Meetings
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[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: One zero five on 20? Yes. And we are picking up the education technology bill that I gave to you on the agenda, so I don't have it.
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: H650.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Thank you so much, Bill. And is H650, our finac related school technology products?
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: This can't be controversial.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: So before Rick jumps in, I just want to set the stage for everyone. When this bill was introduced, it had a fee in it. As it left the Commerce Committee, it has no fee in it. We have no jurisdiction over this bill at all anymore. But it had to come to us because the underlying bill as introduced had a fee in it. And that's important, right? Because on the floor, you can always go underneath that amended bill and talk about that. Thank you. Just to add that an exciting addition to us.
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Yes, good afternoon.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Please tell us briefly about the bill and walk through the briefing.
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: I would love to. Rick Siegel with the Office of Legislative Counsel. So as the chair indicated, she's kind of stole my thunder. That's okay. I don't have much else to say. That's her role is H650. My role is to steal thunder. One A and one B. Love that. We're only a committee and steal my thunder. An act relating to educational technology products. So as the bill was introduced, it's actually kind of similar to the data broker bill. I was here yesterday or the day before on. It was set up in the same way where they would register as a ed tech provider, meaning that they supply some kind of product to schools in the state that is defined as ed tech. When they register, they would have to pay a fee. I think it was $100 a year. And then they would have a fine if they did not register with the state. So that was stripped out of House Commerce. The bill, as it was reported out of Commerce, was just when you register with the state as a business. If you're doing business, you have to register with the Secretary of State, that you provide information to the Secretary. That information would be obviously your name of your entity, your products, if your products are known to be used in any school or district in the state, and at a station that you meet state and federal privacy laws. So, just more information so the state can start accumulating what the landscape is for ed tech in the state. So instead of requiring the underlying bill, as introduced, was also going to require certification of products that I think it was the Secretary of State would actually go through and certify these products as being capable, but as being certified to be used in schools. That was stripped out. So instead, you have a study from the AOE that will review these registrations as they come in the Secretary of State. So, you have the names of the providers, the names of the products. And they will see, do we have products in the state that are not being registered with the state? That's the thing they'll do. The second thing they'll do is see if these products should be certified and how that process should look. Which entity should certify? Should they work with non public sector entities to certify these edtech products? So, basically a study with a report back in November 2027. That's the bill. So there's no fee, there's no penalty in the bill as it came out of commerce. Effective 07/01/2026.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Do have any questions for Rick?
[William Canfield (Vice Chair)]: Back by December what'd you say?
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: 11/15/2027.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: November, wild. Representative Holcombe. And the AOE has said they have the capacity to do this?
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Did they provide testimony? I don't know. I was not present if they did, so I can't answer that question. I don't know.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: We can ask the reporter if they bill in a little bit. Any other questions for Rick? She's inside the Zoom. Great. Thanks, Rick. Yeah. Thank you. Julia, can you
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: tell us about the fiscal impact of
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: the bill? You're welcome to stay in your seat. Julia, there is no fiscal impact. There is no fiscal note for the bill because there is no state level estimated fiscal impact. Thank you. Doctor. Ode, what about there used to be a fee, now there's no fee. What about that revenue we're losing? There must be some impact there.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: The
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: bill as introduced included a fee, but because that fee was not It did not include a executive. I didn't know that. Okay, fine, good, and we're good to go. Representative Holcombe, you want Edie to answer your question? It's fine. I'm gonna put this on. All right.
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: Right. Grady, did Representative Granning did the AOE address this report?
[Representative Edie Granning (Reporter of the Bill; Jericho and Underhill)]: Hi, Edie Granting representing Jericho and Underhill, reporter of the bill. So the agency of education provided testimony a few times for us. As we continue to update the bill, they continued to provide testimony on the initial version of the bill. So what we decided is that they clearly need some time to figure out what they can do and what the cost would be to do that. And so the study is really for them to tell us that this is the information that we think would be valuable. What would it take for you to do that and how much would it cost for you to do that? And I don't think it's as clear as it could be in the bill with the crossover deadline and everything else. It's probably not written in the same format that we often see bills, but that is the section for the agency is to tell us what would it cost for you to get this kind of information back to the legislature.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Thanks.
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Really at the risk of asking questions that aren't in our germane. Why did the committee
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: on Friday.
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Why did the committee feel it necessary to do this? Is there a problem that exists now that we're trying to solve?
[Representative Edie Granning (Reporter of the Bill; Jericho and Underhill)]: Yeah. So education technology is a billion, multi billion dollar business and there is very little, if any regulation on the industry at all. And players can call themselves EdTech. It's like supplements. Anybody can do it. You don't have to prove it. You don't have to do anything. And our kids are the guinea pigs. And so protecting consumers is our job and we are trying to set up a system that will allow us to protect our youngest consumers so that they aren't the guinea pigs of these products. And data privacy is one piece of it and a percentage of our schools, I think 40 of the 52 supervisory union groups have systems to protect kids in the data privacy area, which is great. But also is the ed tech actually doing what it's supposed to be doing? Nobody's looking at that right now. And so what we're trying to do is set up that system.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Thank you.
[William Canfield (Vice Chair)]: Representative Ganagan, this is Bill Canfield. One of the schools who have pretty sturdy IT functions now and some of these things might be duplication of services? Will that be flushed out in the study?
[Representative Edie Granning (Reporter of the Bill; Jericho and Underhill)]: Absolutely. So the district that I'm in is also one of those districts that is very good at the data privacy piece. They work in the same consortium and we agree with them. We do not want to duplicate that. And if that is the system that should be used by the state, then we want to make sure that all students in the state that are publicly funded have the same protections. And so again, the study is designed to flesh that out for all
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: of us.
[William Canfield (Vice Chair)]: Thank you.
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: I just want to say that this is an area of budget explosion in school districts now, not just in Vermont, but nationally. And there are also very, very weak links between investment in technology and outcomes and improving outcomes. So if we have a very high cost endeavor that is not objectively driving better outcomes for kids, I think some kind of oversight to make sure that the investments we're making are done as affordably as possible. So even just looking at what is making a difference, you could set us up for group purchases down the road or in ways that reduce costs, but also that take off the table some of the investments that objectively we can see in research. Actually, some of them have actually been linked to lower outcomes. So I think this is a really important first step. I'm a little disappointed that there wasn't more engagement around how to make this happen.
[William Canfield (Vice Chair)]: Disappointed in what? That
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: there wasn't more engagement about how to make a study from the agency. Thanks, everyone.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: I volunteered to report this. We are not there yet. Would you like to volunteer to move the bill? I move bill six
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: fifty.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Draft 4.2. Thank you. Representative Ode moves that we find age six fifty favorable.
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: Second. Representative Burkhardt seconds.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Is there any committee discussion? Seeing none, the clerk please file the roll. Thank you.
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: Representative Branagan? Yes. I'll vote yes. Is Representative Burkhardt? Representative Higley?
[Mark Higley (Member)]: Yes. Holcombe? Yes. Representative Kimbell?
[Charles Kimbell (Ranking Member)]: Yes.
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: Representative Masland? Yes. Representative Ode? Yes. Representative Page is absent? Representative Waszazak? Yes. Representative Canfield?
[William Canfield (Vice Chair)]: Yes.
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: And Representative Kornheiser? Yes. We have voted the bill favorable ten-zero-one.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Thank you, everyone. You don't have to shake. You're welcome to it. I just represent Burkhardt, so if she is happy to Yeah, on you on she should be there. Have more bills next week to report, so I think I'd love this one. Great. Okay. Thank you, everyone. John, can you go ahead and zoom?
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Could I get it Zoom? Yes.
[William Canfield (Vice Chair)]: So
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: folks, I am offering a technical amendment to the yield bill, and we need to stop it. Fascinating. It's really like a technical amendment.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Really, really. Sure.
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: The staff sent me an email and said, can we
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: make this change? And I said, yes.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Very nonpartisan.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: It's posted under Vinny. I didn't know. Thank you. 949. That's correct.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Okay. I am John Gray, the Office of Legislative Counsel. Anything else? And with that, I'll leave you guys.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: No, they like changed the word.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Everyone's waiting with faded breath.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Sorsa, which? Don't know there's stuff to do. 949. Okay. I'm sorry.
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Here we go.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: This is a technical amendment to section four, which is the compensation to the city of Barrie for the TIF overpayments. The previous draft just used the language transfer from the ed fund to the city. We need to appropriate to the Department of Tax to make the payment. That's what this section does. It doesn't disrupt anything else. I can read it out, but the same sum, 150,576 is appropriate from the Ed Fund to tax in FY '27 for a payment to bury compensate for other payments. That's it.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: So what has happened here? Barry overpaid where? So in the original yield bill, we did this last year and we're doing it again this year. Barry overpaid. Don't believe this was Barry's fault. No, it a network software issue. Yes. Was a software issue. Very overpaid on their TIF. We paid them back for a bunch of years last year, and we're paying them back for the rest of the years this year. We already passed that in the yield bill. This is just John changing two words for how we
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Yes, put it out to this same section was in the yield bill that you voted out yesterday. It just used the word transfer rather than appropriate. So this is something I should have caught during the first part.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: He's been crazy busy around here. Keep covering him in.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: It's really just so the sum is appropriated. That's what was missing. It's the Fed transfer. Now it's appropriated from the ad fund to the Department of Tax. Same figure is used for the same purpose, covering the same period. I understand. So it really is a technical, yep.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Thank you for bringing that to our attention.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Thanks that Julia brought it to you.
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: This is a strange question. They overpaid because it didn't retain as much as they needed to in the TIF. Am I getting that right?
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: I think that's a way to display it. The the software told a particular figure to send, and they sent more than they that it was warranted.
[William Canfield (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. And it was from '16 to f y sixteen or '17 to f y twenty four in catching up with the numbers. Last year we found the numbers for '16 through '20, except last year
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: it took a little longer,
[William Canfield (Vice Chair)]: so this is the second half of it. The number has told us the issue is now fixed.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Thanks, Greg. Yeah,
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: you need to.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Sure. Thanks, Greg.
[William Canfield (Vice Chair)]: Don't know if she accepts something, language has proposed by Legislative Council. I proposed it, sir. You did. All right. Do you mind
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: if just do it?
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: So representative Masland, I believe moves that we find the Kornheiser amendment to H650 draft one twenty eight.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: We'll stop nine forty nine. Yep.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Oh, god. Thanks.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Yep.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: We'll try this again. Representative Masland, I believe moved that we find the Kornheiser amendment to H nine forty nine favorable.
[Charles Kimbell (Ranking Member)]: And he does. Great. I would second his motion.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Representative Kimbell seconds Representative Masland's motion. And is there any discussion? I'm very much in favor. That's wonderful. Thank you.
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: I don't know how I feel
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: about this.
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: Okay, guys. We're really so close to the end here.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: I know. Mary, thank you for your support, Seeing no further discussion. The court can taste well. Okay. Represents Branagan.
[Carolyn Branagan (Member)]: Yes. I'll vote
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: yes as Representative Burkhardt. Representative Higley. Yes. Representative Holcombe? Yes.
[Rebecca Holcombe (Member)]: Representative Kimbell?
[Rick Siegel (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Yes.
[Bridget Burkhardt (Clerk)]: Representative Masland? Yep. Representative Ode? Yes. Representative Page is absent. Representative Waszazak? Yeah. Representative Canfield? Yes. Representative Kornheiser? Thank you.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: We found the amendment favorable ten-one. Thank you, everyone. Have a really lovely weekend. Thank you for so much good work this week. It was really pretty Yeah.
[William Canfield (Vice Chair)]: I'll You're doing a lot of stuff.
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it was a big week.
[John Gray (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: It's a
[Emilie Kornheiser (Chair)]: big week, and we did it. And we all see everyone on Tuesday. We're gonna go back into education again. And we're also gonna spend some time on the pilot fund. I have not received any emails from anyone about witnesses that they're hoping I've worked in the Okay. Well, rather than later is how Sorcha does her job. Let's do it, please.