Friday's crossover deadline built momentum on a number of fronts and the House Education Committee spent this week doing something it has struggled to do all session... converging on a path forward. The answer, it appears, is shared service providers that are being called Cooperative Education Service Areas (CESAs).

Here's what happened this week...

The crossover crunch arrived this week and it did not disappoint. The volume in both chambers intensified; marking up bills, taking votes, and wrestling with some of the most consequential education and health care questions Vermont has faced in years.

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.

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.

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 This restorative approach contrasted with what was described as outdated 1960s truancy laws that alienate families, especially low-income ones.

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.

This week lawmakers delved deeply into education funding and reform, reflecting ongoing efforts to build a more equitable and sustainable system amid demographic challenges and a persistent spending crisis.

Here it is... the first legislative update of the year!

Lawmakers dusted off major 2025 reforms, such as last year’s landmark economic and workforce bill, S.122, which continues to steer targeted grants and training dollars to small businesses and high-demand fields, positioning Vermont to compete for workers and employers in a tight regional market. Legislators also began early discussions around how the new, long‑term CHIP infrastructure and housing finance program can be deployed on the ground. The program has the potential to channel up to $200 million per year into local infrastructure that supports new housing and grows the tax base.