Live blogging to a stream on our front page seemed to work well. Thanks for all of your great input, and for excusing the typos. We added a new ARCHIVE for all of our live events.

House Ways and Means did not vote on the bill today. Senate Ed did discuss their committee bill, as well as what is in 782. They will continue to discuss their committee bill tomorrow @ 1:30. No word yet on when Ways and Means will pick up 782 for a vote, however we have heard that it is appearing on the House agenda for floor discussion on Thursday, which would indicate there is pressure to move it out of committee.

Based on the discussion we heard in W&M today, choice will be stripped from the bill.

We're working on strategy and will be in touch soon with ACTIONABLE ways you can help advocate for an outcome that protects choice. We will likely need you to take 10 minutes of your time on Weds or Thurs. Stay tuned!

We're trying new software to live blog the event. Just go to the Home page and you should be able to see the event scroll by in the grey window on the left. If we have technical difficulties we'll do it the old fashioned way, right back here :-)

We were not able to be on site today. A look at the Senate Ed Committee schedule shows they covered this in the afternoon:

Merger of School Districts
Appearing before the committee:
Donna Russo-Savage, Legislative Counsel, Legislative Council
Mark Ottenger, Legal Counsel, Department of Education
Joel Cook, Director, Vermont National Education Association

Next week's schedule shows the House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled all of Tuesday for H.782. Witnesses so far are Jeff Francis, Vermont Superintendents Association, and Michael Livingston, The Sharon Academy.

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This is a long update, but I know many of you are interested in what is happening in the Committee rooms. It is quite a soap opera...

The House Ed Committee highlights:

The committee debated refusing to take action on Challenges for Change. The Chairwoman's concern was that someone else might end up with the authority to make cuts if the committee didn't respond to CfC. Rep. Kilmartin went back to H.782 as a way to jumpstart reorganizing the system from the bottom up. Rep. Waite-Simpson argued for falling back on 2% budget cuts next year (to meet the 23 million shortfall) and removing a vote of the electorate to determine school budgets since they were being dictated anyway. By mid morning the committee took a call from Bob Gensburg who was part of the original Brigham decision legal team. It was his opinion that if they legislated a mandated budget cut that had penalties for non-compliance, they would be opening the door for lawsuits.

At this point Rep. Kilmartin made a motion that the committee withdraw from CfC and refuse to comply. The legislative aide was called in to draft that language.

Education Commissioner Vilaseca happened by and said he was fine with that course of action, and would also be happy to see the re-emergence of H.782 with some of the language addressed. Kilmartin tried to pin him down on his position on Independent Schools, and Vilaseca said he has been very clear with the independents about his issues. We know this to be: you need to offer SPED, and you need to take all comers.

At this point they were told Shap Smith, Speaker of the House wanted to meet with them in his office (the woodshed?) before their vote on the motion. Those of us on the sidelines conferred and I heard we were not allowed in the meeting. The ACLU observer in the room declared he was going in and they could arrest him if they didn't like it, at which point there was a sudden venue change and the Speaker came to the committee room. At that point the Speaker skillfully conveyed that not taking action was not an option.

The day ended with language being drafted that puts the responsibility for determining how much each district will be asked to cut from their FY12 budget, taking into account each district's unique circumstances, back onto the commissioner. That language will be presented to the committee tomorrow for a vote. I imagine this will not be well received by the commissioner.

Meanwhile, in the Senate Ed Committee:

There is a miscellaneous education committee bill that is being discussed that restructures the Dept of Ed. It also includes language that would required independent schools to provide SPED or have a relationship with an entity that does.

The afternoon was spent discussing the hearings. Senator Brock took copious notes during the hearings and attempted to categorize comments and keep a score sheet. They spent quite a lot of time discussing the choice comments, there was a wide variety, and the many impressive positions taken by the parents. Other issues that were noted: tax burden, consolidation, small schools, unique geographic situations, fear of quality decline, lack of data.

It is so clear that your voices are having an impact on what is being considered. I hope you will stay involved and tuned in - consistent and politically diverse parent voices are THE critical component in the process - giving the legislators reason to take political risk in support of choice.

Please pass our website along to a friend.

http://www.SchoolChoiceVermont.com

Daily Summary:

It was a circular day in the House Ed Committee Room.

There were questions about the process, questions about what was to be delivered. Questions about whether working on governance changes should even be part of Challenges for Change. Apparently the deadline for submitting proposed changes to statute is on Friday.

Rep. Kilmartin went to bat for choice this morning, which I am sure resulted in the idea that maybe they shouldn't mess with governance at this point.

Discussion went round and round a few times about approach to the problem, and even defining what the problem is. Finally in the afternoon the consultant who helped develop the Challenges for Change program came into the committee and reiterated that CfC is about looking at desired outcomes and restructuring PK-12 education delivery to find the savings.

The Committee pushed back that the items the Dept of Ed was supposed to deliver as part of the recommendations wer never delivered, and also pointed out that the Commissioner's number one option (consolidation) is not possible to implement within the time frame required for fiscal savings, so why was it suggested at all?

The Committee is frustrated and feeling very pressured.

A question came up whether education is a function of the state or municipality. It looks like tomorrow legal counsel is coming in to discuss the Brigham decision (The state Supreme court case which is responsible for our current education tax scheme ensuring equity of opportunity in education.)

There seems to be a disconnect between what the CfC/administration thinks about the value of this process and approaching it from the "bettering outcomes for less money" angle, and the realities of the complexity of education law in Vermont, and the great variety in our educational landscape.

There was a lot of discussion in the morning about the Bennington hearing and how many parents spoke out for choice, and frustration with how we fund education in this state.

The Senate Ed committee was supposed to discuss the hearing today but ran out of time, they have it scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
The House Ed committee is taking testimony from Rep. Frank Geier tomorrow about his plan for educational change, followed by testimony on the Brigham decision.

The "In The News" page has plenty of NEW local news articles posted.


Morning: We're in the House Education Committee right now. The conversation is quickly evolving, and governance change may be taken off the table because it does not address $$ outcomes for Challenges for Change. This thing is a serious see-saw they way they come to and back away from choice and governance.

There was a lot of talk about Bennington's hearing. Good job everyone!

It sounds like they have a deadline extension of Friday to respond to Vilaseca's CfC suggestions. Their mandate is to suggest any statutory changes by Friday, and there is a meeting happening today to clarify statutory law vs. session law changes that could be presented on Friday.

Please read our overview of H.728 and CFC if you need background info-------->

There were two committees meeting today.

Ways and Means was reviewing H.782. They are supposed to examine the financial implications of the bill. There was intense posturing and questioning of the school choice provisions of the bill. Two members spoke out strongly against choice. Rep. Clarkson said that we really should be considering consolidation as an opportunity to "capture" choice kids and bring them back into the system to boost enrollment. Rep. Sharpe wanted to know what the NEA, principals and superintendents thought of the bill. No one asked what parents thought of the bill. Sharpe is opposed to any expansion of choice and was even uncomfortable with expansion of public school choice.

If it sounds like there was some "mission creep" going on in the committee, I would have to agree. The Joint Fiscal Office presented their numbers, and said they have no way to model potential cost savings. The committee chair pointedly asked what the objective of the bill was, and what problem it was aiming to solve.

It is not clear how much more discussion or testimony they will take on the bill, we'll let you know as soon as we hear.

Next door in the House Education Committee Vilaseca was once again presenting numbers that were requested by the committee. It was a long, contentious morning. Committee Chair Joey Donovan declared OPTION 1 (the commissioner's forced consolidation recommendation) to be "deader than dead." With that statement we are going to assume that choice is not in danger from Challenges for Change, although there will be some painful budget cuts coming up in FY 2012 as part of Option 2 or 3.

Senate Ed went on the road again to Newport. Monday the 5th they will be in Rutland, and in Bennington on the 6th. We urge you to attend and speak out about how important choice is to you.

Thank you for your support, and for talking to friends and school mate's parents about our website and how to stay informed.

We're covering two committees this morning, an update on House Ed once I connect with my colleague. I am in Ways and Means where they are trying to understand the funding complexities of the bill. It was announced by Rep. Peltz that the Gates Foundation has agreed to fund the transition costs.

There is some pushback on the independent schools. Peltz appears uncomfortable defending choice of indie schools.

There is no way to determine what the savings could be overall and the committee is having a hard time with that.