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 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.

Dear Members of the House Education Committee, 

I have watched your deliberations regarding Act 73 with interest over the first weeks of the legislative session. The conversations you are having today are startlingly similar to the Act 46 conversations from over a decade ago. Local control versus the need for scale and efficiency. Small schools versus equity and achievement. Etc. These conversations are framed as binary choices: one or the other, this or that. The problem is, the data do not support binary framing.  

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.

Dear Members of the Vermont General Assembly,

We urge you to prioritize and refine the work of the Act 73 Task Force. Their start towards evidence-based education reform is the right direction for Vermont. The shift toward shared services and away from top down, state mandated mega districts is clearly the most effective plan to date, but it does not yet go far enough to meet the scale and urgency of our affordability crisis.

We share the strong public opposition to forced mergers and small school closures that the Task Force heard. The data does not support this type of consolidation and there is considerable risk of losing time, energy, and political capital implementing the wrong fix for our education challenges.

We also agree that learning happens in classrooms, not in the 52 central offices that exist today. To maximize cost-savings and minimize student disruptions, we need to look there.

Everyone wants answers about why property taxes are going up another 12% next year. Some blame small schools, some blame administrative overhead, some blame legislative inaction regarding our education funding system and school governance.

Sadly this news was inevitable. While the Legislature, the Governor, and local Vermonters negotiate over what the next iteration of public education looks like in our state, they bought down property taxes last year using one-time monies. The Governor and the Legislature were both in alignment on this, but these one-time funds[1] created a $98 million hole for property taxes to fill in FY2027 (which is the 2026/2027 school year) before schools even spent a dollar more.

PRESS RELEASE:

Campaign for Vermont Publishes Report on Savings Provided by Shared Education Services

Non-profit seeking to grow VT’s middle class finds education savings while expanding services for students.

MONTPELIER, VERMONT - This week, Campaign for Vermont Prosperity (CFV) published a report titled "Finding Savings Through Shared Services in Vermont Schools." The report focuses on leveraging Education Service Agencies (ESAs) to improve the efficiency of services being provided to students. A policy recommendation the organization put out in March recommended moving to this model, but the latest report put a number on the cost-savings potential. The Act 73 Task Force voted on Monday to advance a similar ESA model as their recommendation to the Legislature.

Dear Members of the Act 73 Task Force,

You have no easy task before you to reconcile all the different perspectives you bring to the table and produce a pathway forward for education reform in Vermont. We were part of the conversations that led to Act 46 and that effort may have just been a foreshadow of this one.

Since 2010, Vermont has consolidated 271 school districts down to 119. During that same timeframe, we have seen spending accelerate and outcomes fall. Today, we are spending 79% above the national average but performing below average when you account for Vermont’s demographics.