Ways & Means hears options for capping school "excess spending" above proposed foundation

The Vermont House Ways & Means Committee on Monday heard a Joint Fiscal Office briefing on options for capping school districts’ spending above a proposed foundation amount known in bill draft 1.1 as the Educational Opportunity Payment, or EOP.

Julia Richter, Joint Fiscal Office analyst, said the office used fiscal year 2025 education spending aggregated to 11 Vermont School Boards Association regions to give lawmakers a sense of scale for hypothetical caps of 5 percent, 10 percent and 20 percent above a district’s EOP. "If the school district’s total EOP was $100 million, then it could spend up to $10 million in excess spending," Richter told the committee.

The nut graf: Committee members focused on three linked policy choices that will shape any excess‑spending cap: whether districts should be allowed to spend above the foundation; if so, whether there should be a cap; and, if there is a cap, how to calculate it (for example, as a percentage of a district’s EOP or per pupil). Richter stressed the EOP is calculated on a district’s weighted pupil count, so using the EOP as the base would let districts with higher weighted counts raise more in absolute dollars.

Richter walked members through why the office used FY2025 district spending for the demonstration rather than a proposed foundation amount: a…