Action Alert!
Last week the House punted on education reform when they passed H.454, which delays making any structural changes to Vermont's education system until 2029. Even worse, it puts the same folks who designed and run today's failed system in charge of building the new one. You can find our full analysis of the bill here.
Education reform is now in the hands of the Senate Education Committee, which began taking testimony on H.454 this week. Join us in urging the Committee to take meaningful steps towards governance reform THIS YEAR.
Our suggestion is to adopt our governance reform proposal, which could be implemented more quickly than other plans because it follows pre-existing boundaries and doesn't sever the connection between schools and their local communities the way that the plans put forward by the Governor or the House would do. Loss of local control is what generated so much angst and push back during Act 46. We don't have to choose between the two. We can achieve BOTH economies of scale and local control. We've shown how to do it.
Our proposal:
✅Maintains local control and local school boards.
✅Realizes significant cost savings through reduced overhead and shared services.
✅Better aligns our PK-12 education delivery system with post-secondary education.
✅Introduces more transparency and accountability for BOTH outcomes and spending.
✅Can be implemented quickly to start generating savings for taxpayers.
Join us in telling the Committee that the House's proposal to delay education governance reform is unacceptable!
The time is now... Join me in writing to members of the Senate Education Committee!
Tell them act THIS YEAR to reform Vermont's education governance system.
Using Microsoft Outlook? Use this link instead!
You can also write to legislators individually by looking them up.
On behalf of Vermonters,
Pat McDonald
President, Campaign for Vermont
Pat McDonald’s distinguished career includes 20 years in a wide range of leadership positions throughout state and local government. She served as Commissioner of Labor, Commissioner of Employment and Training, Secretary of Transportation, Deputy Commissioner of Education, Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, and Commissioner of Human Resources (twice) under the Republican and Democratic Administrations of Governors Snelling, Dean and Douglas.