After the School District Redistricting Task Force* recommended a voluntary plan instead of new district maps, Gov. Phil Scott responded with guns a-blazin’. And as is often the case when you go guns a-blazin’, there was a bit of an accuracy problem.
*Seriously, who named this thing?
Then again, one couldn’t really expect him to identify the real culprit: the governor himself.
For those just joining us, Scott said that the Task Force “didn’t fulfill its obligation” under Act 73. “They were supposed to put forward three maps for consideration, and they failed,” he said on Thursday. (Not true, actually; more later.) And he blasted Task Force members for being “OK with the ever-increasing property taxes, cost of education, and they don’t want to see change.”
I understand his dismay but he’s being a bit harsh on a group of Vermonters who know more about public education than he ever will, and who gave of their time, sweat and tears to try to meet an unreasonable deadline. He could have at least thanked them for their service. Even if he didn’t mean it.
Especially since the real author of this failure isn’t anyone on the Task Force. It’s the governor himself.
He’s the one who’s been talking about reforming the public education system since 2015 — and never once proposed an actual plan. “Cradle to Career” has been one of his favorite phrases, repeated ad nauseam, but he has never put any meat on them bones. It’s just one of many policy failures by the governor, who’s been in office for close to nine years and has yet to offer concrete proposals on a variety of issues facing Vermont. This, despite the fact that the governor enjoys Scrooge McDuck levels of political capital that could be invested in creative solutions that might initially be unpopular.
At the same time, he has the temerity to complain about the lack of action on the issues we face. And he somehow gets away with it. At least politically he does.
At the risk of repeating myself, let’s summarize how we got to Act 73.
The governor spent 2024 playing Dr. No on school reform. He vetoed Act 183, the bill that created the ill-fated Commission on the Future of Public Education, which would have come up with a thorough reform plan by the end of this year. A comprehensive plan, not one focused solely on redrawing district boundaries.
Scott would have gotten closer to his stated goal if he’d simply allowed the Commission to complete its work. Instead, he insisted on Act 73. And now that the Task Force couldn’t agree on any maps, he’s hoping the Legislature will bail him out next session: “We need to do something. So, [legislators] going to have to act as soon as they get back in.”
Great. The governor’s education plan, focused again on redrawing district boundaries to the exclusion of all else, boils down to “Measure once, cut twice.”
One more thing. As frequent commenter Rama Schneider pointed out, the Task Force actually complied with the plain language of Act 73: “In consultation with the Commission on the Future of Public Education, the Task Force shall study and consider different configurations for school district consolidation and propose not more than three options for new school district boundaries.”
The governor was wrong to say that “They were supposed to put forward three maps,” and the media coverage of the Task Force implied that it had ducked its responsibility under Act 73. In fact, its report is in compliance with the law. It proposed “not more than three options.” One might argue that the governor and Legislature intended for the Task Force to produce one, two, or three maps. But if that’s what they wanted, they should have drafted the law more clearly.
Then again, Vermont’s decidedly checkered history with education reform is full of well-meaning laws leading to unintended consequences that have forced governors and Legislatures back to square one. Not to beat a dead horse, but the Commission on the Future of Public Education was meant to put an end to the cycle of legislative fixes leading to more problems. Too bad the Commission wasn’t allowed to complete its work. Too bad the governor, after waffling around for eight-plus years on public education reform, got himself all het up and demanded action on a compressed timeline that some of the smartest people in Vermont couldn’t meet.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
Governor “What would you suppose I should do?” Scott has been thinking about our public education system since well before he weaseled himself into being our states boss. Scott whined and complained about various parts of our kids’ schooling as a state Senator and as Lt Governor …. lots of years of cringe inducing whines and complaints.
And yet here he sits after decades in state government simply whining and complaining. Scott truly doesn’t have any ideas. None. All he has is how much he liked attending trade school therefore everybody else should do the same.
And a note about a “map” in the Task Force’s report: it’s there, page 20, “Map of proposed Cooperative Education Service Areas”. It is a genuine map that addresses in various ways every single issue raised in Act 73.
Folks should stop allowing the suggestion there was no map – it just wasn’t the map that Scott wanted (hint – Scott wanted what Beck and Wolk were peddling which was rejected by an overwhelming majority of the Task Force).
The only thing that Scott wanted was his way or the highway just like his freely chosen political party’s favorite rapist and boss Trump.
Digger’s reporting on this was particularly harmful, parroting the governor’s false assertion that the committee failed to meet the directive of the legislation, and using “They Failed” in the headline, with scant coverage of the committee or their months of work.
And now they’re fundraising on their education coverage. Remember when our independent press was less of a mouthpiece for the powerful?
Add yourself to the Whiney Little Bitch list, Rama.
Instead of pontificating and complaining constantly, actually stand up, be a man, and do something constructive solutions-oriented about Gubernor Do Nothing.