An actual apology — one that fulfills the definition of the word — is a rare and precious thing. People who make public apologies, especially politicians, never put their hearts and souls into the task. Instead, it’s something they feel obliged to do, and they do a piss-poor job of it.

Take Gov. Phil Scott, who made an unforced error during the third and final debate of the gubernatorial campaign, broadcast on WCAX-TV and now viewable online. Scott was asked a question about education funding. His response included an obvious falsehood about the Winooski school district. His general point was that the quality of public education is too variable and that every student deserves equal opportunity. His answer also, as is his wont, pitted rural Vermont versus its more settled areas.

When you look at the Brigham Decision, it was about equalized education in all parts of the state. They decided to do it by the cost of education, and that’s been hampering some of the rural areas of the state where some have one or two languages being offered, whereas in Winooski and some of the Chittenden County areas, they have 17. That’s not an equal education, and we need to do better.

Well, that would be a troubling disparity if true. But it isn’t, at all. The Winooski school board issued a statement saying that in fact, it only offered courses in one language (French), not 17. The board called Scott’s assertion a “dog whistle” meant to stir up rural Vermonters over alleged “special treatment for a district that looks different from theirs.”

Which, of course, is exactly what it was.

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