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Our Vermont legislators recently commissioned a state-of-the-art study to investigate how best to apportion funds to schools equitably. Unfortunately for the students of Vermont, it detailed serious inequities in school funding. What this study unveiled was an outdated distribution of funds to its districts. For 20 years the tax structure in Vermont has skewed away from fully supporting our most vulnerable students and families. Nearly 60 percent of Vermont schools have had their equalized students undercounted, some by more than 20 percent. This has led to higher tax rates and fewer resources for these schools. This has left lasting scars on our kids, and the deepest scars are in the poorest school districts.
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To the editor: We write to make information about the proposed Marlboro School District budget available to Marlboro voters before they fill out their ballots and vote on school expenditures for next year. Since the Town Report was published, new factors from the state have further reduced our cost per pupil and our education tax rate in Marlboro.
Based on the newest information, Marlboroâs proposed school expenditures per pupil are down about 7 percent from last year, and the education tax rate for Marlboro will go down by about 14 percent if this budget is approved, from $1.99 to $1.70.