It was a busy week keeping tabs on the pre-crossover sprint. Vermont's school performance took center stage in Senate Finance's joint hearing on the annual state report card (based on the ESSA accountability dashboard), where Education Secretary Zoie Saunders revealed the stark underperformance in Vermont's schools: no english grades surpassed 60% proficiency, math rarely topped 50%, science ranged in the low 40s, and over half of schools were "not meeting" expectations or declining. Equity gaps widened dramatically with designations nearly doubling for students with disabilities, low-income kids, and English learners. These results prompted the Agency of Education reorganization and initiatives like READ Vermont (Act 139 literacy), COUNT on Vermont (math), and Act 73 graduation standards aim to reverse trends.

As amended and passed by both House and Senate, H.542 updates Vermont’s approach to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in schools by extending the statewide indoor air testing deadline, creating a dedicated School PCB Program Fund to support investigation and remediation, linking PCB evaluation to school construction planning, and requiring a statewide cost estimate and funding plan.

The legislative gears are grinding towards crossover, with committees balancing ambitious reforms against practical fiscal and rural realities. This week the House Education Committee grappled with how to move forward on education reform. The Committee appears deeply divided and was looking for solutions to break a stalemate. It was perfect timing for our testimony on Friday. Our research on the efficiencies of replacing supervisory unions with CTE-based Education Service Agencies, we believe, will help inform the Committee's deliberations, by leveraging regional models to capture administrative savings without top-down mandates or the need to buy out collective bargaining agreements.

I think we all are aware that they are several large funding gaps that need to be filled this year and a lot of issues that need to be addressed like a housing shortage, cost of living, health care, the economy, education crisis (on several levels), etc. We are faced with some touch decisions this year. There is perhaps another issue, a more fundamental one, that looms above them all...

It was another impactful week in the legislature. Lawmakers are still wrapping their arms around an absenteeism issue this week as some superintendents shared successes in cutting chronic absentee rates by engaging directly with students and families. This restorative approach contrasted with what was described as outdated 1960s truancy laws that alienate families, especially low-income ones.

S.220, seeks to curb the growth of property taxes by placing temporary limits on school district budget increases.

There is pending a disturbing, possibly cruel, conflict of economic forces facing Vermonters.

According to the Social Security Administration, there is an established population of 133,773[1] Vermonters over 65, or nearly 21% of the State’s population, who rely on Social Security.

This is a population that is clearly not positioned to absorb a big property tax increase in 2026. This past November, Social Security recipients were given notice that social security benefits will increase by a meager 2.8% in 2026. [2]

It was a busy week here at Campaign for Vermont. We testified in two different legislative committees this week and interviewed on a popular NEK TV show. Our hard work is paying off, we are getting positive indicators from legislators on multiple fronts!

This week, Vermont's legislative focus was largely on housing, education, and health care. The Senate Economic Development Committee advanced a task force proposal to inventory business resources and tackle gaps in access to capital, evolving from last week's broader housing finance pilot programs toward a comprehensive and inclusive economic ecosystem. The task force would include stakeholders like the Vermont Futures Project, the Vermont Small Business Development Center, and Professionals of Color, signaling an emerging pattern of nonpartisan collaboration to address rural-urban economic divides.

H.775 is an innovative housing bill designed to stimulate housing development in Vermont through financial tools, pilot programs, and planning reforms. The legislation authorizes municipalities to issue revenue bonds backed by special assessments, expands the State Treasurer's credit facility, broadens VEDA financing authority for certain multiunit housing developments, adds new municipal housing-planning requirements, codifies the Rental Housing Revolving Loan Program, and (in the Senate version) adds a new Service-Supported Housing Advisory Council focused on housing for individuals with developmental disabilities.