I am writing both as a Vermonter by upbringing and as a recent returnee who chose – deliberately and joyfully — to bring my family back to this state. After 20 years living elsewhere, my family, including two elementary-aged kids, moved to my hometown last year. We made this decision because we believe deeply in Vermont’s values: neighborliness, stewardship, independence balanced with community, and — crucially — the promise of strong local public schools.

Now, my commitment to Vermont as home has only grown. At the same time, my concern about the direction of current education policy has deepened. I am especially troubled by proposals that would force district mergers, arbitrarily limit town investments in education, and centralize school budget control. These efforts center superficial cost containment while sidelining student experience.

My family knew Vermont’s property taxes were high when we moved here. We accepted that trade-off because we believed we were investing in outstanding local public schools. But current proposals threaten to break that bargain. Centralizing control of school budgets and artificially limiting growth without adding meaningful supports, shared services, or instructional improvements will neither raise student outcomes nor make Vermont more attractive to families at a moment when the state is already losing population.

Vermont is facing real headwinds: declining enrollment, an aging population, and one of the tightest housing markets in the country. These trends are not driven by school spending. They are driven by housing costs, labor shortages, and healthcare expenses. If the Legislature responds by hollowing out local schools, we risk accelerating the very decline we are trying to reverse.

If this path continues, we should expect three predictable outcomes:

  • Further depletion of small towns as local schools weaken or disappear;
  • Large-scale layoffs of teachers and staff at a time when schools are already struggling to hire; and
  • Continued out-migration of young families and educators to neighboring states with lower costs of living and clearer commitments to public education.

It is also true that Vermont’s high per-student spending has not consistently translated into stronger academic outcomes. That is a real problem. I hope the state will double down on education policies that have been shown elsewhere to accelerate learning. Vermonters may be surprised, but states like Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana have demonstrated that focused, evidence-based reforms centered on high-quality, evidenced-based curricular materials, embedded teacher support and coaching, and instructional coherence, that includes consistent intervention services for struggling students, can lead to real gains, even in challenging contexts. 

The Vermont Agency of Education and state leaders should be looking outward for models that advance student learning. Imagine if the hours spent building maps in Montpelier had been put to studying and implementing a vision of instructional excellence in Vermont schools; finding ways to provide literacy teachers with coaching to improve reading growth; and responding to school districts’ requests for structural and supportive resources from the Agency. Shrinking budgets, bussing students over long distances, and reorganizing districts do little to address our downward trend in student achievement.

Local schools are not just service providers; they are economic and social anchors. When a school weakens, the town weakens. When the town weakens, families leave. And when families leave, the tax base shrinks, making Vermont’s fiscal challenges even worse.

We chose Vermont because we want our children to grow up in a place that values public education, community identity, and shared responsibility. I hope you will prioritize policies that make schools and communities stronger — so that people want to stay, and others want to come — rather than pursuing top down structural changes that could leave both students and towns poorer in the long run.

Thank you for your service and for considering the perspectives of families who care deeply about Vermont’s future.