In Vermont, a group of lawmakers and an Agency of Education executive have been working hard to design a school construction aid program. They have carefully hashed out the details but have not yet identified a funding stream. The group is hopeful that Governor Phil Scott will recommend appropriating state money in his budget proposal to assist with school construction projects. However, this seems unlikely at present.

Uncertainty and School Infrastructure

The uncertainty surrounding the funding of Vermont's schools raises important questions. Voters are clamoring for education property tax relief, and the deteriorating school infrastructure is increasingly disrupting classrooms. Vermont's schools are the second oldest in the nation and will require upwards of $6 billion in infrastructure investments in the next two decades. This is just one of the cost pressures on the state's public education system.Lawmakers plan to address Vermont's school funding system in the coming legislative session, and school construction aid may be a part of the solution. For more than 15 years, Vermont has lacked a state-funded school construction program, shifting the financial burden to local school budgets and property taxes.Now, with the rising cost of education becoming a pressing political issue, officials are focusing on state support for construction. Some argue that updating schools would save money currently spent on deferred maintenance and energy inefficiencies. Others believe that now is not the time to invest more in education.

Details of the Aid Program

As proposed, the aid program would cover 20% of a project's eligible cost. There are also opportunities for additional funding up to another 20% if certain criteria are met. The program's main responsibilities would fall to the Agency of Education, with an additional advisory board providing consultation on implementation.Jill Briggs Campbell, the interim deputy secretary of education and a member of the construction aid working group, stated that the agency would need at least three full-time positions to implement the program. Last week, the group voted unanimously to endorse a draft piece of legislation.

Working Group's Progress and Challenges

Sen. Martine Gulick, D-Chittenden Central, who co-chaired the group, feels good about their work but acknowledges that more needs to be done in legislative committees in January. "A lot of the current draft comes from the previous program that existed prior to 2007. We're hoping that the education committees will take this bill up and really flesh out some of the details," she said.When asked about the likelihood of the governor including an appropriation for school construction in his budget recommendations, Gulick remains hopeful. "We have the second oldest school facilities portfolio in the country. It's at a point where it's unhealthy. If you want to be fiscally responsible, you have to look to the future," she added.As of December 10, there is little reason to expect the administration to recommend funding construction aid without cutting from elsewhere in the state budget. Part of the working group's charge was to "align the proposed construction aid program with fiscal modeling produced by the Joint Fiscal Office." Historically, the state provided school construction aid in the Capital Bill through bonds and by appropriating one-time money.Sen. David Weeks, R-Rutland, who served on the construction aid working group and is a member of the Senate Education Committee, said Republican senators recently met with Scott to discuss the administration's legislative priorities, and construction aid was not among them. "I get that we have other fiscal problems to solve. I'm trying to get a sense myself for whether they have an appetite for restarting school construction aid," he said.Although Weeks took issue with some of the working group's recommendations, like the bureaucratic layer of creating an advisory group, he praised the group's bipartisan collaboration and indicated his support for some form of school construction aid. "Do we need it? Yeah, we really do," he said.Weeks predicted that the legislation "will be changed a thousand times" when it reaches committees this session and suggested that construction aid will be a key part of conversations about education finance. "I think it's very clear to everybody that we do have a cost problem. There's going to be a lot of levers pulled to make ourselves more efficient in how we spend," he added.