Senate Leadership Cooked the Books on Education Reform

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You know what’s a really great indicator of success? When a legislative body takes on a vital issue, and comes up with a “solution” that everybody seems to hate.

Well, that’s exactly what we’ve got with the state Senate’s education reform plan, which was approved last week by the Senate Finance Committee. Better still: the people who hate it the most are in the Democratic majority. Seriously, the only Senators who have anything good to say about this thing are Republicans.

And their words constitute the very definition of “damning with faint praise.”

Take, for instance, Sen. Randy Brock: “everybody… is coming away somewhat or entirely disappointed,” but “doing nothing is even a worse option.” Senate Majority Leader Scott Beck favors the bill, but warns that it could bring substantial tax increases to economically disadvantaged communities. Great!

Democrats, meanwhile, could barely conceal their contempt. “This bill will be devastating to our education system,” said Sen. Ruth Hardy. “I’m extremely uncomfortable with all of this,” said Sen. Martine Laroque Gulick, about whom more later. Senate Finance Committee chair Sen. Anne Cummings, who held her nose and voted yes, “can’t remember ever feeling as bad about a vote as I do on this one,” and she’s been in office since 1997, so she’s taken a few votes. Sen. Thomas Chittenden, who voted for the bill in committee, said he might well vote “No” on the Senate floor.

To judge by the published comments, it’s quite possible that when this bill gets to the full Senate, it will get more votes among minority Republicans than majority Democrats. Which is a remarkable development for one of the most significant bills of the entire session.

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I’ve Been Told That Elections have Consequences

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Every spring there comes a moment when you suddenly realize, “Wow, the legislative session is just about over.” For me, that moment came last week, with a bunch of stories about progress on major bills. A look at the calendar made me realize that in many other years,adjournment would have already adjourned. We’re well into overtime already.

We’re also getting a pretty clear idea of what history will make of the 2025 session, and it’s exactly what we all could have predicted last November 6, when Republicans decimated the Democrats’ veto-proof legislative majorities. No longer was the majority secure in its ability to override vetoes.

And they have legislated accordingly, trying to pass major bills that would be acceptable to the all-time record holder for vetoes by a Vermont governor. Scott, meanwhile, has pursued his customary course: Sitting in the balcony, tossing Jujubes at the stage, and emitting a squid-ink cloud of uncertainty around what he’d be willing to accept.

The result is a disappointment to anyone hoping for progressive lawmaking, but an entirely predictable one. What else could the Legislature do, really?

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Bipartisanship Comes to the Chuckle Hut (Now With Extra Insider Tidbit)

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You know it’s a weird day when THIS pops up in your email inbox.

The guy on the left is, of course, Lt. Gov. John Rodgers, who spent 2024 cosplaying as a Republican in order to win Vermont’s bucket of warm piss, and has lately been pivoting madly to the left with his openly anti-Trump public statements, almost as if he plans to run for governor on the Phil Scott plan whenever an opening next presents itself. On the right is Jason Lorber, former Democratic state representative, standup comedian, and all-purpose consultant for hire. Two peas in a bipartisan pod, right?

So why did this too-large-for-comfort image appear in my inbox? It was sent by a reader who is, I suppose, on Lorber’s email list. The accompanying text announces a standup gig featuring Lorber on May 15 at the Savoy Theater in Montpelier. And guess who his opening act is?

Why, John Rodgers, widely known for his, uhh, comedic stylings?

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Doing Something.

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He, remember when I ordered 50 postcards to contact voters in the crucial off-year elections in Virginia? Well, they arrived a couple days ago. Today I stopped at the post office and did something I haven’t done since dinosaurs roamed the earth: I bought postcard stamps. Which are about 20 cents cheaper than standard postage.

I also printed off a list of 50 swing voters selected by the Postcards for Virginia campaign. Going out of town in a couple days; I plan to write postcards during the flight.

Doing Something.

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Today I started a recurring monthly donation to VTDigger. We need strong independent media now more than ever. I actually thought we were already recurring donors, but I couldn’t find any sign of such activity in recent bank statements. Anyway, on the day where I posted a piece with some bad stuff about Digger, I wanted to make sure I was on board as a supporter of this vital enterprise. As I wrote earlier, I hate to imagine what our media ecosystem would be like if Digger didn’t exist.

The Wheel Spins Again at VTDigger

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Last week, VTDigger announced a handful of “key hires and promotions.” Which sounds like progress, but these kinds of stories never mention that income also means outgo. Some people either left or were let go. It’s a familiar tale at Digger. But before I get to that, a necessary caveat.

VTDigger is a remarkable success story, and an absolutely indispensable outlet for news about Vermont policy and politics. Journalism jobs in Vermont have plummeted by more than 75% in the last quarter-century. With the demise of enterprises like the capital bureaus of the Burlington Free Press and the Times Argus/Rutland Herald, the near-demise of the Associated Press’ Vermont bureau, and the partial withdrawals of Vermont Public and Seven Days, VTDigger is the only outlet providing daily coverage of the Statehouse and state government. If you’re interested in Vermont news, you should be tossing ’em a few shekels as your resources allow.

That said, the organization is not without its flaws, and its financial future is not exactly secure. A July 2024 story in Seven Days reported that Digger’s corporate parent, the Vermont Journalism Trust, had lost a combined $1.7 million in the preceding two years, which led to staffing cuts and pressure to find even more savings. Its finances largely depend on reader support, which is still not a proven strategy in this brave new shrunken industry. A three-year, $900,000 grant from the American Journalism Trust was supposed to give Digger the resources to fully develop its business and fundraising operations. The grant award coincided with the onset of the Covid epidemic, which surely had a substantial effect on VJT’s development plans. But now the money is gone and financial development remains very much a work in progress.

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News You Should View (Or Listen To)

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The title of this weekly feature is never entirely accurate, since I often include audio content that you really can’t “view.”. But I’m amending the title this week because we have a really great audio piece in the leadoff spot. And, for those monitoring their Trump-related consumption, you’ll find a relatively moderate number of stories about That Manbaby in the White House.

A day in the life. From Vermont Public, a tremendous 20-minute audio documentary about a rare animal in modern times: the do-it-all rural primary care doctor. Producer Anna Van Dine’s voice only appears at the beginning and the end. In between, your narrator is the documentary’s subject: Dr. Bob Primeau, the only primary care doc in the Northeast Kingdom town of Island Pond. This must have taken a ton of time and effort, but it gives you a real sense of what it’s like to be a doctor, and a patient, in rural Vermont.

Also what it’s like to be a cog in a machine. “These days, it feels like the health care system has begun to disregard the most essential part of what it means to be a doctor,” Primeau says, citing ever-more-stringent demands for data entry that takes time away from stuff like talking to your patients. I spent many years working in public radio (never in Vermont), and the opportunity to produce this kind of content is what made the job so challenging and so rewarding.

Vermont’s health care system, teetering on the brink. VTDigger and Seven Days each delivered vital stories about financial troubles in our health care system. They spotlight different aspects of an issue, which is the kind of coverage we’ve largely lost in our teeny-tiny media ecosystem. We used to get a lot more of this when there were several strong outlets competing with each other, and we rarely get it anymore. Digger’s Peter D’Auria focused on Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, which (a) insures roughly one-third of all Vermonters, (b) is the only in-state health insurer, and (c) has spent most of its financial reserves to cover a surge in claims.

Seven Days’ Colin Flanders, meanwhile, took a broader but equally sobering view of our health care landscape.

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Doing Something.

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A small thing today. We raided our pantry and set out a bag of nonperishable food items next to our mailbox for the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. With our food banks facing high demand plus the effect of federal cuts to food assistance programs, it seemed like a good, if small, thing to do.

Doing Something, Vermont Mainstream Edition

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Pretty obvious move today. We made a donation to the brand-new Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund, launched on Thursday by a group of prominent political figures. Mostly Democrats, but Thom Lauzon, the mayor of Barre and longtime Friend of Phil, is on the “Team,” as is former Republican lawmaker turned lobbyist Patti Komline.

Oh, heck, here’s the whole list, in the order they appear on the VILDF website.

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