________________________________________  THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT March 24, 2003 Vol. 3, No. 11 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  Covering education news in Vermont and beyond... Informative, provocative, unique... Published by Vermonters for Better Education  VBE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to enlist parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational opportunities for all the children of Vermont by monitoring the state of education in Vermont; promoting the value of educational freedoms for all parents; and giving parents the evaluative tools with which to identify excellence. Libby Sternberg, executive director: LSternberg@aol.com NEWS & ANALYSIS... LAWSUIT FILED TO OPEN CHOICE TO RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS On Thursday, March 20, Richard Komer, lawyer with the public interest law firm the Institute for Justice, came to Vermont to announce the filing of a suit in federal court designed to open the door to tuitioning to religious schools in Vermont. The suit is aimed at overturning the 1999 "Chittenden" decision by the Vermont Supreme Court which said that Vermont's constitution is more restrictive than the federal constitution on issues of church and state, and thus tuitioning to religious schools is unconstitutional in Vermont. Komer, however, says that the federal constitution "trumps" local constitutions, and in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2002 ruling on the constitutionality of vouchers to religious schools, the Chittenden decision is ripe for revisiting. Here is the Institute's press release announcing the litigation: Parents in Vermont's "tuitioning" towns celebrated in June 2002 when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a historic decision upholding Cleveland's school voucher program and its inclusion of religious schools. These parents assumed they would now be free to select religious schools through Vermont's tuitioning system-a kind of school choice program where local school districts pay tuition to the public or private schools that parents choose, in lieu of maintaining public schools. They were wrong. In the third case in its nationwide school choice campaign, the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Justice today filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Vermont on behalf of three Vermont families denied tuitioning funds for religious schools, seeking to vindicate their rights to a broad array of educational options. "School choice isn't true choice when the State removes an entire class of choices, as Vermont does," said Richard Komer, Institute for Justice senior attorney and lead counsel for the litigation. "Parents -and not the State- know the school that will best meet their children's needs." For well over a century, Vermont's tuitioning program has offered a sensible and popular solution for education in rural areas. About half of Vermont towns participate, giving their residents the right to send their children to any school of their choice-public or private, in-state or out-of-state. For about 90 years, that included the ability to select religious schools, something parents routinely did. But since 1961, parents have been denied that choice. Dr. Blane Nasveschuk of Rutland Town, Vt., knows all about Vermont's discriminatory tuitioning policy. Nasveschuk received tuition grants to send his eldest son to a Vermont ski academy for two years, but when he decided to send his two younger sons to Mount St. Joseph's Academy, a Catholic school in nearby Rutland, the Rutland Town school board and the State refused tuitioning funds. While his neighbors who chose secular schools were free to participate in the tuitioning program, Nasveschuk paid his sons' tuition himself. Nasveschuk's sons have since graduated, but he remains outraged at the simple unfairness of the policy his tax dollars support. "I was lucky that I could afford to forgo tuitioning funds and still send my sons to the school I thought was best for them," he said. "Many parents aren't as fortunate, and this policy denies them the freedom to choose for themselves." Nasveschuk, in his capacity as a taxpayer, joined two other Vermont families to file today's lawsuit. Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Genier of Middletown Springs send their daughter, Lindsay, to Christ the King School in Rutland, and Dr. David Heaton and Dr. Judith Fisch of Rutland Town send their daughter, Rebecca, to Mount St. Joseph's. Both families live in tuitioning towns, but currently pay tuition to send their children to religious schools. Vermont's discriminatory policy began in 1961, when the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that including religious schools violates the U.S. Constitution's Establishment Clause. The court reversed that ruling in 1994 -theoretically restoring the right to select religious schools- and just last year, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed when it upheld Cleveland's voucher program. But the Vermont Department of Education continued the policy, even threatening to eliminate state aid to the Chittenden Town school board because Chittenden wished to grant tuition to parents selecting religious schools. Chittenden, represented by IJ, sued to overturn the policy. This time the Vermont Supreme Court upheld the ban on religious schools -not under the federal Constitution, but under Vermont's state Constitution. That decision puts Vermont at the heart of the nationwide controversy over school choice. School choice opponents have promised to fight school choice by leveraging state constitutions like Vermont's to cut religious schools out of the range of options available in choice programs. "Vermont's tuitioning program offers school choice to everyone except parents who choose religious schools," said Komer. "The program should not favor religion, but it can't discriminate against religion either." IJ believes that barring parents from selecting religious schools through a program like Vermont's is an unconstitutional violation of parents' First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and speech and of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. IJ seeks to end Vermont's discriminatory policy -and to remove once and for all the state-level barriers that might hinder the implementation of effective school choice programs in the states. The Institute for Justice is the nation's leading legal advocate for school choice, currently fighting state constitutional barriers to choice in three other states. IJ is challenging Washington state's Blaine Amendment, a state constitutional provision that has been used to try to eliminate religious options from school choice programs. In Florida, IJ is defending the statewide Opportunity Scholarships program from just such an attack. IJ is also challenging a 1981 Maine law that bars religious schools from participating in that state's tuitioning program. The Institute helped win a tremendous victory in the U.S. Supreme Court for school choice when it represented parents participating in Cleveland's school choice program. IJ also successfully defended the school voucher program in Milwaukee and tax credit programs in Illinois and Arizona. Joining the Institute as local counsel is Orland Campbell, the plaintiff in the 1994 lawsuit, and the only parent from a tuitioning town in 40 years to legally receive tuition payments for a child enrolled in a religious school. After winning his case, Campbell went to law school and became an attorney. He now practices in his hometown of Manchester, Vt. A "backgrounder" on the case is also available on this web site: http://www.SchoolReport.com/ij_press_release_3_03.htm#background  WAR PRESENTS SENSITIVE ISSUES FOR SCHOOLS The war with Iraq poses special challenges for schools around the state. While some teachers have chosen to confront the issue by encouraging student protests, the state Commissioner of Education Raymond McNulty is urging teachers to use "sensitivity" when dealing with the war. This is particularly important when students might have family or friends serving in the military. The Commissioner has posted on the State Education web site a memo to superintendents and other education professionals - http://www.state.vt.us/educ/new/pdfdoc/pgm_safeschools/03_21_03_memo_iraq_war.pdf - that includes a list of resources teachers can use to deal with the issue of war. McNulty included in his list a reference to a Maine memorandum from the commissioner of education there to superintendents and principals that reminds teachers of the impact war discussions can have on those with family and friends in the military. According to Maine Commissioner of Education J. Duke Albanese, the memo was prompted by several incidents in Maine schools where "some school personnel around the State may have been less than sensitive to children of military families... In some situations, parents - who are about to be deployed - have observed added stress and anxiety among their children who perceive a school staff member or their peers as being insensitive to their beliefs and the potential danger to their loved ones." Here in Vermont, teachers with questions about the military or issues related to sensitivity toward children who have family members in the military can call the Adjutant General's office at 802-338-3124. A Colonel from the office is slated to speak to students at Colchester High School about military issues and the situation in the Middle East, and the office is happy to set up similar talks at other schools.  PRIVATIZATION BOOKLET AVAILABLE ONLINE Vermonters for Better Education has received so many requests for its booklet "How to Privatize a Public School in Vermont" that we have posted the booklet online. It is now available on this web site - http://www.SchoolReport.com/vbe_privatize.htm. The booklet spells out the steps necessary to turn a town with a public school into a tuition town. It includes relevant Vermont statutes and a timeline used when the town of Winhall went through the process several years ago. The booklet is particularly useful for small towns with declining student enrollments where it might be more cost-effective to pay for the tuition of the students in town instead of the maintenance of a public school.  LARSEN BECOMES INTERIM COMMISSIONER State Board of Education Chairman David Larsen will become interim Commissioner of Education when Ray McNulty leaves the post later this month. Larsen holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in education from the University of Vermont (UVM) and served as a UVM Trustee for six years. Since 1972, he has been an educator at Wilmington Middle/High School, where he was a middle and high school social studies teacher for 20 years before becoming a middle school social studies and writing teacher. He was the school's acting principal in 1981. A State Representative from 1987 to 1997, Larsen was a member of the House Education Committee, which he vice-chaired for four years and chaired for two.  COMMISSIONER BILL A GONER? The forces of the status quo testified last week on H.245, the bill that would allow the governor to appoint the commissioner of education. Among them was Edie Miller, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association. In her testimony, Miller stressed the fact that "public education is different from other state services" because it is a "government in itself" due to local schools boards. Therefore, it requires an independent voice to promote the "long term" interests of Vermont's children. The bill itself is still in committee and House insiders speculate it will stay there because there aren't enough votes to get it to the floor, despite persuasive arguments from various experts, including the former Vermont commissioner of education. So the current situation appears to be headed toward a mirror image of what happened in 1996 - with those in the governor's party supporting the issue, and those in other parties opposing it. If so, Vermonters once again will have lost an opportunity to gain more control over a department that is currently virtually unaccountable to taxpayers and parents. The education establishment, including the Vermont School Boards Association, is quick to point out that public schools are accountable to the people. Yet the department of education itself is not. How that serves the long-term interests of Vermont school children is questionable. What it does serve, however, is the interests (long- or short-term) of special interest groups like VSBA, the Vermont NEA and others who have a disproportionate amount of influence on the department when the commissioner does not serve at the pleasure of an official the people can hold accountable. VBE supports allowing the governor to appoint the commissioner of education.  ACT 60 PLAN UNVEILED BY GOVERNOR Governor Jim Douglas unveiled his own Act 60 reform plan last week to the disappointment of members of his party in the House who had been working on their own version of overhauling the state's education financing plan. (For information on various Act 60 plans, see http://www.act60.org.) The governor's plan contains a school choice component - schools that spend above the block grant would have to open their doors to students from other districts. Does his plan have a chance? According to various news reports, he might find more support for his plan among Democrats than Republicans. And, unfortunately, the Republicans might not find enough in the plan to like (even with the school choice component) to get over their snubbed feelings.  HOMESCHOOLER TO JOIN STATE BOARD Susan Schill, a home-schooling mom, could join the state board of education soon. VBE has learned that Schill will be the second SBOE member appointed by the governor so far. The first appointment was Chris Robbins, VBE board member and president of EHV-Weidmann Industries. Because of SBOE Chair David Larsen's appointment to the position of interim commissioner, Governor Jim Douglas will have two more spots to fill on the SBOE.  WHO COVERS EDUCATION IN VERMONT?  WE DO! Maybe you noticed that this is the third "volume" of the Vermont Education Report. That means we're entering our third year of covering education stories in the state that you WON'T FIND ELSEWHERE. Education is a complicated and important topic. In Vermont, it's a nearly one-billion-dollar industry. Yet scant notice is given to it in the major newspapers and broadcast media in the state. Only in the VER will you find regular coverage of education issues - stories on what the department of education is doing, what is happening in the education committees in the legislature, and how the state really compares nationwide, as well as tidbits from around the country. Help us keep going - send a contribution today to: VBE, 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701.  ELSEWHERE... DO TEACHER UNIONS BLOCK REFORM? by David W. Kirkpatrick, senior education fellow, US Freedom Foundation  The National Education Association (NEA) was established in 1857 and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) 100 years ago, but neither evolved as effective labor unions until the 1960s. Unfortunately, as that transition took place, they began to adopt some of the less attractive features of industrial unionism. Both have consistently tried to block or cripple significant education reforms, such as school choice and charter schools. For example, in 1970 the U.S. Government looked for a school district to try a five-year school choice project, which required the approval of the local teachers. One was found in Alum Rock, California, where most of the teachers belonged to the NEA local and a smaller number to an AFT chapter. Both groups agreed to take part, only to be attacked by their national unions, which raises the question as to who was representing whom. At the 1997 annual conference of the Education Commission of the States, top teacher union officers were asked why they did this. Then-NEA President Bob Chase took the easy way out by saying he wasn't in office at that time and thus wasn't directly involved. Ed McElroy, AFT's Secretary-Treasurer, said it was done because its local members made "a stupid decision." While he didn't indicate who made this decision, it is clear that national union officials decided they knew what was best for the local teachers. Ironically, the AFT president at the time the Alum Rock project began was David Selden, who testified before Congress in opposition to vouchers. After he had left office a few years later and visited Alum Rock he wrote an article in which he said the Alum Rock teachers liked vouchers and so did he. But it was too late. Not only are the unions not prepared to challenge the status quo, they do everything possible to maintain it, regardless of the consequences to students, teachers or the public interest. Billy Boyton, a former Executive Director of the NEA's Nebraska affiliate, and John Lloyd, who held a similar position in Kansas, have said, "The NEA has been the single biggest obstacle to educational reform in this country. We know because we worked for the NEA." One reason for this has been indicated by another insider, NEA attorney Erwin Ellman who has been quoted as saying "let's fact it, there's no intellectual ferment among teachers. Those who are superb teachers are not those who are trying to get ahead in the Association." When the unions talk about reforms the same nostrums are repeated - smaller class size, more teachers and teacher aides, beginning formal education earlier and, always, more money. Whatever merits their proposals may have, and for many that's not much, they are only variations of the status quo, rather than reform that would involve real change. Sometimes their claims are so extreme as to be ludicrous, yet they are usually unchallenged by the media. For example, Sandra Feldman, now the AFT's national president, once wrote a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal claiming that a reform the union favored and for which, she said, it had some responsibility, had been implemented in "hundreds of thousands of schools around the nation." That's no mean feat considering there are fewer than 90,000 public schools in the nation. Even adding all private schools only totals about 112,000 schools. Those hoping to bring about real reforms by cooperating with teacher unions will have about the same success they would have if they decided to look for the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. (This article is adapted from "Teacher Unions and Educational Reform," Government Union Review, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2000; David Kirkpatrick is a former public school teacher and former president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, and life member of both the Pennsylvania State Education Association and the NEA.)  *   *   * The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701, 802.773.5240 Contact LSternberg@aol.com for more information.

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