I testified this week in the Senate Government Operations Committee, urging them not to close the door on independent oversight for the Legislative and Judicial branches of State government. As I am sure you are aware, the House passed a bill that would remove a requirement that these two branches consult with the statewide Ethics Commission; this is a concerning step backwards in the progress we have made in the last decade around Vermont ethics reform.

The bill, H.480, aims to adjust miscellaneous laws related to education including topics such as school safety, virtual learning, Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) grants, Secretary of Education vacancies, and education on military related opportunities.

There was lots of activity this week across multiple fronts as legislators push to get their priorities across the finish line before the end of the session, which is rapidly approaching. Legislative leaders have already indicated that they expect to come back in late May for a veto session, so they are currently targeting the second weekend in May for adjournment; this effectively gives Committees two weeks to get bills back to the floor, if they are to pass this year.

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.

The House passed their landmark-ish education reform bill yesterday. It's a mixed bag of results that punts on governance reform while making significant strides on education finance.

The House's grand education transformation initiative offers a mixed bag of deferred governance changes that put the people who designed and run todays failed system in charge of building tomorrow's education delivery system. The bill does, however, make historic changes to the way we raise funds to pay for schools that should introduce better transparency and accountability for taxpayers while also putting downward pressure on spending.

This week the Judicial branch jumped on the H.1 bandwagon, saying that if the Legislature is going to exempt anyone from ethics oversight, it should be them!

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.

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.