Volume 1, Number 2 April 1999

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Vermont Takes Positive Stand on Schools Big School Small School: A Look at the Achievement Gap in Four States School Boards and Community Participation: Is it Happening? Research Papers Now Available Online No Long Distance for Local Internet Calls: FCC Clarifies Telephone Charges About RPM RPM Archives

Vermont Takes Positive Stand on Schools

"Small schools in Vermont cost more to operate than larger schools but they are worth the investment because of the value they add to student learning and community cohesion," the Vermont Department of Education concludes in a report mandated by the legislature in a controversial school finance law.

The study found that students in small schools do as well or better than those in larger schools despite lower income and education levels in the community, lower teacher salaries, and less state aid, on average. The small schools had about the same number of "new generation" computers per pupil, but more internet access and smaller classes. The per pupil cost of operating these schools, on average, ran about 18% higher than the state average. But these costs were mitigated by higher levels of community volunteerism in food service, art, music, and library services. The school was also a vital community building in many places -- a fourth of the small school communities had no grocery store, restaurant, convenience store, or post office.

Among the report's recommendations:

• The state should continue to provide additional funding for small schools -- the new law allocated special funding for schools with under 100 students–and increase the threshold for this assistance from schools with under 100 students to schools with under 120 students.
• If the evidence continues to be strong that disadvantaged children do better in small schools, the state should consider providing additional aid for the first 100 students in every school, encouraging smallness itself rather than just helping a special category of small schools.
• Protect small schools from a sudden drop in the basic per-pupil block grant caused by a small change in enrollment by limiting the reduction to 10% of the previous year's funding.

Act 60 was adopted in 1997 after a Supreme Court decision finding the entire school finance system unconstitutional because it depended too much on local property taxes resulting in wide disparities in local spending on schools. Act 60 has one of the most aggressive "Robin Hood" provisions in the nation. Under the act, a statewide property tax -- the same rate on all property in the state -- collects enough funds to pay every school a flat amount per pupil. The pupil count for each school is adjusted however so that low-income children each count as 1.25 children. If a town wants to spend more in its school than the state provides, it can collect its own local property tax to pay for it. However, the tax base for all towns that choose to do so is shared equally among them, so that every town that chooses to spend at the same level is taxed at the same level.

It's this provision that angers a group of towns with high property values per pupil–so-called "gold" towns. Under the old system, they could afford to spend a lot per pupil on schools with a few kids in them without taxing at a very high rate. A lot of these towns are part of the state's mountainous ski and recreation economy, where condominiums, second homes, and resorts bolster the tax base of towns without many students.

Of course, a lot of the people in gold towns don't have much gold: they wait tables or scratch out a living in agriculture or forestry. Act 60 tries to protect them, and other Vermont property owners who don't make much income from their property, by limiting the amount of property tax any person has to pay on residential property to 2 percent of their income.

To combat Act 60, many gold towns are turning to private funding, which does not have to be shared the way tax revenues have to be shared. If they can support higher spending through private donations, they can avoid sharing with poorer towns. The battle over this issue has become particularly heated in a state known for its civil political climate.

Many of the small schools are in gold towns, but a lot of them are not. They are both ends of the spectrum of rich and poor. As the battle over school funding rages, the possibility of finding something good to support that reaches across the rich-town-poor town divide looks more attractive.