By Michael Bielawski
Governor Phil Scott has made Zoie Saunders, a public school parent with most of her work experience with independent schools, the formal – no longer interim – Secretary of Education. This is just several months after the outgoing State Senate voted against her appointment by a 19-9 vote on April 30.
The same day she was voted down, Scott made her interim Secretary of Education. The action prompted a lawsuit by two State Senators, but a court dropped the case in September.
If Senators choose to do so, they can hold a vote for her again as they did in April. There’s a newly reshuffled composition including six more Republicans.
Senate leadership is not currently committed to such action for the immediate future. The Senate majority leader Sen. Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden, said this is an opportunity for Saunders “to prove herself”.
The governor’s presser touts Saunder’s time spent out in the field engaging in “listening sessions” with schools and communities across The Green Mountain State.
It says, “Saunders, in her six months as interim secretary, has traveled around the state with her team as part of the Agency’s ‘Listen and Learn’ tour, to understand educational needs at the local level. These listening sessions are designed to inform the Agency of Education’s efforts to support the short-term and long-term educational needs to improve student outcomes.”
Back in April, her critics were alarmed that her tenure as an executive at Charter Schools USA, a for-profit corporation based in Florida, was insufficient experience to supplement her few months working in public education. She does note she has two children in public education.
As Scott made her interim Secretary of Education, he wrote that she was already engaged (back in April) with taking on Vermont’s challenges. He wrote, “In her short time at the Agency, she has identified challenges, which she is already addressing, including mobilizing support to help stabilize operations in the field in collaboration with education leaders.”
Scott’s letter with her latest promotion says, “Saunders and her team at the Agency have also issued multiple reports to help education stakeholders, legislators and the general public better understand Vermont’s education system profile, and our education finance system, including how it compares to other states.”
The governor says, “We face significant challenges, with declining enrollment, student performance, and affordability within our education system, and we need thoughtful leadership to work our way through this.”
And Saunders is quoted, she emphasizes data collection as a priority.
“The Agency will continue to prioritize enhanced data reporting, collaboration, and statewide continuous improvement to ensure every Vermont student benefits from a world class education. As a parent of two school-aged children, I will always keep students at the forefront of our work,” she says.
Back in September the Washington County superior court dismissed a lawsuit by two State Senators over the appointment of Saunders as Interim Secretary.
In a letter from back in mid April, Saunders addressed parents specifically.
“To our parents, I pledge to bring my perspective as a Vermont public school parent into every meeting I attend and every policy we consider,” she wrote.
Part of that same message emphasizes her appreciation for the workforce.
“To our educators and school staff, I cannot overstate how important you are to Vermont’s educational success and economic competitiveness. Your commitment to our students is a foundational investment that drives our state’s workforce creation, job growth, and every other measure of quality of life,” she wrote.
After the Senate voted against her appointment, VDC’s Paul Bean recorded a segment titled “What the Senate DIDN’T know about Zoie Saunders”
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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Categories: State Government
Leadership will be known by June 2025.
Let’s see if she will clean up the rot in our school systems, like removing the gay flags
BLM banners, from the classrooms and public school properties, if these so-called teachers are ” Indoctrination ” supporters and want to support these groups, post it on your property,
I pay my school taxes so the kids will get an education, so they will have the basics with things reading, writing, and arithmetic so they will succeed in life, not this indoctrination leftist BS, Zoie Saunders has two children, let’s see if she’ll clean up the nonsense in our schools, or go with the leftist flow with trying to brainwash the kids !!
Koyanasqatsi… now forever more in Vermont…
Welcome to Vermont Saunders family!
Good on phil scott. Saunders appointment and subsequent rejection by the senate was a power play by the supermajority senate. the very left of that group heard ‘Charter School’ and went into meltdown. scott was right to appoint her as interim and right to reappoint her this week. vyhovsky and mccormack, as petulant children wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars in bringing a useless suit- just because they could? The hubris present in the D/P elitist legislature is repugnant to
Vermont’s citizens and certainly a clear affront to the oath or affirmation these alleged representatives took. baruth, krowinski and the rest of “legislative leadership” need to get over themselves and their arrogance toward Vermont’s population and get in line with unraveling the gordian knot of failed legislative “fixes” for the problems they themselves created.
Brace for impact. Word has it the incoming administration is looking to cut, cut, cut the U.S. Department of Education and place the control of educating onto the States. In fact, federal funding will have law-abiding strings attached or eliminated entirely. A great plan to shrink the federal hog trough. I hope it actually happens.
How will the State of Vermont manage without federal welfare filling the hog trough here? Yoke more tax burden on all ready overtaxed and shrinking taxpayers and businesses? If there is panic under the Golden Thunder Dome, it is warranted and justified. They papered themselves into Acts that cost money, a lot of money. Now the Federal agencies and NGOs who colluded on those Acts are going to be defunded, eliminated, or reduced bigly. The pain is coming – more so for the hogs at the trough and dead weight bureaucrats this time around it appears. Long time coming – let it be so.
Good luck to Zoie Saunders. I hope she is able to undo the mess the progressives have gotten this state into and turn education back around to teaching the children basic education promoting excellence, loving one’s self and reaching for the stars because you CAN REACH THEM and not being indoctrinated into hateful socialism practices that only promote defeatism, sterilization, isolationism and death.
I am a teacher who attended one of her “Listen and Learn’ sessions. The 1.5 hour long session was spent with us listening to she and her staff for 1 hour and 10 minutes after which we only had about 20 minutes left to break up into 2 groups and, supposedly, finally get our chance to speak. Unfortunately, those 20 minutes were basically already planned for us as well as we were handed a questionnaire to fill out that had pre-made answers to choose from. There was ZERO chance for school staff/teachers to share anything real. Furthermore, each of the two breakout groups was facilitated by a “consultant” who had been hired for this special project. How much did those guys cost all the taxpayers? You really need an outside consultant to lead a 20 minute circle? Hopefully this was a blip on the screen and she will do great things and cut away a lot of the useless administrative layers of fat that make up our school districts BUT what I saw that day was very discouraging.