Randall Balmer, the John Phillips Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College, writes that public education is one of the two best things about America, the other being church-state separation. The success of 743 write-in votes for Jenny Ramsey’s candidacy for the New Hampshire House, advancing Jenny to the November general election, is a win for both of these American ideas.
New Hampshire Republicans, including Margaret Drye, Plainfield’s Sullivan District 7 State Representative, indicate with their voting records an intent to steer taxpayer dollars away from public education. Republicans’ unmoving support for school vouchers has enabled bills to be passed that have allowed $45 million, so far, to be diverted from the Education Trust Fund to private and alternative schools and vendors, often religious, by way of vouchers. Every one of those taxpayer dollars is a dollar taken from public schools. The resulting funding gap will lead to higher local property taxes if current standards are to be maintained.
Jenny Ramsey will work alongside Rep. Bill Palmer and our other Democratic leaders to keep public dollars in public schools, where students learn in an environment that promotes justice, equity, diversity and inclusion while preparing for a future in our multi-cultural world.
A vote for Jenny and her fellow Democrats this November is a vote for protecting quality public education, a foundation of a strong and healthy democracy.
Ron Eberhardt, Michelle Feller-Kopman, Lynn Freeman, Jordy Green, Sue Liebowitz, Evan Oxenham, Judy Ptak, Laura Steel, Sandy Steel, David Taylor, Sue Taylor
Plainfield
Gov. Scott’s modus operandi
Gov. Phil Scott is said to be the most popular governor in America. How does he do it? He espouses low taxes and doesn’t support generous social services that his base may feel are not affordable.
Year after year, Gov. Scott introduces what appear to be balanced budgets, and then lambastes the Democratically controlled Legislature for supporting critical social services that many Vermonters rely on to raise their families and pay the rent. Yet as spending increases, many Vermonters still continue to languish. Gov. Scott offers no practical solutions while preferring to remain above the fray. What’s going on?
For one thing, Scott’s budgets intentionally short-change necessary programs he knows House Appropriations will find a way to pay for. When that happens, legislators are forced to draw money from elsewhere in the General Fund, robbing money from nuts and bolts programs.
Among Scott’s games of hide and seek, he proposed no increase for mental health (knowing the havoc COVID caused), no investments in emergency shelter that would transition people from motels to more permanent housing, no plan for investments in affordable housing that zoning changes alone won’t fix, no plan to address the transportation funding gap and no idea or leadership on education funding. Scott relies on personnel vacancy savings to balance his budget. On any given day there are 1,000 positions unfilled, and 40% of all new hires do not last a year.
Vermont needs more young families with good paying and fulfilling jobs. To achieve that, Vermont needs affordable housing at all levels, family supports including adequately staffed child care, affordable health care and quality public education. Without these are workforce development supports working families cannot thrive here, and neither the workforce nor the economy will grow.
Gov. Scott is not providing the leadership expected of someone in his position. Instead he relies on the Legislature to solve problems he is unwilling to help solve himself. If he’s to be deserving of his popularity, he should put his shoulder to the wheel to help build a broad consensus that will produce practical and affordable solutions to lead Vermont forward.
Rep. Jim Masland
D-Thetford Center
How can we better
help our neighbors?
In your lowest moment, what kind of help did you need? Was it someone to talk to? Help with an addiction? Or was it someone to physically remove you and hide you away, so your dark moment wouldn’t have to be acknowledged by anyone? This is why we need to rethink our public services, specifically how we force the police to be our one stop shop for anything “not normal” in our community.
I’m speaking of “Officers receive minor injuries” (Sept. 19), which told the story of a person asking for rides — oh the horror! — but doing no harm. And the police responded with their only tool: force. And the police got hurt when the person reacted in kind. Which sucks for everyone! The saddest part is that we know all this is unnecessary — we can respond to mental health or substance use crisis without force, but with trained clinicians or other unarmed people trained in mental health first aid.
One in six people battled a substance use disorder in 2023 in America, and one in five experience mental illness. It’s time for us to give people in crisis the support they need. Isn’t that what you would want when it’s your crisis?
Lawrence Walters
Hanover
Two possibilities, same outcome
It boils down to just two possible explanations for the stream of falsehoods spewing from Donald Trump’s mouth. Either:
1) He is a pathological liar, and is therefore unfit for the presidency.
or
2) He honestly believes what he is saying, and is therefore unfit for the presidency.
Peter Beardsley
West Lebanon