Former House education chair urges countywide high school consolidation and tax-cliff fixes

Dave Sharp, former state representative and former chair of the Vermont House Education Committee, told the Vermont House Education Committee on Feb. 27, 2025, that lawmakers should consider reorganizing high school governance in Addison County so all 9–12 students attend a single, countywide district anchored by the local career and technical center.

Sharp said the proposal would keep community elementary schools while consolidating secondary education to expand access to career and technical education (CTE) and reduce the tension Act 46 created between primary and secondary budgets. "There's no reason why a student couldn't take AP Calc in the morning and auto technology in the afternoon," Sharp said.

The proposal, Sharp said, would expand the existing countywide career-center district to cover grades 9–12 across Addison County, which he argued could allow high schools to merge and to offer both academic and career courses seamlessly. He suggested tying state construction aid to projects that combine an academic high school with a technical center so state money would support facilities that integrate CTE and academic programs.

Sharp described persistent funding and access problems that he said hamper CTE participation: transportation costs, the per‑student budgeting that sending schools must carry for students who attend a tech center, and the effect of unpredictable enrollment shifts on sending schools' budgets. "So let's say 20 students from Mount Abe decide they wanna go to the tech center. So now you're talking about half a million bucks," Sharp said, outlining how those per‑student costs can strain sending schools.

He also criticized earlier reform efforts and funding formulas. Sharp said Act 46 unintentionally pitted elementary and secondary budgets against one another and cited Act 60 and the foundation formula as tools that reduced inequity but that may need redesign to increase equity further. He urged indexing the foundation amount and the so‑called income "cliffs" that he said create steep tax jumps for households around certain thresholds.

Sharp named two income thresholds he said need attention: a roughly $47,000 threshold that changes required education payments and a roughly $90,000 threshold that affects middle‑income households' eligibility for income‑based education tax treatment. He called the $47,000 jump "one of the most egregious" cliffs and urged the committee to consider fixes during this legislative session or in summer study work.

Sharp also gave local examples of school governance and closures in Addison County, citing Ripton and towns that formed their own districts, and called for preserving community elementary schools while allowing middle and high school consolidation where practical. He urged improving transportation planning, saying younger students should be as close to home as possible while older students can travel farther for consolidated programs.

A committee member asked Sharp about the governor's CTE funding proposal and how per‑student funding would be handled; Sharp said he had only briefly reviewed the governor's plan and reiterated that a seamless structure between career and academic programs is necessary before funding changes would resolve the access issues.

Sharp recommended summer study committees examine whether the countywide, tech‑center‑anchored model could be expanded to other regions. He framed the proposal as a potential template rather than a one‑size‑fits‑all mandate and urged lawmakers to consider tax‑cliff fixes and construction‑aid incentives to enable the model.

The committee did not take formal action during Sharp's testimony; his remarks were presented as testimony for the committee's consideration.