Zuckerman asks, ‘The governor’s risky plan: Did voters ask for this?’

February 15, 2025  | By David Zuckerman 

In November, voters sent a clear message to the legislature and the governor:  “We can’t afford these property tax increases.”  

This year the primary focus needs to be on tax relief for everyday Vermonters. All ideas should be on the table – foundation formulas, increases in taxes on second homes, adjusting income sensitivity to help working Vermonters and other changes to raising money for our kids' education.

But voters did not ask for their local schools to be closed. They did not ask for their kids' opportunities to be cut. They did not ask for the quality of Vermont’s education system to be compromised. 

However, it appears that the governor is taking advantage of that vote to focus on radically overhauling the education system. 

That is not what the voters asked for. They asked for immediate working and middle-class tax relief, not a state takeover of public education, a massive cut in funding, an expansion of vouchers, and the closing of local schools. 

Let's put this radical scheme into context. When I was a legislator in the 1997-98 session, the year when the original Act 60 was passed, it dominated our work every single day. That conversation was solely about the funding of education. It was not a systemic overhaul of the governance and delivery of education to all the kids across the state. The legislature dug deep into the proposals. There was a great deal of public input, and there was no hiding the impacts of the changes. It took many iterations to get to a final product. This is the Vermont way when it comes to major decisions such as the future of our community schools. 

So far, this time around, there are broad, vague projections and few details. We are being told to trust that massive structural changes to our education system will magically deliver better outcomes at a massive savings without seeing data or detail to back up the claims. There aren't even solid descriptions of what is being proposed. 

Any massive overhaul of the education system should be a two-year process. First, lawmakers and the governor need to heed the voters’ message: give us immediate working and middle-class tax relief. But any structural change to the system needs to be done with patience, care and thorough review.

Meanwhile, lawmakers should refrain from massive changes to our public education system in just a couple of months. Rather than rush headlong into Scott’s radical plans, lawmakers should take this summer and fall to travel the state and discuss these complicated and massive changes with Vermonters. This way Vermonters in small and large towns, in dense or geographically isolated areas, and more, will be able to reflect and give feedback about the impacts such restructuring will have before the legislature and governor radically overhaul the system. 

By the end of the second year, lawmakers could consider changes to governance, including the role Montpelier plays in local community schools. 

Thus far, we have seen the governor’s proposal drip out over many weeks. This has been done on purpose. It lets the governor dominate the narrative (assisted by a compliant legislature) and set the table for the largest takeover of public schools in state history. The structural changes do not need to be rushed to a final decision that will impact Vermonters for generations.

Thankfully, Vermonters did not vote in a Republican trifecta seeking a complete governmental overhaul. They simply said that for many of us, our property taxes are too high. It was not a mandate. The only Republican/conservative majority vote was for the governor, not the House, Senate, nor the other five statewide offices. It is important for the majority to work with the governor, but as equals, not as a second-class party. 

Vermont has an excellent public education system. We want to keep and build upon that success. We want people to move here, put more children in our schools and help us pay for the costs of that system. So, let’s ask the governor and the legislature to focus on fixing the tax problem without blowing everything else up in just three months.  

David Zuckerman of Hinesburg is Vermont’s former lieutenant governor and a former state representative and senator.