TODAY: Montpelier House Education Cmte:
Make an Agreement. Break an Agreement
Breaking News: WATCH as Date Set to Break Agreement
March 27, 2025
As of noon today, Thursday March 27th. The house education committee set the date when the state of Vermont will break their agreement made with towns around the state. The agreement is known as the Articles of Agreement. At the risk of over-simplifying; it has to do with your local schools and keeping them open or closing them. That's obviously a very big deal to most towns and villages within Vermont.
The video of today's action in Montpelier is below, but keep reading a bit more...
Today's action follows from yesterday's surprise news of a new section added to draft bill H.454 (designed to severely overhaul Vermont's education system) authorizing the state to cancel their previous agreement with towns.
As it's currently understood, the new language would void the current "articles of agreement". Those agreements were developed a few years ago under the state's Act 46 school consolidation effort.
The new language would give authority to school boards to close schools at their sole discretion. In practical terms that means: (a) No public input; (b) No voting. To be clear: that means the agreements reached a few years ago (around 2018 or so) would be thrown out!
To give you a little bit of context, the proposed school system restructuring plan wants to have ONLY 5 school districts. There's a little debate on the exact number but it's far FEWER than we currently have. To put a fine point on it...
Your voice, your influence in the schools under this proposed new system would have FAR LESS IMPACT than you have right now. Your voice has already been watered-down due to the state's Act 46 consolidation of a few years ago. So this new plan would reduce your thoughts and input about the schools to... what; essentially ZERO?
And with the new language put into the draft bill this morning (if it's eventually passed), you will have about 1 1/2 years before the state can essentially close down your school if they want to. And what will you be able to do about it, if you don't like that? NOTHIN'. Absolutely nothing!
If You Want to be Heard...
There's No Time like the Present
(maybe your only time)
If you have a point of view on this matter or an opinion; this is a tremendous opportunity to say your piece. The email addresses for the committee members (that you'll see in the video) are below.
Keep this in mind. Particularly for rural schools, towns, and villages (that's most of Vermont) -- where go the schools, so go the towns. In other words; If the schools close, the towns are going to struggle for their existence. Think about it. What conclusion do you come to?
If you're looking for a deeper understanding of all this...
And if you're good at "reading between the lines"
The whole movement to take education control away from local towns and put it in the hands of the governor is usually credited to Governor Phil Scott and his newly appointed and controversial Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders (formerly of Florida). So you may want to look in that direction.
WATCH: The House Education Committee
Agreeing When to Cancel the Agreement
The video below is the Vermont House Education Committee in a meeting today (3/27/2025) in a discussion of when to cancel the agreement made with towns just a few years ago on the future of their schools.
The video starts at the point where this topic begins. If you want to watch the entire meeting you can start the video at the beginning if you like. Recordings of this committee can be found at the following link House Education Live-stream and Recordings.
Don't Sit in Silence
Contact Info Below
You can find the email addresses for your state senators and representatives by going to this link and searching by your town name. https://legislature.vermont.gov/people/search/2026
You can also email your letter to the House Education Committee. Their email addresses are below.