Conference committee narrows H.454 tuition language; accepts 5% supplemental charge, flags CTE funding gap

Conference committee members reviewing H.454 focused this session on how public tuition would follow students, how independent schools qualify to receive that tuition, and how career and technical education (CTE) programs would be funded under the proposal.

St. James, an Office of Legislative Council staff member sharing the draft, summarized the package and walked members through the sections. St. James said the senate proposal would “keep their proposal of require[ing] that approved independent schools have at least 25% of their Vermont resident student enrollment composed of publicly funded tuitioning students,” and explained changes to the tuition calculation provisions in section 27 of the bill.

Under the senate counterproposal discussed by the committee, subsection a would preserve the principle that “tuition follows the student” and that the base and weights follow the student. The draft adds subsection b, which would allow a receiving school to charge, and require a sending district to pay, an additional fee equal to the product of the base amount and up to 5% for each student in grades 9–12 only if the…