Politics
Vermont Shifts Education Funding: Property Taxes Rise, Fall Across Districts
The changes redirect state education dollars based on new enrollment metrics, raising or lowering local property tax rates for households across districts including those in the Northeast Kingdom and Chittenden County.
How we reported this
The Vermont General Assembly enacted the Education Equity Funding Act in June 2026, which recalculates state aid to school districts using updated pupil counts and local cost indices rather than prior formulas.
This revision occurs as the Joint Fiscal Office projects a $185 million gap in the education fund for fiscal year 2027, driven by enrollment shifts documented in the Agency of Education's March 2026 report.
Effects on district budgets and household costs
Residents in districts with falling enrollment, such as several towns in Orleans County, will see reduced state aid and higher property tax rates to maintain current per-pupil spending levels near $19,800. In contrast, districts experiencing growth, including parts of Washington County, receive increased aid that offsets local levies for the same fiscal year.
Local advocates note that the legislation states aid adjustments will be calculated annually starting with the 2027 tax year, directly tying payments to verified October 1 enrollment figures submitted by each supervisory union.
Implementation timeline and resident notices
The Agency of Education will issue preliminary aid estimates to all 52 supervisory unions by August 15, 2026, followed by final tax rate calculations sent to town clerks before property tax bills are prepared in early 2027. Policy analysts say the first affected bills will reach mailboxes in April 2027 for the 2027-2028 school year.
Forward-looking projections from the Department of Taxes indicate that approximately 18,000 parcels statewide will experience rate changes of at least 3 percent, with the largest shifts concentrated in 12 districts that had relied on the previous weighting system.