My Turn: Boilers, Pressures and Budgets

By William J. Mathis

Appeared in the Burlington Free Press, January 24, 2006

The fireman was annoyed. The boiler’s safety valve was always popping off and interrupting his naps. So, he hung a cast-iron monkey-wrench on the valve and went back to sleep. He next awoke, but only briefly, as his body was flung through the wall by the boiler explosion.

Like our fireman, Governor Douglas proposes caps in school spending as if monkeying with the safety valve will eliminate exploding costs. For a boiler, we must solve the true problem of too much heat and too little water. For school spending, we have to address the true cost problems.

Jim Douglas is not the first governor (of either party) to rail about ornery and independent Vermonters voting to invest more in education than the chief executive thought wise. For a school budget that exceeds inflation (about 3.5 percent), a “supermajority” of 60 percent would be needed, says the governor. Ironically, these are the same voters who had the wisdom to elect him by a simple majority

Nor is Douglas the first governor to overlook the fact that education cost increases are driven by factors outside of local school’s control. In yet another irony, the cost increases are primarily driven by state and federal, laws and policies.

• Like every person who has filled his/her gas or fuel oil tank, schools have been stung by cost increases. This factor alone adds about one percent to the overall school budget.
• Our national and state crisis in health insurance adds a second point to school costs this year even though coverage has been cut and employees pay a bigger premium share.
• Federal and state unfunded mandates in special education will add our third inflationary point to the typical school budget.
• If locally elected school boards give a cost of living increase of three percent (under state bargaining laws), this adds at least two more points to the budget.

These factors alone cause the average school budget to go up five percent without considering any building improvement loans, maintenance, or that bane of the household budget, the unexpected cost.

Schools do not determine energy policy nor do they control health costs (beyond our banding together to purchase coverage). Likewise, we have made none of the special education laws, nor do we control inflation. These are difficult issues requiring urgent state and national attention – but they won’t be solved by putting a cap on school budgets. This means, like our boiler, that the pressure will simply increase and eventually explode.

Sky-rocketing housing prices have generated huge tax increases for many citizens. The prebate system is part of the solution, not the problem. It is how citizens get their money back. Yet, the governor has proposed that this program be cut back. This proposal will have the worst impact on middle-income Vermonters.

Vermont student numbers are going down and we have very favorable teacher-student ratios (To show for our investments, we have some of the best achievement test scores and social health indicators in the nation). Yet, the classroom ratios will naturally moderate. With the bulge of the teacher force nearing retirement, school boards are offering retirement packages and managing declines by attrition.

The cloud on the cost horizon is the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It is no surprise that many of our most deprived, and most expensive to educate, children need extra help. This costs money particularly in early education, summer and after school programs. Schools are shifting their capacity in these directions. Although this law has myriad problems, our obligation to our neediest is both a legal and moral obligation.

At the same time, all parts of government must exercise wisdom and economy. But hanging a monkey-wrench on the safety valve is not wise and it causes a great deal of expensive damage. Increasing taxes on middle income Vermonters, weakening local voter decisions, raiding the education fund for other purposes, and imposing unworkable caps is neither a recipe for good government, nor for a good society.

The governor has warned that school budget increases are not sustainable. Yet, if the governor, and our state and national leaders addressed health care, energy policy, special education, unfunded mandates, inflation and sky-rocketing real estate values; school costs would be less and the benefits would multiply across all elements of our society.

William J. Mathis is a Senior Fellow with the Vermont Society for the Study of Education and Superintendent of Schools for the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union, Brandon.