The Scott Administration is criticizing a Vermont House education reform bill, saying it fails to advance provisions passed during the legislature’s 2025 session.
One of the last bills to pass during last year’s legislative session was Act 73, which outlines the state’s education transformation process. Among its mandates is that during the 2026 session the General Assembly would advance reforms by creating new and larger districts and make sure a new statewide education tax rate does not raise property taxes.
Last week, the Vermont House Education Committee passed, along party lines, H.955 to delineate the next steps in statewide education reform. Committee chair Peter Conlon, an Addison Democrat, said on Tuesday the bill is the result of work by the Commission on the Future of Public Education, the Redistricting Task Force and input received by the committee.
“First, it creates mandatory shared service regions called Cooperative Education Service Areas, or CESAs. The role of each CESA is to provide services more economically and efficiently at larger scale. Second, the bill requires that merger study committees form to discuss the advisability of becoming a merged Union School District, but it does not require them to merge.”
Mountain Views Supervisory Union schools are in the Killington and Woodstock area. Board member Gina McAllister explained that they created the first operational CESA in the state. She says such education collaboratives in other states, including Massachusetts, have resulted in driving down the cost of education
“Early results show that the Vermont Learning Collaborative has offered high quality professional development to our eight districts providing an average savings of 50% versus professional development costs out of the region or compared to an SU/SD (Supervisory Union/School District) providing the service on their own.”
Conlon anticipated that Governor Phil Scott, a Republican, would not support the bill the committee crafted.
“His plan from the beginning has been about forced mergers to much larger areas. Because this is voluntary and not forced, he will probably not be a fan.”
On Wednesday, Scott berated the House bill saying it falls far below what had been agreed to when the enabling legislation, Act 73, was passed.
“Unfortunately, so far, the House has punted the difficult decisions as well as the work we need to do. We still have the opportunity to act this session because we can't kick the can down the road any further. And I'm hopeful the House will bring a bill to the floor that addresses the sense of urgency we need to act with.”
Education Secretary Zoie Saunders offered a harsh critique of the House bill.
“The proposal that passed the House Education Committee last week takes the easy way out. It shifts the hard decisions to the local level and puts the burden on local communities to fix the problems that Vermonters have asked our state leaders to fix. The issue isn't understanding the problem. It's whether we're willing to act.”
The bill is now being reviewed in the House Ways and Means Committee.
