Neil Odell: In response to the Waterford Parents

Note: this is one of the Op Eds submitted to VT Digger but never published        

In a recent letter to VT Digger, a group of parents from Waterford, Vermont, expressed unity in their expectation that their children will attend St. Johnsbury Academy for high school. Given their proximity to St. Johnsbury, this makes a great deal of sense. St. Johnsbury Academy has been the approved independent school for their community for many years.

This arrangement—sending taxpayer-funded students to an independent school—has existed for more than 100 years. In 1869, Act 9 allowed districts to send students, and public funds, to academies, provided that the academies instruct students “in all studies which are required by law to be taught in common schools.”

The authors note that, for over a century, the arrangement with St. Johnsbury Academy has provided students with strong academic programs that were cost-effective and logical. They argue that their communities have figured out how to prioritize excellent education and take pride in having built institutions that have stood the test of time. These characterizations, however, gloss over decades of issues that current Vermonters would be well served to review.

In 1947, faced with “rapidly rising costs and inadequate income from endowments,” St. Johnsbury Academy notified the school boards of sending towns that tuition would be increasing. An editorial in the Caledonian Record from January 4^th, 1947 noted that “a tuition increase emphasizes the fact that while serving as a high school for the town of St. Johnsbury, the Academy is a private secondary school over which the town, as a municipality, has no control.”

In 1949, St. Johnsbury Academy increased tuition again, noting that “since the academy cannot afford to cut into endowment funds again next year,” tuition costs for sending towns would need to rise.

Another tuition increase in 1956 prompted the discussion yet again. “The academy’s relation to the town of St. Johnsbury is peculiar; in fact, it is anachronistic. With the town advancing more and more funds toward its support, it is appropriate to ask whether the time has not arrived for a reappraisal of the Academy’s status in St. Johnsbury’s overall educational organization.” The editorial from February 28, 1956 went on to address the school’s governance structure: “When the academy was founded, it was natural that the governing board should consist of its founding benefactors and a few professional men of their choice. It was their school. Today, 114 years later, when the Academy’s existence depends upon the funds it annually receives from the taxpayers of St. Johnsbury, the school’s governing body remains an undemocratically selected, self-perpetuating group. Whatever may be said in favor of this type of governing board … it can by no stretch of logic be considered democratic.”

You can see the pattern.

The Waterford parents also argue that their area of Vermont, with the choice afforded by St. Johnsbury Academy and Lyndon Institute, is unique and does not suffer from the tuitioning challenges faced in other parts of the state. This claim belies recent news reports showing that St. Johnsbury Academy serves disproportionately fewer special education students and that tuitioning does indeed divide a community. In addition, assertions that students receive an excellent education are difficult to evaluate, given that the latest state report card omitted all independent schools.

There is a path forward that has the potential to satisfy these tuitioning towns while simultaneously strengthening public education: H.813, a bill that would require the same standards, rules, and regulations for any school receiving public funds. Same dollars, same rules.

Like the parents in Waterford, supporters of Same Dollars, Same Rules are not asking for anything new. There already exists a set of rules, regulations, and standards that all public schools are required to meet. It makes no sense that taxpayer-funded independent schools should not be held to the same standards. This will help guarantee that children in Waterford receive a high-quality education no matter which school they attend—whether it is an independent school like St. Johnsbury Academy or a public school.

H.813 allows us to move past the same issues that have been dogging us for decades and move toward real education transformation that benefits both taxpayers and students.

Neil Odell