by Steve MacDonald

It’s weird what you remember. I distinctly remember being at my friend Phil’s house in the late 70s (early 80s?) and seeing a copy of Yankee Magazine. The featured article was about a proposal to put a dome over Winooski, Vermont.

Numerous examinations of the why, where, and what-for exist, but Winiooski gained fame and infamy, and it only cost someone else 55,000.00 dollars in federal grants to explore the idea. The Feds proposed it; Winooski said yes to the exploration but no to that dome.

Years later, the town, more woke than ever, has achieved a different kind of dome. One that protects exorbitant public school spending at great expense, which commenter Jay Eshelman noted a few weeks ago in comments.

Jay Eshelman

Consider Winooski, VT. Winooski just passed a $31,970,907 school budget serving approximately 764 Pre-k through 12th grade students. That’s $41,846 per student, for a kindergartner or a high school senior. And for that investment only half of VT students are academically proficient, suicides for 18–24-year-olds tripled last year, and drug overdoses have quadrupled over ten years.

Meanwhile, for perspective, parents can send their kids to VT State University for a full year of standard undergraduate college programs for $22,882 – and that includes room and board.

‘Suicide mission’ is a reasonable characterization for Vermont’s future (if one can call it a future). Forewarned is forearmed New Hampshire.

I don’t recall if it was a contender for comment of the week, but it shows us what happens when we lose sight of the point of public education. It is not sports, music, grooming, anti-racism theory, or – now – mental health care or indoctrination. All it was supposed to do was teach math, reading, and history (maybe ethics or debate). We get lip service to academics but plenty of the other stuff.

You’d be right to ask, but what about math and reading? And maybe we need a new institution for that? Something that isn’t training acolytes to some progressive god-state. You can try. Its defenders have crafted a narrative dome around the corruption of public education. The organized missile defense system of Union flunkies and local water carriers often shoots down locals who try to get inside. Those who make it in are bullied into a quick exit. It is rare to see any other outcome, and these are expensive losses, not just financial ones.

‘Public schools’ are not preparing children for much of anything. These kids, on whom more money is spent than perhaps at any time in the arc of public schooling, know less and are less capable than almost every previous generation, none of which had the modern tools or access to potential learning.

Dropouts from decades past likely left with more skills and learning than today’s graduates, while places like Winooski charge a premium for the decline.

Talk about shrinkflation. Joe’s worried about people paying more money for fewer chips in the bag while unions and administrators in Public Schools are demanding more tax dollars for an education that churns out kids a few cans short of a six-pack.

Author is a long-time New Hampshire resident, blogger, and a member of the Board of directors of The 603 Alliance. He is the Managing Editor and co-owner of GraniteGrok.com, a former board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, and a past contributor to the Franklin Center for Public Policy.