Vermont and Act 60
Vermont. When most people hear this word they automaticaly think of tranquility. A place were towns are small, and the people are friendly. A place to get away from the fast lane of the "big city", and get on the road to forgetting your troubles for a few days. You can go skiing and shopping, and then get back in your car and go back to your hectic life. But if spend any time in Vermont, more than just a weekend getaway, you will see a side of the state that many have never seen. There is a war going on. A war that has torn apart a small state. A war over education reform, and an act that few outside have ever heard of, but all will see its outcome.
In 1997 the legislature of Vermont, led by Sen. Peter E. Shumlin (D), of Putney, passed a sweeping education reform law, titled Act 60. Act 60 is meant to help towns in Vermont raise the standard of education, which in itself is commendable, but the method is deplorable. In order to raise the money for these towns, a state wide property tax was inacted. With the money raised, $5000.00 per pupil is sent back to each of the 211 communitties in need, at the expense of the other forty-one towns, labled "gold towns." The towns on the "gold town" list are small towns with big business such as ski resorts and, in Vernon's case, a nuclear power plant.
These "gold towns" with a combined population of about 50,000, now have to pay a "school tax" of sort for the remaining 211 towns, who have a combined population of 536,000. A town such as Stowe (pop. 3986), a labled "gold town," now has to send a check to the state at the end of each year, so the state can then send a check to the city of Rutland (pop.18, 083) to help pay for their cities school budget, instead of Stowe using that money on their own students. The residents of "gold towns" are being penalized for taking on the responsibilities and headaches of big businesses. These businesses already pay Vermont millions of dollars each year, while also bringing tourists into the state who have to pay Vermont state sales tax, and a rooms and meals tax.
...Wisconsin. Probably even more known than any of the places in this paragraph are the attractions that come around every October to scare you to no end.
America, it has always had everything we need, except for when colonists flocked in the early 1600´s. Its 1609, you and a group of people have been on a boat for months. Now you aren't even sure if the America's exist. But once you lost every single drop of hope, you see it. A beautiful swampy land. This place makes you feel like you have a lot of opportunities, there’s a river, a lot of wildlife, and not that many Native’s around. It seems perfect, that’s what people that saw posters of Jamestown thought in England. Jamestown seemed, perfect, appeared perfect…
The Honourable David Johnson introduced Bill 160, the Education Quality Improvement Act during the first Session of the 36th Parliament of the Province of Ontario. Bill 160 was originally written as "an act to reform the education system, protect classroom funding, and enhance accountability and make other improvements consistent with the Government's education quality agenda, including improving student achievement and regulated class size". The negative effects of Bill 160 were displayed using several different political concepts. These include historical background, power, politics, authority, influence, legitimacy, coercion and obligation.
Smith, K. (2010, April 16). Nj paradox: Piles of cash, failing schools. New York Post, Retrieved
T he Act include increased accountability for States, school districts, and schools; greater choice for parents and students, mainly those attending low-performing schools; more flexibility for States and local educational agencies (LEAs) in the use of Federal education dollars; and a stronger emphasis on reading, especially for our youngest, low income, and minority children. (OVERVIEW Executive SummaryARCHIVED INFORMATION)
Louisiana, which is filled with anger , tension, isolation, and quietness from the people in the
...he surrounding area are required (and thus get more funding from local property taxes), by law and Education Code, to give a portion of their funding to school districts that are “poor” in order to boost the “poor” school districts performance; this idea of taking from the rich and giving to the poor is why it is dubbed the “Robin Hood” plan (Smith, Schools are Reassigned to Robin Hood, 2011). This bill was the first in a long series of proposed bills that was ruled as a constitutional solution for the 1989 Texas Supreme Court case Edgewood v. Kirby, but it is also the reason for the not only the current lawsuit filed by approximately 600 school districts (both wealthy and poor), but also the 2003 school funding lawsuit (Texas School Finance History, n.d.). It has been ruled unconstitional several times throughout its history, yet it still remains in practice today.
Local governments rely on property tax as a source of revenue to pay for school. Yet people in the urban areas pay the higher tax than suburban and wealthy communities, states on the other hand, relies on The Average Daily Attendance (ADA), which calculates state aid to school districts, tends to discriminate against urban school districts with high absentee rates by automatically, and excludes 15 percent of its student aid. Therefore, in many urban areas, the state ratio of funding remains significantly lower than 50 percent out of the tree entities the federal government allocates the least amount of funding. Residents in these areas who are under edu...
Growing up in Virginia was great. The house I lived in for the entirety of my life there, was right on the water. With this location, of course we had it all; boats, jet
Then comes the education part, where according to the author Jonathan Kozol in his book Savage Inequalities Children in America’s schools, property tax is one of the main financial distributions that goes towards local schools. In Kozol’s book he quotes that, “typically in the United States, very poor communities place high priority on education, and they often tax themselves at higher rates than do the very affluent communities.
When states try to find ways to restrain from non-essential areas, unfunded federal mandates are at the top of the list. These mandates often force state and local governments to spend much more than necessary on everything from medical care to welfare to road building. A complex web of federal programs bind together the tree treasuries of the local, state, and federal government. As much as 25 percent of state budgets now comes from the federal government, and up to 60 percent of some state budgets is spent on joint federal-state programs.
Even in this time of struggle, with billions of dollars going towards various war efforts overseas, America still has managed to keep taxpayer investments in education higher than that of funds for national defense (U.S Department of Education). In the 2004-05 school year, there was an estimated amount of 536 billion dollars set aside from taxpayer investment for education purposes. Without a doubt, education is a priority for the American government, and if these funds are used in the correct way, there is no reason why each and every kid in the United States shouldn’t be getting a quality education. However, the organization of the financial system is flawed, funds are not handled proportionately at the state level; rather, this system favors the wealthier districts and hands more funds to them while the less wealthier districts are handed a smaller pool of funds. This really affects America’s quality of education, which also reflects upon how America fairs on the world stage when it comes to competition in education with other countries. The disorganization of funds in the United States can be seen in the Hoover City School district, which has bought every student in that district an iPad for use in school. The first problem with this is that this school district does not even have a viable bus system that can transport students to and from school. Secondly, not even 20 miles from this district lies the Birmingham City School district where a little more than half the students are graduating, compared to Hoover City Schools where a bit more than 90 percent of the students are graduating. If anything, the state should be working towards improving educational standards in lower-income communities rather than debating on the log...
On the good side, this town was wide open. There was lots of space and the natural scenery was just beautiful. Because it was not so crowded, and traffic was not a problem, there was not much pollution either. I like this because it was easier to keep healthy.
...mpared to privately funded school sizes. According to (NCES) the average school size for a central city, state-funded school is 1,083 compared to 398 in privately funded school. That means teachers will have an even harder time giving a state-funded the same one on one time when compared to the privately funded school. Since the education is not equal to private schools should be abolished.
conflicted places. It seems as though we hear a lot of war and conflicts these days.