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.

As a follow up to the joint meeting of House and Senate Judiciary Committees on January 10^th,  Jennifer Morrison and Barbara Neal co-chairs for the Public Safety Communications Task Force issued a Status Report on January 12^th. 

The House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee held a joint hearing on Wednesday to cover concerns surrounding public safety. Jennifer Morrison (Commissioner, Department of Public Safety) talked about the lack of accountability. Even those arrested note that Vermont has a reputation for being soft on crime and has a catch and release policy without any regard to the harm being done by repeat offenders. While police continue to do their job of seeking out and arresting criminals, their actions must be accompanied by consequences.

Governor Scott kicked off the Legislative session by congratulating Vermonters on their ability to “turn catastrophe into opportunity” in the face of the flooding this past year. He quoted Calvin Coolidge, saying that “the indomitable courage of Vermonters is stronger than ever.”

The House Government Operations Committee heard from the chair of the Public Safety Task Force (Commissioner Morrison, Department of Public Safety) on Tuesday. The Task Force was established under Act 78 to create a statewide communication system for first responders and law enforcement. She introduced her co-chair Barbara Neal, the Executive Director of the enhanced e911 board. Neal talked about the members of the task force and the work accomplished to date. They have held 30 meetings since the task force’s inception, but the Commissioner noted that there are some who think they have nothing to show for it.