A recently passed provision, part of a large state education law, could end high school choice for parents and students here, having the most probable impact on Bellows Free Academy-St. Albans and Bellows Free Academy-Fairfax.
This school year, Georgia sends 292 students to high schools in Franklin and Chittenden Counties at a cost of $3.5 million. The majority of those students, 186, attend Bellows Free Academy-St. Albans at a cost of $12,800 per pupil, or $2.3 million.
The tuition rate at BFA-Fairfax is $9,870. The average high school tuition rate in Vermont is $11,576.
If all 292 Georgia students had attended BFA-Fairfax this year, the district would have paid $650,000 less in tuition, Chattman reported. If all of those students had attended Milton High School, Georgia taxpayers would have saved $1.1 million.
In contrast, sending all 292 to BFA-St. Albans would have added $175,000 to Georgia’s budget.
Read more in tonight's St. Albans Messenger:
http://www.samessenger.com/NewsView.asp?ID=5542 (http://www.samessenger.com/NewsView.asp?ID=5542)