Vermont Tiger Interview: Jeb Spaulding
State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding served in the Vermont State Senate from 1985-2000. He chaired several committees over the course of his eight terms as a senator, including the Appropriations Committee and Joint Fiscal Committee. During his years as Education Committee chair, he sponsored various versions of bills authorizing charter schools. Spaulding hoped that Vermont would become the second state after Minnesota to adopt charter schools. But it was not to be. None of the bills ever became law, and Vermont is still not a charter school state.
We contacted Treasurer Spaulding recently to recall what happened with the charter school bills that he sponsored. Spaulding was quick to point out that he wasn’t as up on the current research on charter schools as he would be if he were still in the Senate. The demands of his current job have pulled him in other directions. Nevertheless, his philosophy about school choice remains as solid as ever. Here is our conversation:
Vermont Tiger: Did you have kids in school at the time?
Spaulding: Yes, I did.
Vermont Tiger: In public schools?
Spaulding: Yes, my two daughters went through 12 years of Montpelier public schools.
Vermont Tiger: Would you say you were happy with the results?
Spaulding: Yes. So that’s not what motivated my interest in school choice and charter schools.
Vermont Tiger: So that’s not what was influencing your thinking?
Spaulding: No. I’m still — for several reasons, for school choice – I’ll use the broad term “school choice” because eventually you have to get down to what you mean by school choice. Charter schools would be one form of school choice. There are several reasons why I favor choice. But the primary one is I don’t see how you can say you’re for equal educational opportunity when wealthy people have all the choice they want getting their kid into a school that meets their own needs, and people with no wealth have no choice – and, to me, that is patently unfair. My kids happened to do well in Montpelier in the public schools. But if they hadn’t been successful there, I would have had the capacity to find a private school to fit their needs or paid the tuition to send them to another public school. And I just think that’s – since I think education’s the most important thing we can provide for our kids – I think that’s unfair. For me, if you believe in equal educational opportunities, then all children ought to have the opportunity to get into a learning situation that allows them to thrive.