by Russell Flannery

Vermont Democrats still grappling with setbacks in last year’s November legislative election might do well to consider fellow Democrat and former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg’s advice last week to party members in our neighboring Empire State. 

In a commentary in the Wall Street Journal published last Friday, the businessman-politician said education policy should be a top issue, and warned that underperforming schools are “a disaster for our country and our ability to compete internationally.” 

“First and foremost, it is a disaster for our children, especially in low-income areas. Many of them are being condemned to lives of minimum-wage jobs, government dependency and, tragically, prison,” he said. 

“If dooming young people, harming cities, and weakening our country’s future isn’t enough to worry Democratic leaders, they ought to consider something else: the political harm they are inflicting on their candidates,” Bloomberg wrote. “As Democrats examine why Kamala Harris lost and how the party should change course, education policy should be a top issue. But few party leaders are talking about it.”

The National Assessment of Educational Progress released a national report card last month that showed declines in reading scores for Vermont fourth- and eighth-grade students, Vermont Public Radio reported. And while Vermont students fared slightly better in math, scores still reflected a slide toward the national average in both subjects and both grades, it said. 

Overall, one-third of eighth-grade students in the U.S. are reading at a “below basic” level, Bloomberg said in his article. “Fourth-graders fared even worse: 40% were below basic. The divide between high-performing and low-performing students, which is correlated with family income, has widened,” he said.

Looking back at fallout from the pandemic, Bloomberg noted:  “Many voters are still unhappy with Democratic support for excessive school closings during the pandemic. Too many elected officials, pandering to teachers unions, kept schools closed well past the point when it was clear that in-person classes could safely resume. Children paid a terrible price, and they are still paying it.”

Vermont, already burdened with some of the country’s highest taxes and biggest per-student spending, is studying reforms at the state legislature this session.  

Bloomberg was mayor of New York in 2002-2013. He was defeated in a run for president in 2000. 

The author, a former long-time editor at Forbes, graduated from Mt. St. Joseph in Rutland and lives in Rutland.