 Okay, we are live and we are back from break. We're going to continue our discussion on student waiting and cost equity and we're deciding everything other than ELL if we're going to be doing weights cost equity or some mixture thereof. And our witness today is Mark Schober, that massacre it? No, not a massacre, it's Mark Schober. Schober, for the Coalition for Vermont Student Equity, so Mr. Schober, welcome and the floor is yours. We just ask you to introduce yourself and who you represent for the record. And then tell us a little bit about the Vermont Coalition for Student Equity and what you'd like us to hear. You got it. So my name is Mark Schober, I am the executive director for the Coalition for Vermont Student Equity and we're a coalition, a non-profit coalition of school boards from all parts of the state. We currently represent 25 districts, more than 19,000 students from 11 counties and 80 cities and towns. We joined together a little over a year ago now for this whole purpose of advocating for the implementation of the recommendations from the people waiting for this report. And we do have, we're made up mostly of underweight districts but we do have some overweight districts including Peechum and my own hometown Dover, who have joined us because they realize that equity doesn't mean winners and losers but that everyone gets what they need to succeed. I have submitted my full comments on writing to FATE. I think given that the draft bill came out today and our coalition hasn't had a chance to fully analyze it yet, I don't want to spend too much time or waste your time going through my comments in great detail. In general, we are encouraged with the direction that you all are taking and appreciate the emphasis on continuing use of the weights and the implementation of the recommendations from Professor Colby, all of her weights. Excuse me. I have a, I think just a couple of small topics that I just want to touch on quickly with you. One is the poverty count. We're very happy to see the universal income form as part of your bill and believe that that is the way to move forward. We have some concerns about the free and reduced lunch and the undercounting of some poverty students, especially in high poverty areas and in rural areas because of COVID and the universal meals that we have from the feds now and districts that already provide universal meals. We just encourage you to implement the universal form as quickly as you can. And then last, I guess I just say that we appreciate as speedy as an implementation of the weights as possible. These districts have been underfunded for essentially quarter century now and could really use the help like I said, you have my written comments. I just I don't want to spend all your time going through them since we didn't have a chance to evaluate all the details of the bill yet. Okay. Well, the bill it's a committee bill and it was drafted just right for the moment to reflect the recommendations of the task force. This committee will now proceed to go through it line by line and pick it apart. So if there's something you think we should know, let us know. Excuse me. Well, I think I'll I'll say that you know, if in regards to, you know, cost equity first, the people weights I think one of our biggest concerns is that with cost equity, you don't really have equity because you're taking an average amount throughout the state. You essentially have a bell curve where you've got, you know, some districts are going to get the average and that's going to be what they need. And you can have a lot of districts that get more than they need and log districts that get less than they need. And you don't have that with the with the weights. They're designed to to overcome that. Excuse me. Let me just give you a second to get my thoughts together. I think that as I mentioned, the the poverty count with the free and reduced lunch is is a concern, but the universal income form solves that problem. And sorry, let me just call up some you don't mind. So I think you've heard a lot from the SBA and the the superintendents and we believe that like I said, and it's in the bill, but that your inclination to adopt the corrected weights as opposed to going with the cost equity model is a wise decision. And some of the reasons for that would be that like I said, the sorry, that the the cost equity model won't provide equity to all districts. The current weights work within our existing system. And superintendents and business managers understand that system. And as you've heard from Professor Colby, the weights are designed with cost containment in mind. I think I think it's going to cover it for now. You have my comments. And I think that they kind of speak for themselves. I don't want to go through every bullet point. But I there's no question that we're encouraged with the with the bill and hope that you will continue advancing this draft without too many modifications. Questions. Mr. Shelber. We look forward to reading your testimony. I know it's been posted. Great. Thank you. I appreciate it very much. Okay.