Amid the uproar over the dramatic increases in school taxes experienced by many communities this year, the Legislature created a commission on the future of public education in Vermont. The bureau “studies the delivery of education in Vermont and aims to ensure that all students have substantially equal educational opportunity in an efficient, sustainable, and stable education system.” Its mission is to (make) recommendations for a state-wide vision for the education system. ”
This mandate has been characterized as nothing more than rethinking the state’s education system and how it is paid for. It is not a difficult task for the faint of heart, especially since so many factors shaping the future of education here and elsewhere are unimaginable. Demographic changes. Federal Mandates and Funding. Changes in cultural and social attitudes, to name a few.
Fortunately, the committee has some first principles that it can use to shape its work. In 1997, the Vermont Supreme Court declared in its Brigham decision that all Vermont schoolchildren have a constitutional right to substantially equal educational opportunity and that it is the state’s duty to provide it.
In our view, the commission’s first task is to establish what equality of educational opportunity actually is, to assess the extent to which the current system fulfills its obligation to provide it, and to assess the extent to which it can improve its future prospects. The idea is to envision how the country’s education system can ensure equal educational opportunities for children everywhere. Living in Vermont, they have the same opportunity to grow educationally, whether academically, artistically, professionally, or in other ways not yet imagined.
The current system does not provide access to exactly the same educational services and spending from district to district, and the Supreme Court did not require such complete uniformity. So perhaps the real understanding of this obligation is that each child must receive an education that will enable them to fulfill their potential as productive citizens of Vermont and the wider world.
This does not mean that educational outcomes must be substantially equal. It necessarily depends on the student’s motivation, aptitude, social support and academic readiness at the time of admission. If the idea behind equal educational opportunity is to create a level playing field for all, then the committee must examine how well the system prepares Vermont’s preschoolers for learning and the future. Special attention should be paid to what additional resources and efforts may be required.
Most Vermonters probably believe that equal educational opportunity does not necessarily mean that the education provided must be of high quality. We do not envy the members of the committee who are trying to define what a quality public school education is and imagine what it will mean in the future. Standardized test grades are one measure of student progress, but they are only one measure. And quality depends on things like whether individual students have access to gifted teachers.
In any case, it seems to us that public schooling in Vermont should somehow cherish the characteristics that distinguish this state. For example, in states where direct democracy in its pure form of town meetings still exists, at least in some communities, civics education at all levels should be a priority. And clearly, the natural world, its beauty, and how we protect the environment should play a central role in the future of education that teaches children about traditional settlement patterns and historic land use.
Even though all this has an air of abstraction, another of the committee’s tasks involves the cold reality of how to pay for the future costs it envisions without imposing an intolerable burden on taxpayers. is included. I suggest that I cover this subject another day in this space.
