So. Burlington, VT - Motivated by the mutual desires to control the rate of increase of the state's public K-12 education system while, at the same time, improving educational outcomes for all Vermont students, three business partners and three education partners have joined forces to provide bold and long-term leadership on the dual goals.
The Vermont Business Roundtable, Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation, Vermont Principals Association, Vermont School Boards Association, and Vermont Superintendents Association announced their collaborative effort as the next logical step following the business community's phase I study entitled, "Vermont State Public Education Expenditure Overview and Analysis".
The report showed that though student enrollments have been declining over the past decade, public education spending during that same time has been rising at rates more than double that of general inflation, and is likely to continue doing so without policy intervention.
The Business-Education Alliance will develop a scope of work that builds upon the findings of the expenditure report, and which seeks to understand the fiscal and outcome impacts of the expanding mission of public schools; human services-related cost shifts onto school districts; and, the state's lowest in the nation student-teacher ratio among others.
The Alliance plans to issue a report in time for action in the 2008 legislative session.
According to Mary Powell, Chief Operating Officer at Green Mountain Power, and a member of the Alliance, "It is important for this next investigative phase to be informed by the perspectives and knowledge of the education community. We are excited to be able to head in this direction with our new partners."
Mary Moran, Rutland City superintendent and President of the Vermont Superintendents Association, agrees.
"In order to move beyond tinkering at the edges, and make meaningful and substantive change, it will take courage and leadership. These six organizations are committed to providing the kind of constructive systems thinking that we know must happen to achieve change."
Created in 1987 as a nonprofit, public interest organization, the Vermont Business Roundtable is composed of 120 CEOs of Vermont's top private and nonprofit employers dedicated to making Vermont the best place in America to do business, be educated, and live life through collaboration, research and analysis, and communication and advocacy. Member businesses employ over 49,000 employees and are represented in virtually every county across Vermont.