State education officials outline how Vermont’s complex funding system affects equity and local taxes

MONTPELIER, Vt., Jan. 15, 2025 — Officials from the Vermont Agency of Education told a joint hearing of the House Education Committee, the Senate Education Committee and the Senate Finance Committee that the state’s education funding, governance and program-delivery systems are “inextricably linked,” and that the complexity of the current finance model makes it difficult for voters and school boards to predict how district budget votes will affect local property tax bills.

The briefing, led by Zoe Saunders, Secretary of Education, and Emily Simmons, general counsel at the Agency of Education, framed the presentation around legal requirements, how the education fund is calculated and paid for, and policy issues that the administration says must be addressed if Vermont is to deliver more equitable educational opportunities statewide.

“The public education funding, governance and program quality are all inextricably linked,” said Zoe Saunders, Secretary of Education. Saunders and agency staff said the state’s system was designed to equalize tax capacity after the state supreme court ruling that found wealth-based differences in opportunity unconstitutional, but that in practice local choices, enrollment shifts and other factors can produce unequal per-pupil outcomes.

Emily Simmons reviewed the legal baseline for the conversation, pointing to the state constitution’s education clause and to statutes that require education quality standards. “The constitution…