Education Transformation
OVERVIEW OF H.454 - EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION BILL
Last week, the House Education Committee voted out a highly anticipated bill to chart the course for transformation of public education based on extensive feedback from educators across Vermont and an analysis of the Governor’s proposal. The house bill, H.454 aims to address the various challenges facing Vermont and build a more stable future by moving towards scale and ensuring appropriate state level governance and support for our system. This bill takes a phased approach to building a system that ensures every student, no matter where they live, has access to opportunity.
The House Ways & Means Committee will add finance transformation steps to the bill. This will include a careful transition to a foundation formula. This approach can provide a stable, predictable funding mechanism rather than politically charged school budget votes but again, the details matter. Future updates will share the details on funding. A House vote on H.454 is expected late the week of 4/7.
The Senate has their own ideas of what transformation could look like, as does the Governor, so the work is far from finished. But this is a start and an important step in the process.
Below is a summary of the key education governance areas of focus in H.454.
District Scale: Defining New Districts in 2026
Achieving scale is critical to educational quality and increased efficiency. Vermont currently has 119 school districts in 52 supervisory unions, each with finance experts, special education leaders, curriculum leaders and a superintendent. This can create redundancy and a lot of time spent managing so many school boards.
There have been calls for legislators to draw these lines now or to arbitrarily set a number—which is in my opinion as a parent, not in the best interest of our students. But it became clear that this vital transformative move must be made by people with educational expertise in Vermont who best understand where changes could bring more equal access to opportunity and save everyone some money.
The House bill proposes to charge a new subcommittee of the Commission on the Future of Public Education to come back to the legislature by December 2025 with no more than three specific school district map proposals. The subcommittee will include five former superintendents and school district business managers with extensive experience in Vermont. They are directed to create districts with a minimum of approximately 4,000 students and to coordinate with the Commission’s public engagement process to maximize public input.
After reviewing the proposed new maps, the legislature will create these new districts in 2026 and begin the complex process of setting up electoral districts to vote in new school boards in November of 2028. Based on what we know from educational research and extensive modeling of Vermont’s current system, it is likely that this process will result in between 10 and 25 districts. It is important to keep in mind that these new districts may become the largest political districts in our state (likely larger than current Senate districts) so this work must be done carefully.
I hear from Winooski students and leaders that they appreciate the need to grow but we clearly have a uniquely diverse student body that must remain strongly represented. It will be critical that district policies allow us to express, celebrate and maintain the strength our awesome diversity.
School Scale: Moving Towards Regional Middle and High Schools and Keeping Public Education Dollars in Vermont
Vermont schools will always be small by most national standards given our rural nature, but we have schools with extremely small class sizes and multiple grades being combined, not because it is an educational choice but because it is a staffing necessity. We have many very small high schools whose students might be better served in schools with more programmatic opportunities. We also operate parallel systems - public and private schools - using public education dollars. We have a town tuitioning program for areas that do not operate schools and while the four historic academies operate successfully as quasi-public schools, there has been a steady increase in the number of students using vouchers and an increase in the number of schools where those vouchers go. This scatters our public education dollars in more directions, including out of state and out of country.
The House bill sets our legislative intent to move towards public schools that operate grades 6-12 (or subset of those) to have at least 450 students. This work will take time and investment but it will begin by:
Reestablishing a school construction program with highly targeted incentives for regionalization; school size goals will only be possible with a statewide commitment to school construction aid, which has not existed since 2007.
Requiring approved independent schools meet the following criteria in order to accept public tuition: must be located in VT, approved under current law on or before July 1, 2025, have at least 51% of the total student enrollment attending on public tuition, and comply with the new average class size minimums (see below)
Classroom Scale: Setting Average Minimum Class Sizes to Ensure Educational Excellence
Class size is pivotal in Vermont's education policy decisions, especially given its rural context, declining enrollment, and fiscal challenges. Average class sizes in Vermont are already smaller than those outlined in research which can create challenges for effective instruction. This can force grade configurations (for example, a multi-age classroom for grades K-3) that change yearly and make it difficult for teachers to use flexible grouping strategies in the classroom.
The House bill proposes to require average class size minimums to be implemented by the 2026-27 school year in all public schools and independent schools receiving public tuition as follows (most classes already meet these minimums):
Kindergarten: minimum of 12 students
Grades 1-4: minimum of 15 students
Grades 5-12 (in all required content areas): minimum of 18 students
Multiage classrooms for kindergarten through grade 8 will be limited to two grade levels
Important exceptions for average class sizes will include CTE classes, flexible pathways, AP courses, driver’s education, small groups for special education, English learner instruction, and specialized interventions
If a school is unable to comply due to “geographic isolation” or if they have developed an implementation plan (such as consolidation or merger) to meet the standards, the school board may ask the State Board of Education for a waiver
Simply put, these new minimums are a big deal and could have a significant impact on staffing needs and bending the cost curve, while providing a better classroom experience for kids. By contrast, the Governor’s proposed new funding formula relied on class size minimums of 15 students for kindergarten through grade 3 and a minimum of 25 students per class in grades 4 through 12.
Statewide Cohesion and Capacity: Creating a Common Foundation for a More Stable and Efficient System
For many years now, there has been extraordinary frustration in schools about the lack of capacity and leadership from the Agency of Education (AOE) and many important positions in the state are unfilled. For any “transformation” to become a reality, it is vital that the AOE can execute several transitions before larger districts can be operational and even more important that the Agency build trust with our educational leaders. Each of the steps outlined below is complex and many are long overdue for a state as small as Vermont.
House bill solution - Require the following steps to ensure transitions are on schedule:
AOE will recommend standards for statewide graduation requirements to the State Board of Education by January 1, 2026 (the State Board would then undertake a public rulemaking process)
AOE will work with the field to recommend a statewide school calendar to be in place by 2028-29 school year
AOE will create a plan for statewide financial data and student information systems for use by FY29
AOE will create a plan for a school construction division within the AOE
AOE will create clear guidance regarding the business processes necessary to facilitate the merger of current school districts into larger districts. This must include how to merge data systems, asset and liability transfers, and issues around collective bargaining agreements. Importantly, the report requires an estimate of the costs associated with such work.
In a more consolidated system, it is essential to ensure that the State Board of Education (SBE) is an independent and transparent body. The Governor’s bill proposed a dramatic shift in rulemaking responsibility away from the State Board of Education and to the AOE. The House strongly disagreed with that approach and instead sought to strengthen the SBE and make it more representative of public education. Now more than ever it is important to strengthen our open, public-facing bodies.
House bill solution - Allow the legislature to make two appointments to the State Board (currently, the Governor appoints all members) and resource the SBE to do a comprehensive review of their rules and determine those that can be sunsetted and rules that need to be updated to support transformation.
Please watch this space, Front Porch Forum, and my Instagram (@rep.berbeco) for more updates. Rep. Tomlinson and I hold regular Office Hours at the Winooski Library or on Zoom.
Reach out to me by e mail if you would like to schedule a meeting.