State Board of Education tells Senate committee it lacks funds and legal counsel to meet statutory duties

Jennifer Deck Samuelson, chair of the State Board of Education, told the Vermont Senate Appropriations Committee on March 18 that the board is underfunded and lacks in-house legal counsel, leaving it unable to carry out duties assigned under 16 V.S.A. §164.

The board asked the committee to consider funding to hire counsel and to support a one-time appropriation to modernize the state's education rules, work the board said is urgent because many rules are decades out of date and federal policy changes may shift responsibilities to states.

"We are in a state of flux," Samuelson said, describing uncertainty about which duties the board will retain as the Legislature reviews proposals that would change the board's authority. She said the board's current operating budget has been capped at about $70,780 and that, after planned expenditures, "the board has a little bit, like, I want to say around $35,000 left in this budget," an amount the board says is insufficient for substantive rule updates or hiring consultants.

Samuelson and Tammy Colby, the board's vice chair, told senators the board previously relied on the Agency of Education for legal counsel but that practice has ended. "We need legal support," Colby said, and the board now must issue bids and contract for outside counsel, a process Samuelson said can take roughly three months and still leave the board without broad legal coverage.

The pair outlined several statutory responsibilities that require legal assistance, including rulemaking under 16 V.S.A. §164.9 and the board's quasi-judicial role in hearing appeals such as tuition-rate disputes and supervisory-district withdrawal requests. They said rulemaking has been paused on items including updates proposed by an Act 1 working group and a set of education standards the board received in 2023.

Committee members asked about appointment and oversight. Samuelson said board members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate Education Committee after an application and interview process. Samuelson and Colby said the board has discussed prioritizing the core rule series — including the Education Quality Standards (rule series 2000), clinical approval rules, career and technical education (CTE) rules, and special education rules — and suggested a systematic review with the agency to determine which rules should remain in regulation and which functions might be better handled as agency procedures.

The board said the proposed governor's education bill (identified in testimony as H.454) would shift significant rulemaking authority to the Agency of Education, a change the board strongly opposes. "If the rulemaking authority is shifted to the agency, our line item request for one-time appropriation wouldn't need to be granted," Samuelson said, but she added the board believes retaining core rulemaking authority provides independent perspective and public prework that improves implementability.

Senators indicated the budget timing and the pending education legislation are interrelated: if the Legislature narrows or removes the board's responsibilities, the board's appropriation needs would change. Samuelson offered to return with more specific requests tied to defined responsibilities as the session clarifies which duties remain with the board. She also offered to share a slide presentation and materials the board used when it discussed the governor's proposal.

No formal votes or motions were recorded during the committee appearance.

The board requested: dedicated legal counsel funding, one-time resources to modernize and systematically review the rules corpus, and sufficient ongoing appropriation to meet statutory duties should the board retain rulemaking authority.