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Committee reviews proposal to limit public tuition payments to out‑of‑state independent schools within 25 miles of Vermont border
Summary
The Education Committee discussed draft language to limit state-paid tuition for Vermont students attending out‑of‑state independent schools to institutions within 25 miles of the Vermont border; testimony cited AOE FY24 data showing about 114 students currently tuitioned out of state and estimated effects of the proposed restriction.
On May 1, 2025, the Education Committee considered proposed language to limit Vermont public tuition payments for students attending out‑of‑state independent schools to those located within 25 miles of the Vermont border.
Oliver Olson, speaking on behalf of the Vermont Independent Schools Association, said he reviewed Agency of Education (AOE) fiscal‑year 2024 data and that 114 students were tuitioned to independent schools outside Vermont in FY24. Olson told the committee the narrower rule he proposed — limiting eligibility to out‑of‑state independent schools located within 25 miles of the Vermont border that served at least one Vermont student in 2023‑24 — would reduce the number of out‑of‑state independent schools eligible for public tuition to roughly 12–14 schools and lower the number of eligible students to about 39 in that year. "I scrubbed the AOE data from fiscal year '24 last night," Olson said in presenting his analysis.
The proposed 25‑mile limit would include Canadian schools in Quebec, Olson said. He also clarified his figures apply only to general‑education students; therapeutic schools that serve students with special education needs would remain exempt under current law, he said.
Legislative counsel St. James told the committee the draft bill had been updated (draft 7.1) and pointed members to the proposed report deadline in the bill. Committee members asked how school approval works across jurisdictions: Olson said AOE data are coded by districts and that local sending districts have authority to determine whether an out‑of‑state school meets their requirements for tuition payment; he noted some coding inconsistencies in the data he reviewed.
Committee members pressed for more detail on distances and examples; Olson said his analysis used Google Maps to locate each receiving school and that the 25‑mile construct would remove schools farther from the border, with the numbers sensitive to a few schools near the cutoff. He recommended the committee consider a narrowly targeted change rather than a broad ban.
The committee did not take formal action. Members asked staff and witnesses to share the draft language and the AOE files Olson used so JFO and legislative counsel can review the fiscal and statutory implications before the committee meets again.
