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?

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. 

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.

Democrat leaders refuse to fund a proven literacy program in Vermont.

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. 

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.

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.

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.  

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.

First published February 16, 2016. Note the similar problems and proposed solutions, 10 years later.

University of Vermont President Marlene Tromp silent on dorm squalor while she lives with her entire family in ‘free’ campus housing.

State subsidies and regulation made childcare more expensive, less available, and less effective.

But back in Vermont, state policy allows schools to keep two separate records on your child, one of which parents cannot see! 

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.

When Federal promises meet property tax reality

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

Parents have the right to know what is going on with their child at school. That right is not surrendered at the schoolhouse door. 

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.

What Sam Clemens said about his demise may be true about the plan contained in Act 73. 

It’s time to hold the Unions accountable.

According to the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, public school students cannot be forced to use “preferred pronouns” when referring to others who claim to be “transgender.”  The Court ruled that doing so is compelled speech and a violation of students’ First Amendment rights.

Gen Z wants straight A’s.

What was once a proud and local endeavor to cultivate the minds of our youth has become a labyrinth of policy, regulation, and bureaucratic entanglement—so dense and disjointed that even the most earnest reformers find themselves ensnared.

Beginning in the 1990s and accelerating with the Common Core State Standards in the 2010s, American education policymakers sought to “modernize” math instruction. The stated goal was reasonable: help students understand why math works, not just how. But the result has been a system so abstract and bureaucratic that many parents — and even teachers — struggle to follow it. Vermont remains part of that experiment, still aligning its math curriculum with Common Core as of 2024 despite years of flat test scores and growing classroom frustration.

Vermont’s EQS is failing miserably at its goal of enabling each student to achieve or exceed the performance standards approved by the State Board of Education. Vermont students are struggling with basic educational concepts, and there is no evidence that EQS is improving academic outcomes. It is unconscionable to continue to promote and spend taxpayers’ money on these programs.

Education agency admits a years-long failure as student performance nosedives

The LGBTQ-inclusive program pays students to learn about gender identity and expression, sexual orientation spectrum, contraception, and safe sex practices for the prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s) and HIV/AIDS: