Stephen Schmidt, associate professor of economics, and Karen Scott '08, an economics minor, have had a jointly authored paper accepted for publication in “Education Finance and Policy.” The paper, titled “Reforming Reforms: Changing Incentives in Education Finance in Vermont,” grew from work Scott did as a summer research fellow with Schmidt in 2004.
Schmidt completed the work while on leave at RPI that fall and presented the paper at American Education Finance Association meetings in spring 2005. The paper finds that Vermont was able to change from a politically unpopular system of equalizing education opportunities to a more acceptable system with only a small sacrifice of equality; however, it did require a large increase in the state sales tax.