Education Reform for Vermont, 2007

1. Give parents and children more choices.

There is no excuse for trapping a child in a failing public school, or a public school whose program and practices parents find unacceptable. By expanding parental choice, education consumers will spend their money at the school that is responsive to their child's needs, not the government's preferences.

• Adopt SchoolChildren First! Give parents a scholarship grant to empower them to choose the most suitable schools for their children from among many competing public and independent schools. 

• Allow a generous tax credit for contributions to Student Tuition Organizations (similar to VSAC) that award private income-based scholarships to faith-based independent schools.

• Allow families to take a $500 tax credit for home schooling.

• Allow citizens to create local Education Freedom Districts, in which they can design their own innovative education systems free of heavy state control. 

• Allow local teachers and parents to create public charter schools free of bureaucratic rules and responsive to parents and children. (36 states have already done so.) 

• Encourage dual credit programs for college-bound high schoolers.

Vermont's state standards are pathetically weak. The Fordham Foundation, the American Federation of Teachers, and Education Week magazine have all given Vermont standards a failing grade. A public school system built upon weak standards can't prepare our children for successful lives. 

Until full parental choice makes state-mandated standards irrelevant, the legislature should force a reluctant Board of Education to toss the present "Vermont Framework" in the dumpster, and adopt strong, academic standards modeled on the best developed by the other states like Virginia (history), California (math), Colorado (geography) and Indiana (science). After all, our kids will have to compete with their kids. Our kids deserve a fighting chance.

No one can know how well our kids are doing without reliable assessments. For years the Department of Education has peddled "portfolio assessment" which is little more than a folder of past assignments that can't be reliably graded, and the results can't be compared to anything or anybody else.

• Scrap portfolio assessments and the "New Standards Reference Exam".
• Encourage local public schools to make use of one of the four nationally recognized norm-referenced tests on the market
• Assure security on giving and grading all standardized tests.

Good teachers with strong parental support are the keys to better educational results.

• Require all teachers to take periodic competency tests to obtain and keep a license.
• Help those teachers who do poorly to improve.
• Help those who fail to improve to find other careers.
• Pay bonuses when needed to attract good teachers whose disciplines are in short supply, especially in science and math.
• Make sure all elementary reading teachers are proficient in phonics and direct instruction, so kids can learn to read by decoding words instead of guessing at shapes
• Make sure all elementary math teachers are proficient in Saxon math or similar, proven techniques that guarantee math literacy.
• Convert the teachers retirement system to a direct contribution plan, so teachers can control their own portable retirement accounts.

The Vermont NEA (teachers' union) is opposed every one of the foregoing recommendations. The VT-NEA is a highly political body whose objectives can be achieved only by electiong legislators and governors who will vote against expanding parental choice and provider competition, and retaining iron-clad government control over a public school monopoly.

• Prohibit NEA members from serving on school boards that are bargaining with the NEA (namely, all of them).
• Prohibit the use of union dues for political purposes without the express consent of the teacher member. (In Washington state, only 8% of WEA members continued to contribute to the union's political fund, when contribution was no longer mandatory.)
• Prohibit union contracts that allow the unions to intrude on the efficient management of the school.

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