For kids, the start of the school year is an exciting time, full of new experiences and making new friends.

And, while the experience is similar for most, the opportunities they have are vastly different from school to school, district to district and region to region.

The basic courses may be the same, but beyond the minimum, they vary widely. This holds true for Career and Technical Education centers, the arts, sports and after-school programs, which results in a very real opportunity gap that is holding back far too many across the state.

This gap has been growing for decades, and I’ve been sounding the affordability and equity alarm since I first ran for governor. We see it in our test scores in key areas like reading and math.

For instance, in 2015 we ranked in the top three states for 4th and 8th grade reading level. However, in only 10 years, we’ve slipped to 24th and 33rd respectively.

This is unacceptable.

This gap has accelerated in large part due to our school funding system, Act 60, that raises property taxes year after year in every region – with too much money going to underutilized space, an increasingly inefficient system, and unnecessary administrative costs. Unfortunately, it’s not going to our kids.

This is especially frustrating when we’re spending more on education than nearly every other state in the country.

But the good news is, we can fix this.

We should look at this challenge as an opportunity to use the (more than adequate amount of) money we’re already spending, to create the very best education system in the nation.

This past session, working with legislative leadership, we passed an education bill that will transform and revitalize our public education system, but that will only come to fruition if we have the courage to follow through.

Making sure Vermont offers the very best education, for every child, should be one of our highest priorities and I believe that’s a goal we all share. A better education system also helps us recruit the working families and better jobs we need in parts of Vermont that have been economically left behind.

To start, our school governance needs to change. We have too many districts, 119, serving on average about 850 students. Nationally, the average is between 4,000 and 5,000 students per district. Under the current structure, it is nearly impossible to achieve any level of equity or administrative scale from district to district.

Consolidating into fewer districts will help to equalize the tax base, increase educational opportunity and flexibility, and eliminate the “haves and have nots,” while allowing us to pay teachers in smaller or poorer schools the same as the best paid teachers in our most affluent communities.

The bill also addresses education taxes that are crippling Vermonters, by transitioning to a foundation formula. This will ensure that every student receives funding that will support educational excellence and provide equal opportunities in every corner of the state.

We also need a new culture of academic excellence, by restoring our high expectations for reading, math and science scores and resetting our focus on student performance.

Act 73 has laid the foundation for us to continue this work, and we are only in the very first months of a three-year process. The work of the redistricting task force is important to make sure that when the Legislature returns in January, we can get right to work on the rest of what needs to be done, which is significant.

We know that there are some who don’t believe anything should be done, and that the status quo is just fine. Which means higher taxes and declining student performance. We cannot allow that to happen, and as governor, I’ll do all I can to make sure that before we leave the upcoming session, we have done the work outlined in the law, including adopting a new district map.

The current system is no longer serving our children, or our taxpayers well.

We must follow through. And, if we do, we will make remarkable, positive change for our state, we can guarantee every Vermont kid has access to the best education in the nation, we can better support our educators and we can do so at a cost Vermonters can afford.

Phil Scott is governor of Vermont. He lives in Berlin.