Streamlining democracy

If the Legislature is serious about efficient governance, it might want to look closer to home before trying to streamline and consolidate Vermont’s school system. Vermont has a lot of legislators for such a small state. Perhaps the House and Senate would be more cost effective if they were more like the rest of the country.

There was a push in the last session to reduce the number of school districts and school board members in the name of improving school governance and efficiency. Proponents of consolidation appeared to be driven, in large part, by national norms. Whether in the number of school districts, teacher-pupil ratios, or per pupil spending, they seemed to think Vermont could save money and get better results if it was more average.

By that same measure—state average—Vermont has far more state representatives and senators than it needs. Across the country, the average House member represents about 60,000 people, and the average senator represents nearly 160,000 people. In Vermont, the ratios are about 1 to 4,100 in the House and 1 to 21,000 in the Senate. If Vermonters settled for the average representation that residents have in other states, we could get by with 11 members in the House and four in the Senate.

We probably would need to pay these legislators a real salary because they each would have so much more responsibility. But think of the savings on mileage, meals, and weekly stipends if we reduced the General Assembly from 180 to just 15.

And imagine how much more efficiently legislation would move. Only six people would have to agree to get a majority vote in the House. In the Senate, three votes would be enough to pass a bill. It shouldn’t take more than a few weeks to do the people’s business each winter in Montpelier.

This all assumes that when it comes to governance, in local communities or in Montpelier, what we need is more efficiency, rather than more citizen participation. As for trying to be more like other states, I wonder which state Vermont would rather to be.