by Jarrod Vaillancourt
The recent VDC article, “Moore: Mississippi students now outperform Vermont students,” raises the question, “What has changed since 2015?” As the article correctly concludes:
Avoiding action by making excuses about COVID impacts, social media influences, student use of cellphones and other such distractions is not acceptable. Mississippi has succeeded despite these problems. If Mississippi can succeed at this then Vermont surely can also.
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/moore-mississippi students-now-outperform-vermont-students/
So, what has caused such a drastic and frankly embarrassing decline in academic achievement in Vermont? It is not a lack of spending taxpayers’ money. I suggest that one relevant factor is the passing of Act No. 1 of 2019. The Act created the “Ethnic Studies and Social Equity Working Group,” and the subsequent implementation of their requested recommendations, many of which appeared in Vermont schools shortly thereafter. The recommendations became fully effective on July 1, 2025, as a part of the revised Vermont State Board of Education Rule Series 2000 – Education Quality Standards (EQS). https://education.vermont.gov/sites/aoe/files/documents/sbe-final-adopted-rule-2000- clean-version-06-18-24.pdf
What are the measurable effects of the EQS? Has implementing these changes over the past six years, now fully effective, achieved the desired results? One of the stated goals of the EQS is teaching students how to develop metacognitive and social emotional skills that improve their academic outcomes. Have student academic outcomes improved? The resounding answer to that is clearly NO.
The EQS further indicates that educators shall be supported in examining their own identities and biases. Educators will also be supported in fostering a learning environment that recognizes multiple ethnic, cultural, and racial perspectives; presents and critiques historical counter-narratives; and encourages students to examine issues and expressions of social equity within and beyond the classroom or school.
A review of the EQS reveals that it is replete with left-leaning jargon and doublespeak. For example: equitable, anti-racist, culturally responsive, restorative practices, marginalized, social justice, etc. Anti-racist itself is mentioned twelve times. Ibram X. Kendi, one of the leading anti-racist activists, wrote the book: How to be an Anti-Racist. Kendi states that,
“The only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” Why are we promoting practices that are clearly divisive in nature?
The Act also appears to be partially responsible for the creation of a seemingly unaccountable albatross in Vermont’s education system that consists of highly paid DEI directors and their support staff who look at everything through the lens of identity. Again, what is the measurable benefit of spending taxpayers’ money on these practices?
Vermont needs to reevaluate its educational priorities. On October 27, 2025, Defending Education, a national parents’ group, along with dozens of local parent groups including SPEAKVT, sent letters to state officials calling on state legislative and executive leaders to conduct a statewide audit, “of their education laws and policies to ensure compliance with federal civil rights and constitutional protections.” The parent groups, “urged states to repeal or revise policies that discriminate based on race, sex, national origin, or religion, and violate federal law, before those violations jeopardize student safety, parental trust, and access to federal funding.”
The Vermont letter, Auditing of Vermont Education Laws, was sent to Speaker of the House Krowinski, Senate President Pro Tempore Baruth, and a copy went to Education Secretary Saunders.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Ericka Sanzi, senior director of communications at Defending Education, said, “It has become common practice for states to violate federal law in the name of diversity.” She believes, “With so many ideological bullies in state government and in our schools, cowardice and ignorance have ruled the day for far too long. State laws, regulations and practices that promote (and even require) race and sex-based discrimination must be exposed and eliminated. It’s time that every state cleans up the mess they’ve made in the name of DEI.”
Vermont’s EQS is failing miserably at its goal of enabling each student to achieve or exceed the performance standards approved by the State Board of Education. Vermont students are struggling with basic educational concepts, and there is no evidence that EQS is improving academic outcomes. It is unconscionable to continue to promote and spend taxpayers’ money on these programs.