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For weeks, administration officials have been mum about a key question hanging over Gov. Phil Scott’s sweeping proposal to overhaul Vermont’s pre-K-12 system: What would happen to choice?

In a hearing with lawmakers Thursday, Education Secretary Zoie Saunders finally provided some answers � and triggered a maelstrom of reaction at the Statehouse.

Scott’s reform proposal envisions every student in Vermont being assigned a public elementary, middle and high school. But in each of the five regional districts envisioned in the governor’s consolidation plan, school boards would also be required to designate at least one “school choice school,� to which students could apply to via lottery. These “school choice schools,� as officials referred to them Thursday, could be private, or they could be public.

These schools of choice would not have to follow all “state academic and operational requirements,� but “school safety requirements, nondiscrimination requirements and school climate� regulations would apply, according to Saunders submitted to lawmakers.

Currently, there are two types of districts in Vermont: operating and non-operating. Districts that operate schools generally cannot offer choice; students within their borders attend the public schools that they run. (Limited intra-district choice is sometimes available, usually when there are multiple elementary schools.) Non-operating districts, on the other hand, offer their students publicly-funded tuition, or vouchers, which can usually be used wherever families decide, including at private schools. Over 3,000 students in Vermont currently attend private schools using public vouchers.

Public school leaders have long resented the fact that private schools can participate in the state’s tuitioning system. Private schools can pick and choose the students they accept, they argue, and siphon badly needed funds away from public schools, who are left to educate those who are hardest to teach with fewer resources.

Private schools, on the other hand, have argued they are better able to offer more innovative programming. And in some regions of the state, there are no public schools, and private schools have taken on the role of de-facto public school.

Democrats, particularly in the House, have regularly attempted to more aggressively regulate private schools that receive public money. But state lawmakers have usually defaulted to keeping the peace by neither restricting nor expanding choice.

Scott’s proposal threatens to upend this uneasy equilibrium. But while critics believe it would dramatically expand the flow of public money to private schools, administration officials insist it could actually do just the opposite.

“This would likely reduce the number of independent schools receiving public tuition,� Saunders said in an interview.

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Key constituencies within the public school system already say the impact of Scott’s proposal would be devastating to public schools. The Vermont-NEA, the state’s teachers union, made their stance clear barely an hour after Saunders� presentation wrapped up.

“We have two words for Gov. Scott’s scheme to expand the use of vouchers � non starter,� the union , formerly known as Twitter.

And on Friday, the Vermont School Boards Association weighed in, writing in a statement that Scott was “using Vermont’s education funding challenges as a pretense for this power grab which is supported by the Koch Brothers.�

“Multiplying the number of students eligible for vouchers will not rein in costs. In other states that have enacted such programs, education costs have skyrocketed,� the VSBA added.

The nod to the Koch brothers was a reference to another statement, released last month by the Koch-funded conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, and said that “education freedom is within reach.�

The governor’s proposal would rewrite the rules according to which private schools are eligible to receive public money. According to Saunders� report, requirements could include the “use of state standardized assessments, implementation of minimum state graduation requirements and robust special education services.� And it would give public school districts new power and oversight over which private schools can receive public dollars within their borders � if any.

Scott’s plan would include “enhanced accountability standards for independent schools and public schools,� Saunders said in an interview, and eliminate existing practices that, for example, allow for tax dollars to pay for private schools .

And she added that the governor’s plan assumed that the existing moratorium on the creation of new private schools in Vermont would stay in place.

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In an interview Thursday afternoon, House education committee chair Peter Conlon said he was still trying to understand the implications of the governor’s latest proposal. But he said he was open to it.

“There's a definite opportunity here to � have these newly formed districts set very high standards for what is a school that public dollars could flow to,� the Cornwall Democrat said.

“But on the other hand,� he added, “I don't think there's a lot of appetite for opening up opportunities for independent schools to compete with public schools.�

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