Not that anyone gave a tinker’s cuss, but last month the Commission on the Future of Public Education issued its final report (downloadable here, scroll down to December 15). The subtly expressed message: a rebuke of Act 73 and the reform process being pursued by Gov. Phil Scott and legislative leaders.

On an alternate Planet Earth, the Commission’s report would have been widely discussed. It would have served as the basis for a wide-ranging transformation of Vermont’s public education system.

But we don’t live on that Earth. We live on the one where the Legislature, in its infinite wisdom, created the Commission one year… and then smashed a pillow over its face the following year.

Refresher: The Legislature established the Commission in 2024 and gave it a full year and a half to comprehensively review the public education system and produce a plan addressing all aspects of the situation. The Commission buried itself in the work, gathering information, holding public hearings, conducting a survey, and consulting with experts and those involved in public education. Then in 2025, legislative leaders followed the lead of the governor, who demanded an immediate, dramatic restructuring of the system in an effort to rein in costs. They passed Act 73, which dramatically diminished the Commission’s remit, created a new high-profile panel, and ordered that body to complete its work in six months’ time.

They could have had an all-encompassing plan in the identical time frame. They could have gone into the 2026 session with a blueprint that addressed educational quality, opportunity, governance and cost. Instead, their substitute task force concluded that its much narrower mandate couldn’t be accomplished in the time allotted and threw the problem right back in the Legislature’s lap. And, as Vermont Public’s Peter Hirschfeld reported this week, Act 73 faces an “uncertain future” because it “may no longer be politically viable.”

Tell me, which scenario would be better? Two guesses, and the first don’t count.

You know, if I were a distinguished Vermonter (no snickering from the back row, please) and the Legislature wanted to put me on a commission or task force or blue-ribbon la-dee-dah, I would tell them to stick their nomination where the sun don’t shine. Because more often than not, those high-profile panels give their best effort only to see it tossed onto a dusty shelf somewhere, thank you so much for your service.