Act 60 explained

Act 60

Vermont Department of Education--Facts About Act 60
"Act 60--What You Should Know" (opposes Act 60)
www.act60works.org (supports Act 60)

"In this appeal, we decide that the current system for funding public education in Vermont, with its substantial dependence on local property taxes and resultant wide disparities in revenues available to local school districts, deprives children of an equal educational opportunity in violation of the Vermont Constitution."

--Vermont Supreme Court ruling in Brigham v. State of Vermont, Feb. 1997

In response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Brigham v. State of Vermont, the General Assembly in a matter of months passed Act 60, The Equal Educational Opportunity Act, which instituted a statewide property tax.1 The state collects the property tax, which is a uniform $1.10 per $100.00 of assessed value throughout the state, into the Education Fund; there is an income sensitivity provision for families earning less than $75,000 per year. Then the state distributes the money in the form of block grants, guaranteeing a threshhold amount will be spent per "equalized" pupil ($5,566 in FY 2003) regardless of how much a town is able to raise through local property taxes. If a town wants to spend more than this threshhold amount, the money goes into a sharing pool. About 80 richer towns pay into the sharing pool and about 160 poorer towns receive money from it. This has the effect of equalizing spending per pupil, but it is very controversial because parents in richer districts are not happy to see funds flowing out of their area and it throws into question traditional local control of schools.

Note
1. The House passed H.527 by a vote of 81-62 on March 20, 1997, the Senate passed H.527 by a vote of 21-9 on May 22, 1997, and on June 12, 1997 the House passed the conference report on the bill 87-56 on June 12, 1997 and Gov. Dean signed it into law that same month.