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.

This week in Montpelier, education governance reform took center stage, with Act 73 discussions evolving from high-level overviews last week to concrete proposals on district consolidation, shared services, and regional structures. This signals a shift toward mandatory regionalized service (or consolidation) to address equity and costs, though voluntary options and rural safeguards remain hotly debated. We weighed in early in the week with the letter to the House Education Committee, urging them to challenge assumptions similar to those that derailed Act 46 (the previous consolidation effort). We followed later in the week with testimony in the Senate Finance Committee about our report identifying $300 million in potential savings by consolidating Supervisory Unions (instead of districts) and taking advantage of shared services.

H.577 would create a statewide Vermont Prescription Drug Discount Card Program, administered by the State Treasurer, to pool Vermont’s prescription drug purchasing power with other states. The goal is to negotiate lower prices on medications for all Vermonters. The bill sets up the legal authority for joining multi-state purchasing/discount arrangements, allows modest fees to sustain the program, establishes a dedicated fund, and provides start-up money and reporting requirements so lawmakers can monitor implementation, costs, and savings over time.

Long-Held Beliefs About Healthcare Costs Don’t Hold Up 

As Stat readers know, Vermont has the highest commercial insurance rates in the nation. We can credit a prolonged period of poor oversight, lax accountability, price gouging, and asset hoarding by some hospitals for much of this crisis. 

Adding to that, the state’s largest insurer, BCBSVT failed to negotiate aggressively with the UVMHN over prices. According to BCBS-VT, UVMHN had taken the position that if their rate demands were not met, they would stop seeing BCBSVT patients. 

All in all, leaders and regulators failed to focus on costs and Vermonters are left paying the bill. 

We leaned into our core strengths in 2025: providing clear, data-driven, nonpartisan analysis at a time when Vermonters are hungry for practical solutions. Our mission remains the same, to reconnect middle-class Vermonters to their government and champion policies that support family-sustaining jobs, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility. But this year, our work took a sharper edge in three key areas: transforming education, defending ethics and government accountability, and confronting Vermont’s long-term economic and demographic challenges.

Vermonters have always valued education as the cornerstone of our communities—places where children learn not just facts, but the grit that comes with rural life and the kindness to lend a hand to a neighbor. I remember my own school days: lessons in reading, arithmetic, as well as those that went beyond the textbooks. Vermont education has worked for generations because it was accountable—to parents, to townsfolk, to the shared stake we all hold in our kids' futures.

Today, that foundation feels unsteady. Our public schools remain vital to our towns, yet they're caught in a troubling bind: declining student outcomes amid escalating costs that strain budgets and drive families out of our state. Enrollment has dropped 20% over the past two decades, leaving echoing hallways and underutilized resources, while education spending tops $2.4 billion annually; more per pupil than nearly every other state. All the while, students are struggling to achieve the same outcomes they did just a decade ago.

Ah, the eternal tug-of-war between "things were better back in my day" and "look how far we've come." Art Woolf's latest Substack dispatch, "Things Are Better Today, Really," offers a counterpoint to claims of wage stagnation since the 1970s by populists like Bernie Sanders. Woolf highlights a 34% real increase in median family income from $79,000 in 1969 to $105,800 in 2023 (adjusted dollars), and a 20% rise in median household income to $83,000 over that same period. He also emphasizes qualitative improvements — ­­such as advancements in consumer goods and medical technology —­ which inflation metrics often understate, that lead to an improved quality of life.

Rising health care costs in Vermont have emerged as a pressing economic and social challenge, with an outsized impact on working families across the state. As premiums and out-of-pocket expenses surge well above national averages, many households are grappling with financial strain that extends beyond medical bills to influence decisions on housing, education, and daily necessities.

Housing is a cornerstone of stability and prosperity in any community, but in Vermont, its importance is amplified by the state's unique demographic, economic, and environmental challenges. With a population that is aging rapidly—projected to see 170K households aged 55+ by 2029—and a persistent shortage of affordable units, housing directly influences the ability of Vermonters to live, work, and thrive. Our state requires an additional 24K to 36K homes by 2029 to meet growing demand, normalize vacancy rates, and accommodate workforce needs, yet only about 2,300 new homes were permitted in 2022, far below the annual target of 5,000 to 7,000. This shortfall exacerbates issues like homelessness, where Vermont ranks second nationally in per capita rates, with over 3,295 individuals counted as unhoused in 2023, including a 200% increase in child homelessness since 2020. Without sufficient housing, basic social structures erode, affecting health outcomes, family stability, and community cohesion. This is particularly true for low-income and BIPOC families.