Since 1869, Vermont has had an educational choice system for students from towns that do not maintain their own public schools or belong to a union school district.

• In 74 of Vermont's 246 towns, the town school board pays tuition for high school pupils to attend any public or approved private secondary school.

• Approximately 55 percent of these students attend public high schools in other Vermont towns.

• Some 36 percent attend private in-state schools, and about 7 percent attend public schools in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York.

Among the in-state approved schools are four well-established academies, three relatively new ones and one nonpublic school managed by a board appointed by the local government. Out-of-state approved high schools include public schools and a large number of private schools, including Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts.

• Until 1961, tuition payments were even made to Vermont's three Catholic high schools, but the practice was held to be unconstitutional by the Vermont State Supreme Court.

• The school boards of towns providing tuition pay the full charges for public schools and, for other schools, the average tuition charge of the state's union high school districts which was $5,903 in the 1993-94 school year.

• Also, 12 small Vermont towns have no elementary schools, so since 1990 they have been allowed to fund tuition for students to attend nonresidential independent elementary schools.

One town even funded tuition for two high school students to participate in student exchange programs in France and Finland. The tuition was only $4,300 and included room and board and round-trip airfare.

Source: John McClaughry, "How Vermont's School Choice System Works," Report Card, Vol. 11, No. 1, January/February 1996, Center for the Study of Popular Culture, P.O. Box 67398, Los Angeles, CA 90067, (310) 843-3699.