achievement differences between students from poorer communities and those from wealthier communities have diminished. Similarly, the gap has decreased between the lowest and highest spending towns.

  • Academic achievement, in general, has improved over the past three years with more students meeting or exceeding state standards, in towns of all categories of property wealth, and in all categories of spending.

The Rural School and Community Trust (Rural Trust) is the premier national nonprofit organization addressing the crucial relationship between good schools and thriving rural communities. Working in some of the poorest, most challenging rural places, the Rural Trust involves young people in learning linked to their communities, improves the quality of teaching and school leadership, advocates for appropriate state educational policies, and addresses the critical issue of funding for rural schools.