The Vermont Senate has rejected Governor Phil Scott’s appointment of Zoie Saunders to serve as the state’s Education Secretary. But the governor says Saunders will remain in the role.
Senators began their session with a report from the Chair of the Education Committee, which had voted 3 to 2 last week to forward Saunders’ nomination for confirmation by the full Senate. Bennington District Democrat Brian Campion called Saunders an exceptional candidate.
“This has been incredibly contentious and personally, I have never witnessed in my 14 years in this building such character attacks towards what I consider a very, very good person,” Campion said. “These attacks have come over the past couple of weeks, but certainly particularly over the weekend.”
Later in the debate, Franklin District Republican Randy Brock criticized Senate President and Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman, a Progressive, for sending an email over the weekend that Brock said compromised unbiased consideration of the nominee.
“This has been a very poisonous, poisonous atmosphere surrounding her confirmation,” Brock said. “And I raise the issue to the presiding officer of the chamber, as I did this morning, as to whether or not it was appropriate for him to continue the process that we believe should be impartial, given the information that he released over the weekend essentially saying among other things that she had been awarded a certificate, a commendation by Governor DeSantis of Florida. And all information that I know is that she's never met him. And it goes on from there. What I saw in this letter is some very inappropriate treatment of this nominee.”
Opponents of Saunders’ confirmation rose to question her experience and vision. Chittenden Central Democrat Martine Larocque Gulick voted no on the education committee to move the appointment to the Senate floor.
“Although Miss Saunders answered my questions with grace, I generally found the responses lacking in real experience, deep knowledge and simple know-how of education,” noted Gulick. “Most troubling to me was when I asked about a vision for education in Vermont. I didn't hear one.”
Addison District Democrat Ruth Hardy says the debate from her constituents has been reasonable and is based on concerns about Saunders’ experience.
“She is not ready to be the Secretary of Education,” Hardy asserted. “When I asked her about school finance, she didn't know anything about our school finance system. We have a really unique system here in Vermont. It's the first thing that somebody should find out about when they come to Vermont is how do we fund our schools. That to me is a really big red flag. And her vision was narrow and uninformed and didn't come out of the reality of public education here in Vermont.”
After more than an hour of debate senators voted 19 to 9 against confirming Saunders.
At the end of the session Lieutenant Governor Zuckerman apologized for his contentious email.
“I want to apologize to, publicly apologize, to Zoie Saunders for the inaccurate representation of the award in that email,” said Zuckerman. “That was inaccurate, factually inaccurate. And I apologize. I want to apologize to the Senate for adding to the heat of the debate on this topic. And I want to acknowledge the better and respectful arguments that were made today than what I presented my email.”
Shortly after the vote, Republican Governor Scott issued a statement praising Saunders and the senators who supported her. He noted that per his constitutional authority he had named Saunders Interim Secretary of Education and issued her 100 Day Plan for the agency. Saunders’ appointment was announced in March. She previously worked for the Broward County Public Schools in Florida.
