This week the State Auditor's office delivered a sobering accountability check on Vermont's (former) flagship health care programs and the government accountability pilot moved to the Senate with fundamental questions about scope and institutional design still unresolved. Meanwhile, the climate policy infrastructure took a step forward with H.740's greenhouse gas registry advancing, though the familiar gap between policy ambition and funding commitment surfaced once again. The House's education reform bill also took another step closer to a floor vote.

Let's walk through it.

The bill, S.197, reformats how primary care is paid for in Vermont by strengthening and modernizing the Blueprint for Health payment system, setting primary care spending targets, and directing a series of studies and reports to support a more sustainable, community-based primary care system, with major topics including primary care payment reform, insurer participation and transparency, primary care spending targets, workforce and site-of-care issues, pharmaceutical coverage notice, and potential regional universal primary care.

Good Evening Chair Kornheiser and Members of the House Ways & Means Committee,

There has been some discussion in committee this week about the impact on the foundation formula if districts are left at their current size. This has sparked concerns about viability for small districts, but I would content that the viability of the entire system in jeopardy.

Vermonters understand the value of balance. We want to protect our forests, fields, rivers, and wildlife. We also want our children and grandchildren to be able to afford a home, find a job, and build a life here. Good public policy should recognize both realities. That is why the debate over Act 181 matters.

The law was intended to strike a grand bargain: encourage more housing and development in designated growth areas while tightening protections for ecologically sensitive parts of the state (conservation more or less). On paper, that sounds reasonable. Direct growth where infrastructure exists. Reduce sprawl. Protect natural resources. Streamline permitting where Vermont wants development to happen.

But as often happens in government, what sounds straight forward in theory can become much messier in practice.

The bill, H.955, advances the next phase of Vermont’s education system transformation by creating regional cooperative educational service areas (CESAs), requiring all districts to participate in structured studies of possible union school district formation, delaying major parts of the State’s broader education finance transition, and commissioning further work on prekindergarten funding, education governance, shared services, district reorganization, education finance, and early childhood access.

The House Education Committee finally advanced their education reform bill after months of discussion. Of course they couldn't resist drawing maps, even if they are "only advisory" in nature. While the bill does not force arranged marriages (school district consolidation), per se, it does require that you attend the dance (merger study committees) and it chooses who your dance partners will be (which other districts you have to discuss mergers with).

In theory you could choose to dance with someone else or not at all, but that will probably be frowned upon. Okay, enough with that analogy... let's talk about what happened this week...

The bill, S.325, makes technical, transitional, and policy changes to Vermont’s land use and regional planning laws to recalibrate implementation of Act 181. In the House proposal of amendment, the bill repeals Act 181’s road-jurisdiction and Tier 3 jurisdiction provisions, delays certain related implementation dates, extends several housing-related exemptions through 2028, and clarifies how Tier 1A and Tier 1B review will work under the new land use planning framework. It also makes changes to regional planning procedures, creates new reporting and oversight requirements, and adds a public engagement process on working lands and natural resource protections.

A bottleneck of bills hit the floor in both chambers this week. The House and Senate floors were busy passing major legislation on homelessness, health care, housing, and the FY27 budget. Meanwhile, the Agency of Education delivered pointed critique's of both chambers' approaches to education reform (color me shocked) and Ways and Means began inventorying the enormous technical to-do list that sits between Act 73 and anything resembling a workable foundation formula.

Let's walk through it.

The bill, S.313, is aimed at transforming Vermont's career technical education (CTE) system, expanding student access to CTE, and modernizing program delivery while aligning training with workforce demands. The bill also reforms governance and funding structures and strengthens adult education pathways, and (in the new House Commerce Committee draft) adds substantial new operational provisions including mandatory guidance issuance, a career navigation framework, statutory credit-recognition changes, a redefined concept of comprehensive high schools, CTE educator licensing recommendations, and a formal legislative working group charged with delivering draft governance legislature by December 2026.

Campaign for Vermont Announces the Addition of Elizabeth Brown

Non-profit seeking to grow VT’s middle class expands its Advisory Council.

Montpelier, Vermont – Today Campaign for Vermont Prosperity (CFV) announced that Elizabeth Brown is joining their Advisory Council, expanding the organization’s capacity to advance data-driven, public policy solutions that strengthen Vermont’s economy and communities.