Gov. Peter Shumlin pointed to enrollment recently as the education funding problem Vermont faces. “We’re spending too much money for the number of kids we have,” the governor said on Vermont Public Radio.

Policy makers in Montpelier have struggled for years with the decline in the state’s school-age population. Read more

House Ways and Means March 11, 2014

Good afternoon. My name is Jack Hoffman. I’m an analyst with Public Assets Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Montpelier that focuses on state fiscal policy, including education finance. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Read more

In the wake of the defeat of 34 school budgets on Town Meeting Day, the Legislature has been reexamining how the state collects revenue for public education. One change lawmakers are considering is to have more residents pay school taxes based on income rather than the value of their primary residence. Read more

Based on the statute they enacted in 2012, the Vermont Legislature is now supposed to weigh budget decisions by how they affect Vermonters and how well they meet people’s basic needs for things like food, shelter, health, education, and a job that pays a meaningful wage. Read more

Gov. Peter Shumlin’s proposed budget for fiscal 2015 calls for spending $5.6 billion next year, an increase of $288 million over the budget passed for fiscal 2014. The lion’s share of the new spending—62 percent—will be for human services, which is the largest component of Vermont’s budget. Read more

Gov. Peter Shumlin struck a better chord with his Budget Address than he did last year, when it seemed like he wanted to balance the budget on the backs of poor Vermonters. This year the governor talked about protecting vulnerable Vermonters and making “investments that will enhance Vermonters’ quality of life.” Read more

The Census released new information Thursday—pooled from surveys taken during 2010, 2011, and 2012—that paints a discouraging picture about Vermonters’ economic well-being five years after the Great Recession hit. Key Census indicators related to employment, income, and poverty are all worse than they were before the recession. Read more

Human Services Secretary Doug Racine has offered a discouraging assessment of what Vermont can do to address poverty, especially among young children. In an interview published last weekend, Racine described what he called “an evolution in my thinking.” He seems to have given up on reducing childhood poverty, and now says the best the state can do is to try to mitigate the effects. Read more

By Jack Hoffman. This piece first appeared October 29, 2013 in Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. 

In two short sentences earlier this year, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin turned high hopes into bitter disappointment. During the governor’s second inaugural address, optimism rose with his bold announcement that he would “make the largest single investment in early childhood education in Vermont’s history.” Read more

This piece originally appeared in the Vermont School Boards Association’s October 2013 newsletter.

Last year brought good news for Vermont’s 15-year-old school funding system. An extensive study for the Legislature by Lawrence O. Picus and Associates concluded that Vermont provides “equal access to all towns for raising revenues for pre-K-12 education.” Read more