By Guy Page

The voters of the small town of Windham will consider two ballot questions expressing a vote of no confidence in the state’s education funding system, including the work-in-progress of Act 73.

Windham Elementary School has been closed since 2023, when financial, staffing and legal troubles led the Town to shutter the school and tuition children to nearby Townsend. Town Meeting voters in 2024 opted to sell the asbestos-ridden building to the Town for $1 for possible use as a community center. According to the Commons, the community newspaper for Windham County, school voters will be asked to approve a two percent funding increase. 

This year, voters in the northern Windham County town with no local school are nonetheless being asked to approve a two percent school spending climb, with an uncertain impact on the eventual tax rate, due to the current state school funding model. 

The first ballot item reads:

‘Shall the Town of Windham declare that the current statewide funding system has failed the people of Windham and is no longer capable of providing the equitable and convenient education guaranteed under the Vermont Constitution, and that repeated legislative inaction, including the flawed implementation of Act 73, has produced unsustainable property tax burdens that disproportionately harm small rural towns?’

The second ballot question asks voters to:

“Direct the Schoolboard to formally communicate this position to the Vermont Legislature and to notify state officials that Windham is prepared to explore all available legal and political avenues to protect its taxpayers and students unless meaningful, structural reform is enacted during the current legislative session.”

Legislators for the Town of Windham are:

Passed last year, Act 73 requires lawmakers this year to adopt a school governance and funding system that reduces costs and improves outcome. At present the Legislature has at least two different models, one in the Senate, another in the House, with no reconcilation apparent at present. The Legislature will return from its Town Meeting break next Tuesday and attempt to reach an agreement before adjournment, which usually occurs in May. However, Gov. Phil Scott has said he will not allow adjournment without a suitable bill for him to sign.