2005 Vermont Code - § 4011. — Education payments

§ 4011. Education payments

(a) Annually, the general assembly shall appropriate funds to pay for statewide education spending and a portion of a base education payment for each adult diploma student.

(b) For each fiscal year, the base education payment shall be $6,800.00, increased by the most recent New England Economic Project cumulative price index, as of November 15, for state and local government purchases of goods and services from fiscal year 2005 through the fiscal year, for which the payment is being determined, plus an additional one-tenth of one percent.

(c) Annually, each school district shall receive an education spending payment for support of education costs. An unorganized town or gore shall receive an amount equal to its adjusted education payment for that year for each student based on the weighted average daily membership count which shall not be equalized. If the district's adjusted education payment is less than the base education payment, then in fiscal years 2005 and 2006 only, the district shall receive its education spending per equalized pupil plus 40 percent of the excess of the base education payment over the district's adjusted education payment, but only for deposit in a district's education reserve fund, authorized in accord with section 2804 of Title 24, for expenditure on legitimate items of education expense. In fiscal years 2007 and after, no district shall receive more than its education spending amount.

(d) [Repealed.]

(e) The commissioner shall pay an amount equal to 87 percent of the base education payment to the Vermont Academy of Science and Technology for each Vermont resident, 12th grade student enrolled.

(f) Annually, the commissioner shall pay to a department or agency which provides an adult diploma program, an amount equal to 26 percent of the base education payment for each student who completed the diagnostic portion of the program, based on an average of the previous two years.

(g) The commissioner shall pay to a school district a percentage of the base education payment for each resident student for whom the district is paying a technical tuition to a regional technical center but who is not enrolled in the district and therefore not counted in the average daily membership of the district. The percentage of the base education payment to be paid shall be the percentage of the student's full-time equivalent attendance at technical center multiplied by 87 percent.

(h) Annually, by October 1, the commissioner shall send to school boards for inclusion in town reports and publish on the department website the following information:

(1) the statewide average district spending per equalized pupil for the current fiscal year, and 125 percent of that average spending; and

(2) a statewide comparison of student-teacher ratios among schools which are similar in number of students and number of grades. (Added 1997, No. 60, § 18, eff. July 1, 1998; amended 1997, No. 71 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 90, 117a, eff. March 11, 1998; 1999, No. 49, § 197; 1999, No. 108 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. May 10, 2000; 2001, No. 8, § 16; No. 63, § 170b; 2003, No. 36, §§ 21, 22; 2003, No. 66, § 187b; 2003, No. 68, § 16, eff. June 18, 2003; 2003, No. 76 (Adj. Sess.), § 25, eff. Feb. 17, 2004; No. 122 (Adj. Sess.), § 174; No. 130 (Adj. Sess.), § 15; 2005, No. 54, § 16; 2005, No. 176 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)