It’s safe to say Vermont school officials aren’t happy about the not-so-gentle recommendations from the state this week to chop $23.2 million (about two percent) from their 2012 budgets. But isn’t the news that Vermont is likely in line for $19 million in federal education jobs funding consolation?
Vermont’s U.S. Senators hope so. Both worked against a Republican filibuster and helped the public jobs funding bill pass in the Senate today in a 61-39 vote. “At a time of great need in Vermont and around the country, I think this is going to help a whole lot,’’ U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., told me in an interview after the vote.
The funding could help preserve 300 education jobs in Vermont, he said, and go a significant way in replacing the money schools stand to lose under the state budget cutting exercise. Sanders predicted the House would approve the bill next week and that it will become federal law. “The major hurdle was getting the 60 votes that we needed in the Senate,’’ he said. “That having been accomplished, this thing will pass.’’
Education observers I talk to are a bit guarded about the impact of the federal money. For one thing, it’s unclear exactly how many strings will be attached and how the funding will be dispersed in Vermont, as in who would get what. “It’s difficult to know how this is all going to unfold,’’ said Jeff Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association.
Meanwhile, the Vermont Education Department’s recommended cuts to school districts, which vary from less than $40,000 to over $1 million, continue to generate consternation. “What I’m hearing today is that the school business managers and the superintendents are looking for explanations, why their numbers are what they are,’’ Francis said.
Stay tuned. This issue is likely to heat up in September as school boards gear up their budget work.
