Everyone has a stake in the quality of Vermont education; it’s a key to an enlightened citizenship and an effective, productive workforce. However, the imbalance between enrollment and school costs is a growing problem. Though the number of students in Vermont schools has been declining steadily for a decade, school taxes have been steadily increasing. In the last two years alone, the property-tax bill on a $200,000 house has gone up $180, on average.
On the plus side, House Speaker Shap Smith has convened a 10-member working group of former, current and now-future lawmakers to tackle school financing.
On the downside, this group is doing all its talking in private.
That’s perfectly legal under Vermont’s open meeting law, which deals with the responsibilities of public bodies. Smith’s working group is not a duly constituted public body, and so the rules don’t apply. But it would be wise if the House speaker followed them anyway.
As we explained in this space last week, Vermont’s school financing system has become so awkward and cumbersome hardly anyone can understand just how it works. And if people can’t understand it, how can they support it?
This is a crucial question. Politicians across Vermont said property taxes were the top concern on voters’ minds this year, and the statewide property tax for schools is the biggest and least controllable part of local property tax bills.
Let’s hope the Legislature makes taxes a major topic of the upcoming legislative session. Let’s hope part of the answer is to simplify and clarify the way money is raised to finance schools. And let’s hope that the many voices being raised about schools — on local control and school district consolidation, on property taxes and income taxes, on excellence and efficiency — will be heard in Montpelier.
However, the hope for a full and open discussion is dimmed when the speaker of the House starts collecting ideas behind closed doors.
We understand that it’s easier that way. We understand that people can propose major changes without risking any fallout. We understand that it’s a lot easier to solve the world’s problems around a pot-bellied stove than in a public arena.
But that’s not how we do it in this democracy. People have a right to know what the discussion is, what horses are being traded, which ideas are bubbling to the top, and exactly what route they took to get there.
When you have an inexplicable school tax system, as Vermont does now, kicking it around in secret does more long-term harm than good.
Speaker Smith promises his group’s ideas will go to the House Education Committee for review, which is fine. But sometimes it’s just as important to know how an idea was developed as to know the idea itself.
Here’s cautionary advice that Rep.-elect Oliver Olsen, R-Jamaica, gave to VTDigger: “This is a difficult, complex issue with no easy answers. It would be naive to think somebody could come up with a grand plan, present it to the Legislature and have it be welcomed with open arms and passed into law.”
We know this: Shap Smith is certainly not naive. But in this case, we do think he’s mistaken.
There’s a new website in Vermont that offers to publish obituaries for free, and WCAX-TV called us the other day to see what we thought about it, and to ask how much money we make from publishing obituaries.
Second question first: We don’t make any money from publishing obituaries. We publish them for free. We do the same for births. We think that matters of life and death are important news.
As for what we thought about it: Many newspapers do charge for publishing obituaries, but we think that’s an insult to the community’s interests.
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