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MONTPELIER, VT – Today, Speaker Jill Krowinski and the Chairs of House Education and Ways and Means outlined the groundwork for the upcoming legislative session to address the rising property taxes and the future of public education in Vermont.
“Yesterday, we received the estimated property tax projection,” said Speaker Jill Krowinski. “While we are relieved to see a decrease from last year’s projection, the continued growth in our property taxes is unsustainable and unaffordable for Vermonters across the state. I look forward to working alongside the Governor and hearing his plans. We agree that tough conversations and decisions are ahead, and it will only be possible if we work together.”
“We will be taking action this session with short- and long-term strategies,” said Speaker Krowinski. “There is not one policy change that will fix the problem before us. It will take a variety of changes to make a difference and we must be united in our mission to make sure that our public schools have the resources they need to support our kids, at a price that Vermonters can afford.”
Chair of House Education, Representative Peter Conlon, who was appointed to the Commission of the Future of Public Education, discussed the work of the Commission, which will include a report in late December with policy recommendations addressing cost containment and strategies for reducing the cost of education.
“The Commission’s report will include strong policy proposals, including strategies for class size management and addressing the rising costs of healthcare for schools,” said Rep. Conlon. “We are committed to ensuring that Vermont’s children receive the support they need while easing the burden on property taxpayers.”
Chair of House Ways and Means, Representative Emilie Kornheiser, who serves on the Education Finance subcommittee on the Commission, emphasized the need for continued collaboration as the legislature works towards reform.
“This is not a one-size-fits-all issue, and we’re going to need to move forward with a slew of meaningful policy reforms,” said Rep. Kornheiser. “We need to continue learning from the lessons of previous reform efforts. It has taken us 30 years to get to this point, and we’re going to continue learning from our past and diving deep into what’s possible right now, in this moment of crisis, for so many children across our State. It’s going to be a significant undertaking for committees throughout the Legislature to make a difference this year, to make sure that we can have the quality education that all of our kids deserve at a price that Vermonters can afford.”
House Democratic leadership remains committed to working with the Governor, stakeholders, and communities across the state to ensure that Vermont’s public education system remains strong and that the cost of education does not continue to burden taxpayers. Their focus is on ensuring that this year’s session will result in meaningful, sustainable solutions for Vermont.
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Categories: Education, Press Release
30 years and this is the best the Democrats can come up with? How about this. We have DECREASING school enrollment and have had for years now. We do NOT need to spend as much per pupil as we do, which is more than a UVM college student, nor do we need so much staffing. Sorry but in the real world when cuts need to be made, staffing is usually the first option as it carries the biggest expense. We can start with supervisory unions. Does Addison County need two? I say no.
Yes, that’s the best they have to offer the taxpayer. In matters concerning education spending, the VTNEA is really whom these “representatives” represent.
The billions of dollars spent on education in Vermont are a corrupting influence on both the VTNEA and Vermont’s legislature. Literally, there are billions at stake, with D/P influence a stranglehold on house and senate committees- as well as donor class folks applying dollars and pressure to the mix- “remember, it’s for the children, they are our future”. I doubt a single politician can explain adequately the need for free breakfast/lunch for every student in Vermont Public schools, yet they followed leadership instructions and added 29 million dollars to education spending.
Remember too, that The Brigham decision was legislating thru the courts, way back in 1988- one of howard dean’s “achievements”- and broke the dam walls on education spending. We have allowed politicians to benefit from the largess of Brigham ever since, growing education spending and the resulting inevitable corruption ever since. To put this genie back in the bottle would require a super-majority of very conservative politicians and a cooperative governor- not likely to happen for generations to come.
VT House leaders address public education, property taxes ahead of legislative session………………. why they have already made up there minds !!
Taxpayers & Property owners all you need to know you’ll be paying more in 2025, they are clueless on how to hold or cut spending, inept comes to mind
Public Education is to high
Property Tax is to high
Re: “We agree that tough conversations and decisions are ahead, and it will only be possible if we work together.”
No. Working together will not get it done – because the people working together, on both sides of the aisle, are stakeholders in Vermont’s education establishment graft. The last thing they will ‘work’ to do are the things actually required to improve education and lower costs. In fact, improving education and lowering costs is not in their best interest. If it were, they wouldn’t be involved at all. They wouldn’t be spending taxpayer money. They wouldn’t be setting the curricula. That ‘they’ are involved ‘is’ the problem.
All ‘they’ want to do now is to be able to say they are slowing the growth in costs to whatever they believe will be palatable for Vermont taxpayers. ‘They’ may lower the growth in costs a bit. But ‘they’ won’t decrease costs. After all, when ‘they’ are currently spending more than $30K per student, lowering the growth in those costs, even temporarily, or at best, holding that growth to net zero for a year or two, still creates astounding cash flow for them.
What’s important for them is to maintain ‘the system’. And the system is corrupt. They have never followed the tenants in Article 9 of Vermont’s Constitution – that for “any law being made to raise a tax, the purpose for which it is to be raised ought to appear evident to the Legislature to be of more service to community than the money would be if not collected.”
This assessment of Return on Investment has NEVER been illustrated. And they will never do it. They just lie to us and say they’re doing the best they can… when, in reality, they shouldn’t be doing anything but getting out of ‘DOGE’.
is Krowinski’s nose growing?
I will ask again and again and again – Please stop giving them the power by calling them “lawmakers” and “legislators” – They are “REPRESENTATIVES”!!! They ‘represent’ us, they are not in the state house to make laws that bind us.
Get them out of the Statehouse and onto the street. They are too cozy with the ‘grifters’ and have lost touch with VERMONTERS.
Also Please stop calling Vermonters “taxpayers” Just send the right message, folks, with your language!
Problem in VT is that you have to vote these people out and that doesn’t seem to be happening – the percentage of the left voting in this state has only increased year to year.
Can anyone explain to me WHY the 23-24 legislative session with Jill Krowinski as House Speaker and Phil Baruth as Senate Pro Tem removed a level of accountability with the legislative voices. There are hardly any roll call votes. They voted in caucuses and sent a representative to the floor to report the votes. Is this really democracy in action? I thought we sent our legislators to be our representative voices, not to bury their voices in hiding while they piled on the expenses and hid from being identifiable and accountable.
Check it out – vthope.net/24bills.html
How can this be legal? We don’t need more of this in the upcoming 25-26 session.
Nothing to see here folks, now go back to sleep and wait until PICKPOCKETPOWELL and GRAMMY SMELLEN YELLEN hit you with another increase in inflation. The great leaders in Vermont are cave monkeys if they can not see what is coming.
chuckle when i heard someone say we need to pay for our excellent schools. i would say we are paying for excellent but few worthy of that distinction
If we the people don’t have control of what’s going on in Montpelier (and we don’t), then towns are going to start shutting down their schools and start going independent/private. We are so fed up with our Supervisory Union, the question was asked at our school board meeting about changing SU’s. I say we go a step further and get out of the whole racket altogether and educate our own. Town residents can foot the bill for resident students with the school budget side of their property tax, and non-resident students can pay a modest tuition. Does anyone know of schools that did this in VT?