by Rep. Michael Boutin
In 2024, Vermonters said no to the supermajority mindset that gave us the Clean Heat Standard, Act 181, the Global Warming Solutions Act, safe injection sites, double-digit property tax increases, and more. I was one of the newly elected Republicans that broke the stronghold in Montpelier. Since then, we have been successful in stopping some of the worst ideas from moving forward. The Clean Heat Standard has stalled, safe injection sites have not received additional funding, and now it appears the Road Rule and Tier 3 portions of Act 181 may be repealed. Those are victories, and they happened because Vermonters sent us there to fight back.
Last year, the Republicans worked with the Democrats to move H.454 “An act relating to transforming Vermont’s education governance, quality, and finance systems,“ to the Senate so education transformation could continue. During the Conference Committee, both sides worked together and with the administration to lay the groundwork for meaningful change in Vermont. As part of that compromise, a task force was created to develop district maps for consolidation in preparation for a foundation formula funding structure.
But when it came time to make the hard decisions, the majority party fell back into its old ways. Instead of producing maps and leading, they chose delay and avoidance.
H.955, “An act relating to next steps in transforming Vermont’s education system,” is more of that same old thinking. Powerful lobbyist in unison with the majority party acted as though they still have unbridled power that they can simply thrust their preferred outcome on others. Committee after committee H.955 advanced on a party-line vote. What came out of that tortured process was another layer of bureaucracy, delayed (if not denied) property tax relief, more studies, the dismantling of the hard work done under Act 73, and, unless the Senate fixes this atrocity, a veto when it reaches Governor Scott’s desk.
Let me be clear: I will vote to uphold the Governor’s veto.
We feel strongly enough about this that I will commit to uphold the Governor’s veto on the budget, the yield bill, and education transformation unless we get real change that will fundamentally help Vermonters. The majority party will not have the votes to override the Governor this time. Full stop.
Last week, I met with Rep. Peter Conlon, Chair of the House Education Committee, to share my ideas. Many of which came from representatives on both sides of the aisle—that could earn the Governor’s signature and actually move Vermont forward.
So now I would like to share with you what I think real reform could look like.
- Consolidated Districts
- Although I supported Rep. Peter Conlon’s map and would have been willing to implement it, the CTE map is the best map to achieve broad buy-in for district consolidation.
- Allow communities to easily movement to and from districts for the first year
- Establish minimum district size requirements, not maximums
- Consider allowing non-contiguous districts
- Maintain existing school choice in districts where it currently exists
- Protect the partnerships with independent schools
- Implement the Foundation Formula with no checkbacks
- Protect our rural elementary schools
- Tackle the rising healthcare costs by implementing H.842 “An act relating to the Commission on Public School Employee Health Benefits,” which is a bipartisan bill
- Facilitate the transition to regional, comprehensive high school/CTE centers
- Preserve local voice via advisory panels as outlined by the Governor
- Implement cost containment measures while education transformation is implemented
Honestly, these are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound ideas. I think they are SMART ideas for our education transformation and would produce a bill worthy of the governor’s signature.
Vermont’s education system is too expensive and not delivering the results our students and taxpayers deserve. Real transformation is possible, but only if we are willing to make the hard choices.
Although fixing our education system is not the same as going to the moon, I feel the sentiment is akin. Therefore, given recent national events I leave you with a motivational quote from John F Kennedy, “Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
Fixing our education system is hard, but we must do the hard thing, because it is the right thing to do.