On Tuesday afternoon Nichole Lee (Director of Education Finance, Agency of Education) joined the House Ways & Means Committee to review updates from the Town Meeting Day votes on school budgets. Out of 119 budgets, 30 failed, 19 were delayed, and 8 have been re-warned.

On Tuesday, the Senate Natural Resources Committee began taking testimony from the Public Utilities Commission, department of Public Service, and Vermont Energy Investment Corporation beating (very carefully) around the bush regarding their worries about the June 1 statutory date to hire a Default Delivery Agent for Act 18 (the Clean Heat Standard). At first it was comments like “we’re just sharing others’ concerns” or “we’re neutral on the date, but….” However, by the end of the conversation the language had become “It’s unrealistic” and “it’s not going to work.”

The Senate Education Committee spent most of the week reviewing S.304 which overhauls the state’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) system.

Chairwoman Kornheiser outlined her “three-legged stool” framework of FY2025 (short term) changes, FY2026 (medium term), and long-term solutions on Thursday in the House Ways & Means Committee. She also pointed to needing to balance equity, local control, and simplicity/complexity.

The House Government Operations Committee returned to Draft 4.3 of their municipal ethics bill on Thursday, which would create a uniform statewide code of ethics.

Legislative Council presented a new draft of H.707 on Wednesday for the House Commerce Committee to review. The new draft creates the office of the Executive Director of the Workforce Expansion, which consists of two employees - an Executive Director (under the Governor) and a support staff member. New language was also added to ensure that the Workforce Governance Task Force will study data management models and names the Executive Director as chair of the working group.

Meagan Roy (Superintendent, Washington Central Unified Union School District (U32)) spoke to the House Education Committee on Wednesday. She has held leadership roles at school districts of varying sizes and understands the conversation is “cost containment” and the conversations around education funding issues need to deal with that issue. It is a polarizing subject, she noted.

Noah Ampe (Legislative Intern, University of Vermont) presented some findings for the House Education Committee of his research about education statistics from other states.

Heather Bouchey (Interim Secretary, Agency of Education) and Nichole Lee (Director of Finance, Agency of Education) joined the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday to discuss the cost drivers in education spending. The survey was put out in the field mid-January and most results came back in late January and early February. The survey sought to understand what districts are spending money on this budget cycle that may be driving the $230M in new spending. Lee identified rising health care premiums, the “ESSER cliff” as federal funds go away, capital construction projects, salaries & benefits, and inflation as primary reasons for spending increases.