The Vermont House and Senate return to the State House next week to vote on legislation aimed at drastically changing how education is delivered, configured and funded in our state.
It remains to be seen whether significant change will come about, whether more summer study commissions will be created or whether something else entirely unexpected will come out of this process.
But here are some things that are certain. One of the most significant, if not the most significant, cost driver in terms of education costs in Vermont is the cost of health care. This single line item, (part of the union-negotiated wage package districts enter into with staff) predictably, reliably, and relentlessly goes up every single year.
There is never any relief. Districts do their best to negotiate concessions from unions that entail staff paying more for their health care but even those concessions do not move the needle on this budget behemoth.
We can argue until the cows come home about how many school districts we need in our state and whether small schools, medium schools or large schools deliver a better education. We can implement (and we should) a Foundation Formula for funding this year or next year or in five years to try to create a more stable funding system that doesn’t cause wild increases year over year. And there really is no reason changing funding mechanisms needs to wait until the state’s entire education structure is changed.
Health care remains the elephant in the room regardless of what happens next week when the Legislature reconvenes. Our state representative Candice White reports this week in her update that when federal health care subsidies expire at the end of this year (and barring some sort of federal budgeting miracle, it seems they will), the cost of a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont Silver family plan will rise to (sit down) . . . $58,000.
$58,000.
That’s breathtaking and does not necessarily represent rapaciousness on the part of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont. What it does represent is a seriously broken system that lies at the very heart of our education costs.
We will never bring education funding under control if health care is not addressed.
