Tag Archives: Cradle to Career

They Didn’t Fail, Governor. You Did.

3 Replies

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.

Continue reading →

Senate Committee Conducts Pillowy Soft Job Interview

7 Replies

Yeah, well, that was depressing.

The Senate Education Committee held its confirmation hearing this afternoon for Zoie Saunders, Gov. Phil Scott’s choice for education secretary. She was smiling broadly as the hearing commenced, and she had every reason to smile at the end. The committee failed to raise some very pertinent issues. When they did pose tough questions, they often carefully blunted the sharp edge. (Commitee chair Sen. Brian Campion led the league in “tell me a little bit about” questions, which is an open invitation for the interviewee to wander off in whatever direction they want.) They often asked about what she would do as education secretary or what policies she would pursue, which Saunders easily sidestepped in the familiar manner of Supreme Court nominees batting away hypotheticals.

The bulk of the hearing was a comfortable exchange of educational jargon, the wrapping of empty thought into multisyllabic cloth that obscures the emptiness of the dialogue. It’s familiar ground for Saunders, who’s been a professional educator for the better part of two decades, and it’s equally familiar for members of the Education Committee, who exist in the rarefied air of the profession’s bafflegab. It makes them feel smart, don’t you know.

What the committee failed to do is treat the hearing like a job interview with an applicant with questionable qualifications. The point should have been to explore Saunders’ background and clarify her rightness for the position. The committee accomplished little in that regard. At the end of the affair, there was no hint of any continuing opposition to her nomination. I will be stunned if the committee doesn’t recommend approval by the full Senate. Hell, they’ve set aside an entire… 15 minutes… for committee discussion of her nomination Wednesday afternoon.

Continue reading →

Phil Scott Shows His Educational True Colors

5 Replies

The above was burped out this morning by “National School Choice Week,” an organization that claims to support education but doesn’t know how to spell Phil Scott’s first name. For the record, it’s one-L, as in Ogden Nash’s lama.

“National School Choice Week” is one of those innocuous-sounding labels adopted by a right-wing organization to obscure its true nature. Here’s how they themselves describe what they stand for:

School choice means giving parents access to the best K-12 education options for their children. These options include traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, private schools, online academies, and homeschooling.

Of course, parents already have access to all these options. What NCSW wants is for public dollars to follow every student no matter where they are educated, including institutions that practice various forms of discrimination and religious indoctrination. Such a program inevitably drains resources away from the public school system, which is one of the jewels of American government.

And yes indeed, Scott did issue a proclamation in support of NCSW. It’s couched in the usual language about improving the quality of education and accountability and parental authority. But look: Scott is endorsing a cause put forward by the enemies of public education on the right. That should worry anyone in Vermont who supports a strong system of public schools.

Continue reading →