Commission on the Future of Public Education tells House committee H.454 timeline, scope risk limiting public input

Megan Roy, chair of the Commission on the Future of Public Education and a teacher in the school leadership program at Saint Michael's College, told the Vermont House Education Committee in May 2025 that the commission is tracking changes to H.454 and is concerned the senate version’s scope and schedule could curtail public engagement and leave key cost drivers unaddressed.

"Vermont has a shared responsibility for the education of our youth," Roy said, summarizing the commission’s December findings and the framework it is using to evaluate proposals on governance, quality and funding through an equity lens.

The commission reported that both the House-passed H.454 and the then-current senate version align with two of the commission’s policy areas—redistricting (governance) and the foundation formula (funding)—but commission members raised several concerns. Members told the commission that the senate draft, as reviewed in the May meeting, removed provisions aimed at the education delivery system, such as class-size and school-size guidelines that had appeared in the House version and which the commission views as proxies for instructional quality.

Roy said commission members also flagged that the revised foundation formula creates a funding level that "allows for a 10% increase in teacher salary" on average but does not require districts to raise pay. "The foundation formula doesn't force districts to pay teachers more," she said. The commission noted districts already paying above-average salaries could maintain those pay levels only by reallocating funds—potentially by cutting services or positions, the commission said.

Commission members expressed concern about the timeline in the senate draft. Roy noted even the "most seamless of voluntary mergers under Act 46 required two or more years for a full transition," and that mergers crossing district lines—like those contemplated in the senate version—would be more complex and require additional time for decisions about school board representation and other governance details.

The commission also highlighted public input themes compiled by Afton Partners, the consultant under contract. Roy said public input gathered from August 2024 through April 2025 shows a consistent request: continued and expanded engagement. "The only area of consistent feedback that we've received through our community engagement opportunities is that input in the transformation of our education system is critical," she said. Roy added the senate version removed the requirement that the commission use the community engagement structures it had developed, which the commission said could render work and taxpayer funds spent to date less useful if those structures are not used going forward.

Commission staff said they have shifted to multiple virtual input sessions to speed collection of comments and to let Afton identify demographic gaps in engagement; five virtual sessions were scheduled, with at least one session described as occurring the week following the meeting. The commission said it is pausing a broad survey because questions may need to change as proposals evolve and because survey questions cannot be changed once distributed; the commission will proceed with a survey if the legislature requests general-question data.

Members of the House committee thanked Roy and the commission for the update and emphasized the value of keeping public engagement in the process if redistricting and other structural changes move forward.

The commission’s work, as described to the committee, remains in the discussion stage: it is providing findings and real-time reaction to legislative proposals rather than taking a formal position, and it continues subcommittee work to assess equity impacts of policy proposals. The commission cited several legal and policy references during the update, including Act 46 and Act 183, and said its equity framework draws on resources including the Vermont Office of Racial Equity.

Questions from committee members focused on the commission’s pivot to virtual outreach, the timeline for additional sessions and whether the commission could tailor sessions or surveys if the legislature provided specific questions. Roy said the commission would welcome concrete survey questions from the General Assembly and would pivot session topics if requested.