School buses are parked outside Mt. Mansfield Union High School in Jericho on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger It might be understandable that lawmakers — consumed with so many school reform debates — got a late start on addressing an often-overlooked facet of the stat e’s education system: student transportation. For most school districts, getting kids to and from school is a challenge, and has been getting harder over the years, thanks to a shortage of school bus drivers, a lack of companies available and the general remoteness of Vermont’s geography. That’s according to a report on the school districts’ ongoing problems, released in December by the Vermont Agency of Education and presented during a joint meeting of the House Ways and Means and House Transportation committees on Wednesday. Vermont’s school districts are required by state law to adopt a school transportation policy but are not required to provide student transportation. That’s led to a wide variability in how districts provide transportation. Some districts provide transportation for elementary students only, others for elementary, middle and high school students. Some don’t provide transportation at all. For Jill Briggs Campbell, the Agency of Education’s deputy secretary, that has created an equity issue and underpins many problems facing school districts, such as chronic absenteeism. One in four Vermont students are considered chronically absent, and lack of transportation options may be contributing to that. “The sort of complexities of size, governance, geography … results in a system that is highly variable and raises questions around equity and access,” Campbell said. “All of those things that hold true for almost every aspect of our education system, also hold true for transportation.” Vermont provides funding via the transportation reimbursement grant program for all 52 of the state’s school governing structures that oversee the 119 school districts. Districts may apply to get 50% of their transportation costs covered, though they are limited by a statewide cap of about $25 million. But there’s greater demand than there are available funds, Jon Gray, a legislative attorney, told committee members Wednesday. The districts that don’t have the resources to operate school buses in-house often contract with third-party transportation providers. But fewer and fewer companies are available for contracting, and according to a VTDigger investigation, private equity firms have in recent years bought out some of the few school transportation companies available to school districts. Because of these challenges, school district officials in a survey conducted last year by the Agency of Education described year-over-year cost increases ranging from 20% to 35%. Despite these challenges, Agency of Education officials are optimistic that there’s room to rethink how the state funds and organizes the system within the broader reform efforts underway. “I think that there’s a lot of opportunity here, as we’re looking at the larger education transformation, to actually think about how we could rethink this system,” Campbell said. “There’s lots of different ways that we can do this, and we should be creative and flexible.” In an “ideal legislative universe” lawmakers would be able to take steps this year toward “understanding and making changes in how transportation funding works in the context of Act 73 implementation,” Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, the House Ways and Means Committee chair said on Wednesday. “We’re getting a little bit of a late start on it, so we’ll see how it goes.” — Corey McDonald  In the know Lawmakers are considering allowing people to use plug-in solar panels in their homes in Vermont, but Michael Desrochers, director of the state’s Division of Public Safety, wants lawmakers to think about “whether the cart is a little bit in front of the horse.”  A bill approved by the Senate, S.202, would allow people to install portable solar panels that plug into a building’s electrical system. Under the bill, solar panels have to meet certain electrical specifications in order to be permitted. People wouldn’t be required to get permission from their electric company to use a solar panel or pay any fee associated with it.  Desrochers said that while the specifications for panels outlined in the bill are “pretty solid” from a fire safety perspective, he’s concerned that the state is relying on customers to install the solar panels correctly.  Panels can’t be plugged into a typical power outlet, Desrochers explained, because those are designed only to export power to devices. For someone to import power to their electrical system, they would have to install a circuit.  Someone could install that circuit themselves if their building only has one or two units, though they would have to get it inspected after the fact, Desrochers said. If a building had three or more units, the owner would have to hire a licensed electrician to install the circuit, he said.  The need to install a circuit while following regulations could drive up the costs of installation, he said.  — Charlotte Oliver On the move The House on Wednesday passed its miscellaneous education bill, H.931, that notably pushes out by a year the date when the Vermont Agency of Education could enforce class-size minimums. Act 73, the education reform law passed last year, gives the State Board of Education the ability to close a school that doesn’t meet class-size minimums after three years of noncompliance. Under the law, 10 students per classroom will be required in first grade, 12 students in Grades 2 through 5, 15 in Grades 6 through 8, and 18 students for Grades 9 through 12. H.931 would push the effective date back to July 1, 2027. — Corey McDonald On the trail Campaign announcements continue to roll in.  Tom Blakely, a retired IT professional and Democrat from Bennington, is running in the two-seat Bennington-5 House district. The district, which includes parts of Bennington and Pownal, is currently represented by Democrat Michael Nigro and Republican Mary Morrissey. And Elizabeth Hunt, a medical doctor from Charlotte, is running as a Democrat in the three-seat Chittenden Southeast Senate district, where a contested Democratic primary is anticipated.  Announcing your run for office? Not already on our radar? Let us know by sending the info to [email protected]. — Ethan Weinstein Your support We’re just over a week away from the end of our Spring Member Drive. We rely on reader support to bring you news from inside the Statehouse‚ including this very newsletter! Final Reading is a heavy lift — the product of multiple reporters’ and editors’ hard work four days a week. If you get a kick out of Final Reading arriving (for free) in your inbox, the best way to support it is by making a one-time or monthly contribution today. — Your Final Reading crew Read the story on VTDigger here: Lawmakers take stock of Vermont’s irregular school transportation system. ...read more read less