“Assertions that the Superintendent acted out of personal retaliation are completely unfounded, as decisions regarding labor contracts are driven strictly by governance and fiscal reality, not personal feelings or union listening tours,” the school district responded.
UVM President’s State of the University Address, checked against UVM’s own numbers
Most of what Pres. Marlene Tromp told an audience on Tuesday holds up. One claim doesn’t, and several of the announcements arrived without the figures that would give a Vermonter the complete picture.
Trump admin sues over 2024 VT law giving preferential college financial aid to some non-citizens
The 2024 law gives preferential status to some non-citizens (see below) and places all non-citizens, regardless of immigration status, on equal eligibility status with Vermonters.
Transparency tool shows, town by town, where increased school spending has NOT led to better learning
Vermont will spend more than $2.5 billion this year on public education, even though student enrollment has fallen by roughly 30% since the late 1990s. Per-pupil spending now exceeds $30,000 each year, placing Vermont among the highest-spending states in the nation. But this unprecedented level of investment has not translated into improved student outcomes.
Town Meeting initiative puts students at the center of school funding
The non-binding initiative asks whether Vermont should move toward a student-centered education funding system in which education dollars follow each child rather than being allocated primarily to school districts.
UVM dumbs down application process amid declining enrollment
Vermont’s ranking state university is facing pushback over plans to stop requiring hopeful freshmen to submit essays with their applications.
Map: public school learning varies town to town
Newly released 2025 state assessment data compiled by EdWatch VT shows many Vermont public schools are not meeting state proficiency standards in reading, writing, math and science – even though neighboring towns have much better results.
Vermont Agency of Education announces Summer Meals Program available to all children
This federally funded program ensures that children across the state have access to nutritious meals throughout the summer. Meals are served at a wide range of locations including schools, parks, housing complexes, and libraries.
Christian school sues state over Act 73 tuition exclusion
The appeal challenges Act 73, a law enacted by the Vermont Legislature that the school says effectively bars religious schools from participating in the state’s Town Tuition Program, Dual Enrollment Program and Early College Program.
Only 1 in 5 high school seniors Is proficient in math. Where does Vermont land?
A fresh national snapshot puts U.S. math proficiency in plain numbers — and Vermont right around the middle of the pack. There’s also a quiz. See how you’d do.
Frenier: The inequality of “equality” in education
Almost 40 years after the VT Supreme Court rendered its Brigham decision, supposedly ensuring equal educational opportunities for all Vermont kids, the opportunities to be academically proficient in Vermont schools remain decidedly UNequal.
Paddock Paradise promotes food, forage and freedom for horses
Close to 50 attendees drove to Becky Kinkead’s barn to see this Paddock Paradise example on Thursday, June 4. The workshop, hosted by University of Vermont Extension Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Vermont Grass Farmers Association, attracted people of all ages with varying experiences in caring for horses.
Vermont offers schools and towns grants for modern wood heat
Back to the woodstove? Not quite…
Longmore on black crime, Hornblas on masks in school
An Open Letter to the Cabot School Board, June 8th, 2026
In praise of Community College
“I think we’re all coming around to the fact that some take a different route and heading to college right off may not be the best path for everyone,” Scott said.
Roper: Want to save rural schools? Go independent.
And dump the VTNEA!
Why Community College of Vermont Is growing as college costs climb
As the state’s four-year campuses cut programs and ran deficits, CCV grew. The reasons are structural — and they’re reshaping the choices facing Vermont families.
Kastner: Are Vermont schools preparing students for Vermont or for America?
When did our schools become so deeply involved in questions that used to be debated primarily in legislatures, courtrooms, town halls, and around kitchen tables?
Trump education secretary foes, friends demonstrate during visit
The larger protest group included members of labor organizations, education advocates, socialist organizations and transgender rights supporters.
McClaughry redux: Where Gov. Scott’s education transformation leads
It would accelerate Vermont’s trend toward having One Big School System. That’s a transformation we don’t need, don’t want, and ultimately can’t afford.
BREAKING:U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon in Vermont for 2 days
She’s headed to a tech center in Essex and the Vermont State University campus in Williston.
Lawmaker says new education bill “kicking the can down the road”
Highlights include a foundation funding formula that targets reducing the cost per student by about half the current price. One thing this bill does not do is force the consolidation of school districts. If the bill becomes law, it would take two years to begin implementation.
Benedict: Act 955 kicks school funding can down the road, again
Act 955, the public-school transformation bill, as amended promises “substantial equity…delivered at a cost that parents, voters and taxpayers will value.” Just what will the “transformation” be?
Senate OKs mergers-not-required education bill
The Senate version of H.955 reflects a large shift from earlier proposals tied to last year’s Act 73 reforms in the wake of the 2024 property tax revolt. While earlier versions had included mandatory consolidation of school districts, Gov. Phil Scott and Democratic leaders have indicated that forced mergers were politically unviable. Instead, the bill encourages voluntary consolidation.
O’Brien: The Right to Education and the Right to Educate
The right to educate must belong to the family. Of whom is it expected that a child will learn his or her first words? Of whom is it expected a child will learn to use the toilet and wash his or her hands? Of whom is it expected that a child will learn empathy, honesty, and right from wrong? It is from the family that a child first begins to learn, and it is the family which is most influential in a child’s educational development.
Derrendinger: Stop hitting snooze on the “EdTech” problem
Students’ families shouldn’t have to fight for what they already have a right to: an educational experience that promotes both academic success and health. Yet this basic truth is being actively ignored in schools statewide as parents get pushback from teachers, principals and superintendents for trying to opt their kids out of being put at a setback…this being receiving a personal laptop, or in the case of kindergarteners, a tablet.
The national math catches up with the UVM model — It doesn’t add up
A recent New Yorker column named the trend Compass Vermont has been watching for months.
Jesse: The Association of American Educators, an alternative to teachers’ unions
A new report sheds light on AFT and NEA spending tens of millions of dollars on electing Democratic political candidates, and prioritizing politicking over the needs and interests of their union members. The study found that of the NEA’s $450 million annual disbursement budget from fiscal year 2025, less than $46 million, or 10 percent, was spent on activities directly representing the union’s constituents.
S.227 would restrict school cooperation with immigration enforcement
Vermont lawmakers are considering a bill that would require schools to adopt immigration protocols restricting when school officials may cooperate with federal immigration enforcement and when law enforcement officers may access nonpublic areas of school buildings.
Roper: Vermont kids can’t read, Democrat politicians don’t care
Democrat leaders refuse to fund a proven literacy program in Vermont.
Last minute amendment on truancy bill stirs concerns among homeschoolers
“We did take testimony on the entire notion that we have 5,000 kids in home study who we have zero knowledge of,” said Sen Kesha Ram-Hinsdale (D-Chittenden Southeast).
Vermont weather-monitoring ‘Mesonet’ launched
The University of Vermont has opened the first weather station in the Vermont Mesonet, a planned statewide network of automated weather stations to monitor and report real-time data to improve extreme weather preparedness, agricultural planning, and research.
Bills keep students safe from technology misuse
Two bills could change the way electronics are used in schools
Tiemann: Are Vermont schools training economic revolutionaries?
Instead of disparaging our nation’s free enterprise (e.g., capitalist) system, the schools should be giving children the skills so they can earn the prosperity which only that system can provide.
VPA to pay $556,000 to Mid Vermont Christian
The Vermont Principals’ Association and its executive director Jay Nichols have agreed to pay $566,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees to partially settle a religious discrimination civil lawsuit brought by the Mid Vermont Christian School.
Trump administration releases education funds to Vermont
The funds will reimburse schools for activities including summer and afterschool programs, school renovations, teacher training, literacy and math coaches, and mental health programs.
Report: 199 VT schools allow student gender transitions to be kept from parents
A national education watchdog group says dozens of Vermont school districts have policies that may allow student gender transitions to be kept from parents, according to a report released April 20.
Tiemann: Proposed law H.817 raises concerns over parental rights and school focus
Supporters frame it as strengthening “protective factors” for youth and increasing mental health awareness. However, we see it as shifting decision-making away from families toward schools and government entities, undermining parental authority in sensitive health and identity matters.
House passes education overhaul bill
Lawmakers emphasized that the bill does not mandate school district consolidation. Any mergers would remain voluntary and subject to local voter approval.
Pandemic school closures, new disease policies subject of online documentary tonight
A free online screening of the documentary 15 Days: The Real Story of America’s Pandemic School Closures on Thursday, April 16 at 7:00 p.m.
UVM has $803M on hand, but it’s asking for Vermont Students’ Scholarship funds to help build a sports complex
The university with the lowest in-state enrollment percentages of any large public school in the country is asking the legislature to let it take $15 million from a $66 million state scholarship fund.
School board passes communicable disease policy – VSU pushes back
According to the policy language, measures may include vaccination requirements for staff, mask wearing, social distancing, screening testing, quarantine and isolation protocols.
New bill designed to stop chronic absenteeism in schools passes the House
A student is considered chronically absent when they miss 20 or more unexcused days of school within the last school year, or 175 school days
House Education advances reform bill, draws criticism from GOP caucus
House Republicans sharply criticized the measure, arguing it falls short of addressing Vermont’s rising education costs and fails to deliver meaningful structural reform.
Education group reveals Vermont school disguises CRT as anti-racism
White River Valley Supervisory Union’s controversial policy in question – the “C30 – Anti-Racism Policy” – states that its purpose is to “provide a call to action and a plan to address all forms of racism” within the Supervisory Union and its member school districts, according to documents obtained by Defending Education.
Kinsley: House moving away from forced mergers
The draft includes a notable protection for communities with small schools: articles of agreement must prohibit school closures for three years without approval of the electorate in the town where the school sits. After three years, closure requires a union district-wide vote.
Legislature: Pre-K a “right”, but funding unclear
House Human Services advances pre-K framework while deferring cost decisions
Why Vermont’s electric school buses are being replaced by diesel — at least for now
In 2021, Vermont became one of the first states to put electric school buses on the road. The results were mixed from the start.
School transportation costs rising, bus drivers scarce
Within a new governance structure of fewer, larger districts, the state might contemplate statewide requirement for districts to provide transportation to all students who live one mile from the school (elementary) and two miles from the school (secondary).
VT blocks Federal scholarship tax credit amid rising education costs
Lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee have moved to block participation in a new federal tax credit program that could direct private donations toward student scholarships.
Keelan: To close our school is not only about money
The cost of operating public schools in Vermont has been “a runaway train,” and no one seems to be able to get on board to control it. However, cost also comes in other forms that are not necessarily quantifiable in dollars and cents.
Soulia: Pre-K changes could ripple across Vermont childcare
At issue is Vermont’s Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) system, which currently guarantees up to 10 hours per week of publicly funded preschool for most 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. The program, fully implemented in 2016, operates through a mix of public schools and private childcare providers.
Drag Queen Story Hour canceled due to security concerns
Beeman Elementary has canceled the entire DEI unit due to alleged communications that threaten the safety of students and staff.
House tax committee kills federal tax credit for independent schools
One Big Beautiful Bill gives scholarship donors $1700 federal tax credit – but Dem majority doesn’t want it
Sciortino: We need more classroom instruction time!
If you had Exxon, Shell, Occidental, BP sitting on one side of the negotiating table, people would be up in arms! Why not the same for the heavy handed teachers’ unions. We also need to identify all legislators who have received political donations from these same unions and call them out on their voting records.
School choice backers to hold press conference, urge parent participation
A Vermont school choice advocacy group is asking concerned Vermonters to contact their legislators and attend a Tuesday press conference as the Legislature considers school choice legislation.
Electric school buses destroyed in late-night fire at Williston school, over $2M damage
Four electric school buses were destroyed in a fire late Wednesday night at Allen Brook School in Williston, causing an estimated $2 million in damages to the vehicles and their charging stations.
Vermont among 12 states explicitly allowing teacher strikes
Twelve states explicitly allow teacher strikes, including Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Vermont. In a few states, such as South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming, the legality of strikes is not clearly defined in statutes or case law.
Drag Queen Story Hour scheduled at elementary school
The DQSH is part of an “identity unit” DEI week at Beeman Elementary School in New Haven.
Lawsuit claims Act 73 narrows tuition school choice
The lawsuit, filed in Vermont Superior Court, argues the new law significantly narrows that option and violates the Vermont Constitution by arbitrarily limiting which schools families can choose.
Valley: We’re subsidizing Ghost Town schools
Colchester taxpayers are absorbing double-digit tax hikes to heat, plow, and staff half-empty buildings in rural counties that have lost 40% of their students but flat-out refuse to consolidate.
Town with closed school seeks no-confidence vote in state’s school funding system
Windham Elementary School has been closed since 2023, when financial, staffing and legal troubles led the Town to shutter the school and tuition children to nearby Townsend. Town Meeting voters in 2024 opted to sell the asbestos-ridden building to the Town for $1 for possible use as a community center. According to the Commons, the community newspaper for Windham County, school voters will be asked to approve a two percent funding increase.
Gov. Scott will vote no on Town Meeting school budget
“At this point I will be voting no,” Scott said, citing a projected increase of $250/$100,000 of home values.
Bill offers pre-k mental health
During recent House Health Care Committee discussion on H.817, a bill that proposes to provide optional mental health literacy and peer-to-peer mental health clubs in public schools.
Teacher used spray bottle to discipline child, mom says
School apologizes, says practice has been stopped
EdWatch warns Act 73 reduces choice, won’t improve outcomes
A Vermont education advocacy group is raising concerns about the state’s school governance reform law, saying it increases consolidation, reduces school choice, and fails to address high costs and stagnant student performance.
Bongartz pitches school merger ‘soft landing’
In the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, Committee Chair Senator Seth Bongartz (D-Bennington) introduced a new plan to revise Vermont’s education system. The main goal of the system, said Bongartz, is to increase governance efficiency and enable a higher quality educational delivery, in a way that moderates the growth rate of state spending on education.
12 schools added to low performer list
Twelve Vermont schools have been newly identified among the state’s lowest-performing and added to the Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) list, according to the latest accountability report released by the Vermont Agency of Education.
Senator proposes school choice within one statewide school district
The parental choice mechanism would be Vermont Education Accounts for every student age 5-18. Parents could allocate funds to any qualifying school.
Vermont has the most childcare regulations out of the 50 states
State policies and regulations considered in Archbridge’s index include “child-to-staff ratio requirements by age, maximum group sizes by age, required annual training hours for staff, and minimum educational requirements for center directors and lead teachers.”
Tax committee chair nixes Trump private school scholarship credit
Beginning in 2027, any individual can contribute up to $1,700 per year to a “Scholarship Granting Organization” (SGO) and receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit.
Votes to keep small schools open based on emotion, not math, Scott says
Reflecting at his Wednesday press conference on recent votes in towns like Calais and Worcester, where voters this week decided by about 2-1 to keep the small local schools open, Scott noted that the results were “not surprising,” despite the “unfortunate” reality of the schools’ situations. He specifically pointed to Calais, which is not anticipating having a kindergarten class next year due to low enrollment, calling it “indicative of the future” for many small Vermont towns.
McClaughry: Rescue school choice now!
First published February 16, 2016. Note the similar problems and proposed solutions, 10 years later.
Provato: Voting no against school budget higher than cost-of-living
We need strong incentives or disincentives to change the status quo. We need to make the school systems feel a little more financial pressure from the taxpayers.
Senator asks: Are property taxes really too high?
I have very high property taxes. I don’t like to pay property taxes, but I can afford them. And I know that many owners are income sensitized. So, I would like to dig into that premise a little bit more because we throw it around a lot.”
Cohen: UVM students live in squalid dorms while prez enjoys free family housing
University of Vermont President Marlene Tromp silent on dorm squalor while she lives with her entire family in ‘free’ campus housing.
Roper: How state government destroyed childcare in Vermont
State subsidies and regulation made childcare more expensive, less available, and less effective.
25-30% of VT students ‘chronically absent’
When schools shifted to remote learning and later reopened amid ongoing health concerns, attendance became harder to track and harder to maintain.
Red Fox Community School student Phoebe Bingham sworn into Vermont’s first-ever Kid Governor Executive Cabinet
Bingham was selected as one of only seven finalists from across the state in an election that saw more than 1,000 Vermont fifth-graders cast their ballots. As a Cabinet member, she will serve alongside Vermont’s first-ever Kid Governor, Roslyn Fortin of Highgate, to address critical issues facing the state’s youth.
Hundreds of drivers pass stopped Vermont school buses daily — New camera program aims to end the free-for-all
A new initiative in Bennington County signals a major shift in how Vermont enforces school bus passing laws, but the full legal framework won’t be in place until August 2026.
Scott threatens veto if Act 73 doesn’t move forward
Scott’s speech was long on the need for change at the school district level, but did not dwell significantly on potential areas to reduce in-school staffing and curricular costs.
Tiemann: Progress in protecting parents’ rights
But back in Vermont, state policy allows schools to keep two separate records on your child, one of which parents cannot see!
Christian school challenges Act 73
The new law excludes the private Christian school in Quechee and all religious approved independent schools in Vermont from town tuition funding and other public benefits.
Young Vermonters nominated to attend service academies
Their nominations have been submitted to the academies, which will make final admissions decisions.
Kinsley: Why your property taxes are going up 12% next year
The real solution is to reduce current education spending and put in place mechanisms that apply downward pressure on future spending. Many of the components of Act 73 do this, the governance changes are intended to reduce administrative overhead, class size minimums will reduce instructional overhead, and a statewide foundation formula will provide the mechanism for downward pressure on future spending.
Soulia: VT’s Special Ed funding gap
When Federal promises meet property tax reality
Despathy: Survey shows high school students want school choice
Last year’s Danville eighth grade class saw 13 out of the 30 students choose another school. In 2023, another mass migration of eighth graders occurred
Breaking: Burlington settles for $475,000 with former HS athletic director
Hulsen filed an equal pay violation lawsuit in U.S. District Court in November 2020 claiming she was cut loose from her high school job when the position was redefined and a younger man was hired at a substantially higher pay rate for the new post in August 2020.
Tiemann: NEA handbook pushes gender and race-based ideologies on children
I’m very grateful for Jarrod Vaillaincourt’s excellent commentary in the Dec 10th issue of the Vermont Daily Chronicle. He exposes efforts by elementary school staff to market a new school-sanctioned “sexuality” club – to elementary school students! Although such conduct by public school educators is beyond revolting, it’s unfortunately not surprising.
Energy supply expert to speak at UVM Dec. 16 via Zoom
Richard Heinberg, a senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and a prominent voice on global energy trends, will give a public presentation on December 16 examining what he describes as mounting pressures on both the world’s—and Vermont’s—energy systems.
Parent petition wants sex offender off school property
Families in the Plainfield–Marshfield region are voicing alarm over repeated sightings of a registered sex offender on local school property, a situation that has prompted residents to launch a petition aimed at state lawmakers.
Vaillancourt: Know your parental rights
Parents have the right to know what is going on with their child at school. That right is not surrendered at the schoolhouse door.
Danville votes by 6-1 margin to keep small, local high school open
The final vote was 75-480 against the petition, thereby opting to keep 81-studentDanville High School open.
Turning Point Club approved at VTSU Castleton after pushback
Student Government Association approves club after initial denial and pressure from a club member’s parent.
Frenier: Act 73 is a danger to ALL independent schools
Parents of independent school students: rattle a few cages and get your school’s leaders to step up.
Keelan: And then there was one…
Governor Phil Scott has been, for some time, the clarion: the State is losing its young people. Flood recovery, increasing school taxes, healthcare costs, illegal drug use, and climate change took center stage. Meanwhile, the workforce kept descending. And institutions of learning have kept closing.
BREAKING: Statewide property tax projected to rise 12% next year
Scott said education taxes already have risen more than 40% over the last five years while student enrollment, performance, and educational opportunities have declined.
Benedict: The School Redistricting Task Force – A stunning failure
In all, a stunning failure and lack of respect for the will of Vermonters who have said that the status quo of our schools – educationally and financially is no longer working and needs dramatic change, very soon.
Kinsley: Act 73 Task Force didn’t fail. They listened.
After hearing from more than 5,000 Vermonters who overwhelmingly said, “keep our local schools and local boards,” the Task Force chose to protect the community connections that make Vermont schools more than just buildings. Just as importantly, they recognized that the research shows no cost savings from consolidation and instead put forward a plan that actually achieves those goals.
Harrison: What would Mark Twain say about Act 73?
What Sam Clemens said about his demise may be true about the plan contained in Act 73.
