Weigh in on Vt. education

After a whirlwind finish to last week’s activities in the Vermont Senate, progress on H.454 has been made toward the benefit of our students and taxpayers. While there still is work to do, Gov. Scott has flatly stated he will veto anything that doesn’t reduce costs. This is short-sighted, at best. Last November, Vermonters did not mandate tearing down our public education system, but rather they sent a clear message that we need relief from our property tax burdens.

Funding is only one aspect of the three being looked at to improve our education system, along with our governance structure and, most importantly, quality. We at Friends of Vermont Public Education understand this, as do members of the Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont.

To help lift the voices of all Vermonters, the commission has engaged a communications group to gather public input from throughout the state through virtual sessions. Let your voice be heard by signing up for one of these sessions. There are currently two scheduled for the last week in May, and one in June. Links to the hearings can be found at the Vermont Agency of Education’s website by clicking on “State Boards and Councils,” and going from there to the Commission on the Future’s page:

Wednesday, May 28 from 9:30 to 11 a.m.

Thursday, May 29 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, June 11 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Join one of these sessions to inform future legislation. Call Gov. Scott and urge him not to undo the hard work done by the Agency of Education, the commission, the House, and the Senate with his red pen. There are various proposals to make our education funding system more equitable, but we cannot erase the progress that has already been made in a very short time by decoupling that aspect from governance and quality.

Ken Fredette

Wallingford, Vt.

The writer is a member of the board of the Friends of Vermont Public Education.

AI and artistic output

How would you feel if sometime in the near future, 10,000 new Shakespeare sonnets and plays were discovered, a million unpublished Emily Dickinson poems were found, and a billion new Bob Dylan songs magically appeared. Would you be thrilled at the prospect of having endless new Beethoven and Mozart symphonies to luxuriate in? Would you experience delight and joy as you pored over a catalog of new masterpieces by the world’s greatest literary, musical, artistic and cinematic geniuses?

Well you may not have long to wait. For better or not, Generative AI is almost there. Indeed, in years to come, our children may “author” the next great novel or symphony or screenplay, and all they will need is a solid working knowledge of how best to leverage Generative AI algorithms. Fascinating times, these.

Dan Weintraub

White River Junction

Equality through
diversity and inclusivity

“We hold these Truths to be Self-Evident, that all Men are Created Equal.” We learn this phrase as schoolchildren, it’s the founding principle of the United States. Unless you are a descendent of Native Americans or slaves, all Americans are connected to immigrants who were guided by the lodestar of freedom and equality.

We are created with a fundamental right to equality, but the society of man seeks power and dominance, fosters divisions between us and others to maintain a position of advantage. A character in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” said it best “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Today we hear about woke policies that give preference to others over us. What is true equality without diversity and inclusion such as:

1919 Women Right to Vote after an almost 90 year struggle

1948 President Truman Executive Order desegregating the Army

1954 Brown vs Board of Education, ending “separate but equal” discrimination in schools

1964 Civil Rights Act, including Title 7, which opens the door to women as firefighters, policemen, construction and more

1965 Voting Rights Act

1990 Americans with Disabilities Act

Most of these changes took decades of work against the resistance to change, the diversity and inclusion of others into areas previously the domain of us. The opposite of equality through diversity and inclusion is inequality through discrimination and exclusion. Be woke and fight the forces who wish to preserve and protect their exclusive position.

Craig Young

Grantham