WRVSU board made a mistake

I am extremely disappointed in the White River Valley Supervisory Union Board’s (WRSUB) decision to drop membership in the Vermont School Board Association (VSBA)(“Schools quit lobbying group”; June 9). In a year in which big change is happening across the education system, the WRSUB has dropped out of an organization with one of the most powerful voices in the Statehouse. They naïvely think that joining a new startup group will offer them a continued presence in Montpelier. But, no matter how well meaning that new organization is, it does not have the experience and influence of the VSBA.

The WRSUB is new to the legislative process and has incorrectly blamed the VSBA for not representing its interests. Having spent a lot of time in the Statehouse when I was on the VSBA board, I can attest that just saying “no” to bad legislation is not always the answer. The Legislature and governor are determined to do something (anything) in this legislative session. When you resist all change it only serves to sideline you, and you lose your ability to make bad legislation a little bit better.

When the Act 46 school consolidation process was happening, the VSBA worked very hard to make bad legislation better. The Legislature and governor were determined to do something, and without the VSBA’s guidance what was a far from perfect piece of legislation would have been a disaster. The schools that dropped out of the VSBA during that time (because they didn’t like VSBA’s engagement with the process) simply lost their voice in the one organization that could support them the best.

Additionally, our hard-working superintendent has taken a stance out of line with most superintendents across the state. The Vermont Superintendents Association (VSA) is another powerful voice for public schools. Our superintendent has weakened our ability to make an impact by not engaging with the organization that has the most influence to help the WRSUB.

Tom ‘geo’ honigford

South Royalton

The writer is a former member of the now-defunct Royalton School Board and was president of the Vermont School Boards Association.

‘Unitary executive’
is code for ‘dictator’

Rolling Stone magazine had an article on how the unitary executive theory invaded our laws. Original intent is used to justify many things. To use “original intent” I believe it is necessary to understand the experiences of the Founding Fathers. They had the experience of a repressive government, and had the Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War and failure of a government under the Articles of Confederation. They wrote the Constitution to prevent the failures they experienced. It is difficult to believe that they would have created the Constitution with loopholes that would have allowed the return to the dictatorial government they had needed the Revolution to change. They knew that times and situations change, so they provided a process for Amending the Constitution.

The Constitution was given careful scrutiny by the country, and the need to be specific about people’s rights was recognized. The first ten amendments were added. The repressive government the threw off was headed by a “unitary executive” whose word was the law, titled “King.” Now such a person is called a “Dictator.”

Howard C. Shaffer

Enfield