Well, the panel tasked with drawing new school district maps for the entire state has essentially turned down the assignment and tossed the whole mess back into the laps of Our Political Betters.

Instead of completing the assignment contained in Act 73, which was to draw up to three different maps for the Legislature to choose from or ignore), the School District Redistricting Task Force* instead proposed a plan to incentivize voluntary mergers among school districts.

*That name will never not be funny.

WCAX-TV called it “a departure” from the process mandated in Act 73. VTDigger, equally polite, said the Task Force proposal “in a way, flouts Act 73’s directive.”

“In a way,” my ass. This was a flat rejection of the Act 73 mandate and a slap in the face of the governor and Legislature.

Not saying they didn’t deserve it, because they did. Gov. Phil Scott entered 2025 demanding immediate action on reforming school governance, a dreadfully complicated process and a political minefield. The previous year, the Legislature had enacted (over Scott’s veto) Act 183, which established the Commission on the Future of Public Education. It was given two years to sift through all the mines in the field and come up with a thoughtful plan. But this year, the Legislature went along with Scott’s artificial sense of urgency and cut the legs out from under the Commission.

And now the School District Redistricting Task Force has all but told the governor and Legislature that they couldn’t do the job — or they couldn’t do the job well — in less than a year. The report’s unstated message: “You should have just stuck with the Commission.” As it stands, the Task Force couldn’t deliver in a compressed period of time and the Commission has been kneecapped. It’s the worst of both worlds.

By the way, what’s up with Vermont Public and Seven Days not even bothering to cover the Task Force’s recommendations? Education reform was only the most contentious and consequential issue of the year in Vermont The Task Force report came out at a scheduled public meeting, so it couldn’t have taken anyone by surprise. What gives?

But I digress. It was something of a surprise that the Task Force so blatantly ignored its charge, but the signs were all there in this week’s episode of “There’s No ‘A’ in Creemee,” the podcast co-hosted by former state senator Andy Julow and former Chittenden County Democratic chair Joanna Grossman. They had attended a public meeting of the Task Force, and depicted it as a complete mess. Everyone in the audience, and many on the Task Force itself, expressed a toxic blend of anger, confusion and frustration. It sure didn’t sound like the Task Force was anywhere near agreement on even a single map, let alone three. Which turned out to be an accurate impression.

So what does the Legislature do now? If leadership has a prideful stake in its past decisions (cough), they might press ahead with map-making on their own. On the other hand, if they’ve seen the public reaction to the Task Force’s process, they might very well step away from a deeply unpopular idea during an election year.

You know what’d be both reasonable and deeply funny? If they approved a successor to the Commission on the Future of Public Education and gave it two years to figure things out. I mean, they won’t do that because they’d be admitting they got it completely wrong in 2025 and wasted two whole years. But it’s probably the best possible outcome.

Instead, what will they do? They’ll either press forward with drawing a new map in a process that will involve months of discussion and negotiation followed by a desperate headlong rush to approve something, anything, just so they can (in the words George Aiken never really said) declare victory and go home. If they do, they will face the wrath of voters who may not like property taxes, but you know what they like even less? Closing a bunch of schools and taking away local control to enact a system that may not save any money, lower anyone’s taxes, or improve any outcomes.

Hm. I guess I’m rooting for failure. At this point, it seems like the least bad option.