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To the Editor:
Listening to Trump’s news conference today where Apple’s Tim Cook talked about an increased $100B investment in the US to a total of $600B….and then Trump adding billions more that other firms are investing in the US….well it was all mind boggling.
It’s hard to add all the investment going into this country for AI and its support. However, I was able to track about $1T just for AI facilities in the next two year alone. Added to that is the semiconductor investment required to support AI needs. And, if you use a multiplier effect for each AI job created by a conservative 5X, the employment increase will be phenomenal. It’s also been reported that since its inception, the AI income generated has a compound growth rate of 32 percent a year.
We’re witnessing a new economy that my imaginations just can’t comprehend. However, this evening I went to ChatGPT for a meatloaf recipe. My wife said it was delicious.
-Frank Mazur, South Burlington
To the Editor:
I attended the meeting last Thursday evening regarding the reconfiguration of Taconic and Green school district [serving Danby, Dorset, Landgrove, Londonderry, Manchester, Mt. Tabor, Peru, Sunderland, and Weston].
Don’t be confused, while the Governor recently proposed a new school reorganization scheme, the Taconic and Green reorganization has been percolating for several years and the Board selected option is to close Sunderland, Currier and Dorset and build a middle school-next to MEMS.
It may come as a surprise but while you were working and raising your family, the progressive democratic party was consolidating power so that by law the school board has the legal right to close schools even though parents want local neighborhood schools. Yes the progressive democratic party will use their power to formulate education policy without parental input because they think they know better than you.
While the schematics showed the new middle school constructed next to Manchester Elementary/Middle School (MEMS0, parents noted a lack of athletic ballfield space and open space for our children. One suggestion was to explore using the fields at Riley Rink.
More importantly the proposed configuration will require long bus rides for young children. What will this proposal do to vibrant rural communities which will no longer have community schools? And what about young children on long bus rides? Does consolidation take parents ideas and proposals out of the decision process?
The second part is the cost. There was no estimate of the cost of building a new middle school nor an estimate of the cost of refurbishing the schools that will remain open. Remember the architect estimated the cost to refurbish existing schools to be $65 million because the buildings are at the end of their useful lives. However, the proposal did contain an estimate of the savings in operating expenses over a 30 year period to be $300 to $400 million. Our current budget is $36 million so am I to believe that the cost of the reconfiguration, which has not been disclosed, will reduce the operating expenses by $10 million per year? Something does not add up.
Increasing costs of education are caused by rules imposed on local school boards by the Vermont Agency of Education. Eliminate the rules and have parents reclaim the power given to the Agency of Education by the progressive democratic party. Parents are in charge of their children’s education. Nowhere does the proposal from the school board mention how the reconfiguration will improve sagging grade proficiency levels.
-Eric Salat, Manchester
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Categories: Letters to the Editor
Re: “Increasing costs of education are caused by rules imposed on local school boards by the Vermont Agency of Education.”
Not yet.
16 V.S.A. § 822. School district to maintain public high schools or pay tuition.
(c) The school board may both maintain a high school and furnish high school education by paying tuition to a public school as in the judgment of the board may best serve the interests of the pupils, or to an approved independent school or an independent school meeting school quality standards if the board judges that a pupil has unique educational needs that cannot be served within the district or at a nearby public school. Its judgment shall be final in regard to the institution the pupils may attend at public cost. (Added 1969, No. 298 (Adj. Sess.), § 53; amended 1977, No. 33, § 2; 1989, No. 271 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 1991, No. 24, § 2; 1997, No. 71 (Adj. Sess.), § 85, eff. March 11, 1998; 2009, No. 44, § 13, eff. May 21, 2009.)
I repeat: The school board’s judgment shall be final in regard to the institution the pupils may attend at public cost.
This statute is still intact. But for how long?
Neighbors, doesn’t this suggest that getting government out of the schooling business might be a viable idea? The community’s “educational” funding is being expended on organizations and their expanding superstructures. Are these ever more expensive organizations serving the common good? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to have this funding go directly to learners and their families? Let teachers contract with families for the curriculum/schooling services they want for their kids. Let schooling return to a private arrangement between teachers and families.
Yes, no, and yes to your questions. Parents need to know they are absolutely equipped to choose appropriate education curriculum for their own children. Getting government out of the business of regulating schools would require a change ro Vermont’s constitution.
Re: “Getting government out of the business of regulating schools would require a change to Vermont’s constitution.”
No, Renee. All that’s required is an educated electorate. Not only do they ‘need to know they are absolutely equipped to choose appropriate education curriculum for their own children’, they need to know they can elect sympathetic school boards that will let all parents make those choices.
Unless and until the State manages to change the the existing statutes (and they are trying to do so), the elected school board’s ‘judgment shall be final in regard to the institution the pupils may attend at public cost.’
16 V.S.A. § 822(c).
H Jay Eshelman, our state constitution gives authority to the legislature to regulate education. Neither the Democrats, Republicans, Progressives, Marxists should have authority to regulate education, IMHO. We need to get government out of the business of regulating education. The legislature is too susceptible to the influence of the Education Industrial Complex, regardless of whether the voters are educated, and regardless of who has the majority in the legislature. Removing authority over education would pull the rug out from under the Education Industrial Complex.
Hello Frank. I can assist you by explaining the vast amount of global investments being made in the new AI and digital economy. The World Economic Forum and it’s stakeholders largely drivienthis agenda. You could have easily found this information. Happy reading!
Key Figures & Initiatives
Stargate AI Infrastructure Investment
At Davos 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a joint venture involving Oracle, SoftBank, and OpenAI announcing a plan to invest up to $500 billion over the next several years in AI infrastructure (e.g., data centers)
AP News
Deutsche Welle
Big Tech AI Investments
Independently of WEF, U.S. Big Tech companies (such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft) are projected to boost AI investment—a combined total expected to exceed $350 billion in 2025
The Washington Post
Global Investment Estimates
Insights suggest global investments in AI could surpass $500 billion by 2025
Altoo AG
.
Economic Growth in AI-Driven Sectors
WEF–aligned reports estimate AI could add approximately €2.7 trillion to Europe’s economy by 2030, highlighting the massive economic potential tied to AI expansion
The Times
.
Some global projections suggest AI might generate as much as $20 trillion in economic value by 2030
Kearney
What This Means
While no specific total “stakeholder investment” number is published by the WEF, these figures provide insight into the scale of capital flowing toward AI infrastructure and economic development:
The $500 billion Stargate project is the most prominently cited commitment directly associated with a WEF-affiliated announcement.
Additionally, global industry investment benchmarks and projected economic value indicate that AI-related investments by stakeholders—including tech giants and other investor groups—are likely measured in the hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars globally.
i will add that there are huge investments being made in the development of the Metavers. The WEF has a diagram of its buildout under Education. Ultimately, teachers will be unemployed as all learning will be done in the Metavers.
Another factor popping up on recent social media ranting and raving – electric bills in areas where the “data/crypto farms” are sucking the grid 24/7. We’ve all heard our power infrastructure is old and feeble. The wind turbines and solar farms don’t seem able to meet demand even though we were told it would and save us lots of money. The storm damage surcharges generating millions of dollars, yet our grid still vulnerable and open to cyber-attacks, baseball size hailstones, and “unprecedented” flood and fire events. No receipts or explanations how the money spent. Are all those “energy efficiency” fees (ponzi scheme) going to be applied to the “data/crypto farm” tabs? Apparently, they are not as people are mad as Hell seeing power bills going up 10% to 30% in one shot. Climate change my hindend – it’s the billionaire club cleaning up bigly before the rug pull.
The Techoncrats seem to have unlimited resources and unlimited access (collusion) to do whatever they want – as long as they pony up for campaigns and install the appropriate co-conspirators. The infrastructure(?) investments are the wealthiest taking over, privatizing and controlling our utilities – water, power, fuel, internet – with the blessings of compensated stooges we entrust to protect the Public Trust.