This commentary is by state Rep. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Essex, a social worker who primarily serves youth and young adults.
Education in Vermont needs to change for the better. The last three years have pulled back the curtain and put on display what those of us who work in schools already knew: None of us are OK.
Educators, support staff and students are all traumatized and tired. As a school social worker, I know several teachers who are leaving the field entirely and parents who are making huge sacrifices to homeschool because their children aren’t getting the supports they need in school.
Schools are scrambling to fill positions at every level. We can’t keep going like this.
The roots of the issue are more than just funding, but it’s a big part of the problem. We made an important change in the Legislature last year and adjusted pupil weighting so that districts with more support needs get more funding, but there’s much more to do.
Supports and services are difficult to get, inflexible, and often not available at all. We end up trying to force children and teachers to work in a system that does not meet their needs. This directly leads to a rise in difficult and sometimes dangerous behaviors in classrooms that make it impossible for teachers to teach and for students to learn.
We have a mandate to ensure that all children can access an appropriate education that meets their educational needs and we are failing, especially for Vermont children who already are marginalized by our society — children with disabilities, children who have experienced trauma, New American children, children of color, and children on IEPs and 504s.
This forces parents to learn to navigate a complex bureaucracy to push for their child’s legally required education, which is incredibly unfair and inaccessible.
I have seen initiatives in the education world come and go, often half implemented because they are poorly rolled out without adequate training and support. The current model of restorative justice in the K-12 education is one such initiative. It has incredible potential for transformation.
However, very few schools engage in Tier 1: Community Building, which is vital, so that when harm happens, there is a community to connect to. If we keep skipping to methods of conflict resolution without going through the core tenets of building belonging, connection and community, it will continue to be business as usual.
If thriftiness and dedication could fix our schools, we wouldn’t have a problem. The teachers and support staff I know are incredibly creative with little funding, wear their hearts on their sleeves, and bring their own personal resources to school to fill gaps. Parents make major financial sacrifices to pay for supports for their kids that schools are legally mandated to provide.
It is our job as policymakers to do better for them and there is a path forward. In the next biennium we need to:
- Move school funding to a progressive income-based education tax instead of relying on property tax, and so take the burden off working-class Vermonters,
- Review the Act 67 grant-funded community schools pilots and see if this model of integrating community resources and supports into schools can be replicated statewide.
- Dedicate a funding stream for teacher pensions to prove that we will fund this system and they can count on a dignified retirement.
- Create an ongoing funding source for universal school meals so that no child goes hungry at school and no parent has to choose between feeding themselves or feeding their children,
- Expand the Multilingual Liaison program so that all districts that have multilingual students and families have someone from their culture who will help them navigate the complex public school system.
- Increase subsidies and streamline administration for child care and stop gutting a huge part of our workforce when parents can’t find or pay for high-quality child care.
- Ensure that para-educators and support staff are paid fair and competitive wages for the work they do supporting some of our highest-needs students.
- Make the special education system more accessible and transparent for parents and families to navigate. Every child should have access to supports and educators who are adequately trained without first having to fail at learning.
We have a lot of work to do to realize education equity. While I’m glad that we have taken some important steps, we have to prioritize the safety, learning and belonging of the next generation of Vermonters and invest in the future of our state and beyond.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Rep. Tanya Vyhovsky: We can’t wait any longer for equity in education.
