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Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
Rick Gordon was the founding director of the Compass School, which operated in Westminster from 1999 until it graduated its last class in May.
Somehow, amidst all the national news on threats to our democracy, actions in Vermont to force mergers of school districts under the guise of Act 46 seem to be going under the radar. The legislative intent of the original Act 46 was clear - the bill offered incentives for...
It should surprise no one, least of all our legislators, that we face an expected 8-cent increase in the education tax rate in the coming year. This increase was baked into the Act 46 school merger legislation when voters were offered a short- term 10-cent tax “incentive” to follow...
I wish reporters could stop using the term “local control” in reference to school governance and the interests expressed by citizens, such as in the resounding defeat of the Act 46 merger proposal in WSESU. I think what Vermonters want is less about control than it is about local input and preservation of our long tradition of participatory democracy. “Local control” can sound self-serving and small-minded. Yes, we are against centralized control that consolidates power in the hands of “experts”
Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe writes a somewhat disingenuous op-ed in which she contends school choice is not threatened by Act 46 and that voters in their communities ultimately decide whether to continue tuitioning to allow each family to find a school that best fits their child's needs. In fact, Act 46 provides a variety of incentives, penalties, and rules that work against individual communities freely choosing their direction. The preferred option laid out in the law would eliminate choice for...
Feeling compelled to do something about education costs in Vermont, legislators passed a poorly considered, last-minute bill that will result in fewer educational opportunities while doing nothing to reduce taxes. This bill is flawed in numerous ways, most notably in its inflexible disregard of the unique circumstances of different districts, schools, and regions. Act 46 provides significant financial incentives for districts to consolidate. But it stipulates that these consolidated districts meet highly restrictive criteria, including that the combined districts must...
Almost every day, I get a call from a parent, a therapist, or a teacher desperately looking for some hope to help a struggling adolescent. The symptoms I hear about vary - poor academic performance, feelings of loneliness, victim of bullying by peers or adults, sadness, depression, persistent non-attendance at school, threats of personal harm. Adolescence can be a tough time, and being in a setting that isn't working for the student, for whatever reason, can make this period of...
