Good Morning House Ways & Means Committee,

Thank you for your work on the new foundation formula, this will be an important step forward for education policy in Vermont by reducing the complexity of the current system and providing transparency and predictability to voters about how the school budgets they vote on will impact their tax bills.

Senate Appropriations Committee, I fully appreciate that you are in the midst of crafting a state budget that meets the needs of Vermonters in an uncertain environment. That is no easy task and I thank you for stepping up to it.

Dear Senate Education Committee,

Thank you for expressing a commitment to solving the issues with our career and technical education (CTE) system that have persisted for decades. We believe that this system will be critical to the success of our workforce in the 21^st century.

The long-awaited education reform package moved out of the House Education Committee on Friday; the governance reform component is reminiscent of the Act 46. The study group the House is putting in charge is made up of the same administrators that both designed and run the current system. Do you think they're going to give us a different product this time around?

Seth Bongartz, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, drew a new map for education governance reform in response to Governor Scott's plan. The significantly reduces the number of governance bodies in the education system but also preserves inter-state and tuitioning school districts in most instances.

The Vermont Age-Appropriate Design Code Act establishes regulations for online services and products that are likely to be accessed by minors. It emphasizes the protection of minors' data and outlines the responsibilities of businesses in handling this information.

The bill, H.129, is meant to simplify the school construction process and aid in a more equitable distribution of funds across the state while lowering the pressure on property tax increases. 

Dear Senate Government Operations Committee,

Having been involved in ethics legislation in Vermont for over a decade, we have significant concerns about H.1 which is on your Committee schedule for this week. We believe this bill represents a step backwards in transparency and accountability for public officials and that the bill was rushed out of the House before national ethics experts could weigh in.

This week tensions boiled over between Governor Scott and the Legislature over the mid-year budget adjustment for FY2025. The Legislature's version of the bill faced significant opposition from Governor Scott, who criticized it as "irresponsible" spending. At the heart of the dispute is the motel voucher program, which is set to expire in April for the summer (the FY2025 budget only funded the program for families most in need through the winter months). Legislative leaders, lacking the votes to override Governor Scott’s veto, shifted focus earlier this week; they pressed the Governor to extend the motel shelter program for a subset of unhoused persons, reflecting a narrower approach to address the "immediate needs" amid budget disputes.